I have just under 800 photos of my son that I have synced to my iPhone. They are named chronologically, and I've also set the created/modified timestamps accordingly. After deleting the pictures from the device, and then resyncing them, they still do not show up in order. So, by what means does iTunes/iPhone sort pics? Thanks everyone.
BTW: My iTunes is up to date, and so is my iPhone.
I have both an IPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS. Before the 4.0 IOS upgrade, all the phones were sorting pictures alphabetically. This I am pretty sure about, 'cause I used to change the order of the pictures by changing their name before syncing.
Here is the funny thing, AFTER the 4.0 IOS upgrade, both the phones (only 3G and 3GS were upgradable) started sorting pictures chronologically.
Does this help solve this? I really would like alphabetical sorting back, I've built up my 8,000+ photo collection on this basis for the past 4 years. It is going to hurt.
WORKAROUND! I discovered Dropbox.com (also the Dropbox app). You create an account on dropbox.com and it gives you 2 GB of space for free (you can pay for more if you need it) that you can upload your photos to. Then on your iPhone, you sync the photos to a folder within the Dropbox app and it will now allow you to view them alphabetically by file name. Now, it does need an internet connection but once they're synced from the website to the iPhone, you can (tediously) save those files, one by one (I told you it was tedriou) as "favorites" (within the app) and then they're saved to the device. Still runs a little slower than the photo app on the iPhone but it did resolve my issue (at least until Apple offers the ability to sync photos alphabetically). Hope this helps some others.
Well, ever since I "upgraded" to the iPhone 4, my photos are back to the messy chronological sort order. I have tried what I was doing on OS3, but it no longer works for me. I do have a big group at the beginning of the photo library folder that is in order, but then after that ends, it is just a random mess of chronologically sorted photos that should be within the first group. If anyone has figured out a way to sort them alphabetically on the iPhone 4, let me know. Between the dropped calls, unsorted photos, crazy noises, and various other bugs, this iPhone 4 has really turned out to be a let down.
1. Uncheck the Sync Photos checkbox in iTunes
2. Remove photos from your iPhone
3. Click Apply to Synch (your photos will be removed)
4. Start iPhoto
5. Click View/Sort Events/By Title (your events will be sorted)
6. Click View/Sort Events/Manually (nothing will happen)
7. Click Apply to Synch
"if your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is using the latest software, it sorts photos by the Date Taken tag of the photos. Specifically, your device uses the pictures' EXIF tags to determine the Date Taken information. Your device will look for the following EXIF tags within your pictures:
Capture Date
Date Time Digitized
Date Time Original
Last Modified"
I have discovered something. I was trying to make one specific picture to be the first one, so I changed the name of the pictures to numbers and see if that worked. Nothing. So I went to Pictures in my iphone to see which picture was the first one and try to find out why it was the first.
In my folders where I store my pictures I started to sort them in different ways until the first picture in my iPhone was also the first one in the folder. And so I discovered that the iPhone sort them by "Date Taken".
Luckily, this can be edited. Select the pic, right-click, go to Properties, then Details and in Origin you can see the field Date Taken. I changed it to a previous date than the older picture in my folder and voila!!! The picture in my iPhone is the first now.
Sorry for the ones that have like hundreds of pictures and want every single one in a very specific order. It's going to take time, but I hope it works anyway.
Photo Opus wrote:
Solution from within Aperture:
1. By manually moving just a single image in Aperture project, the sort order will automatically become "Custom". Custom will appear in a drop down in the upper left hand corner of the Aperture Browser window.
2. Re-sync and the iPhone order will match the Aperture order.
After modifying the EXIF tags on all the photos in my folder (to the same date) and naming them in the alpa order I wanted them sorted, and then re-syncing the photos to my iPhone, all is well!
I used "ACDSee Pro" to batch edit the EXIF dates, but there must be a number of similar file editing applications that can do the same thing.
If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is using the latest software, it sorts photos by the _Date Taken tag_ of the photos. Specifically, your device uses the pictures' EXIF tags to determine the Date Taken information. Your device will look for the following EXIF tags within your pictures:
1.Capture Date
2.Date Time Digitized
3.Date Time Original
4.Last Modified
If you are using iPhoto for Mac OS X, your photos automatically sort on your device in the same order they are sorted in iPhoto or Aperture. Changes made to the sorting of your pictures in your iPhoto or Aperture albums and events will be reflected on the device after syncing.
_If you are using Windows_, or are not using iPhoto or Aperture on Mac OS X, _you must change the Date Taken of photos to change their sorting on your device_. Third-party photo-management software may be able to do this. Refer to the documentation of your photo-management software for more information.
_In some cases, photos may not have a date in any of the above four EXIF tags, or photos may not support EXIF data (such as JPEG 2000, TIFF, PNG or GIF files)._
In this case, your device sorts these photos by the date the files themselves were created (as listed in the Date Created field in OS X Finder or Windows Explorer).
I think I might have it! It worked for me on my 3GS anyway so hope it works for everybody!
It appears to sort by the date that the photo was taken so to resort simply (says he with only a small no.of photos, sic!) edit this field in the file properties for each photo by changing this date accordingly. Right click on photo, select the 'details' tab and adjust the 'date taken' field accordingly under the 'Origin' heading.
Wow! - where do i start?
A few years ago I bought a 20gb iRiver mp3 player in preference to an ipod, as I (correctly) believed that ipods were all hype and no substance at the time.
I finally ended up with an iphone 4 last week as I (incorrectly) believed that all the hype was justified now. What a disappointment!
Don't get me wrong, it is very sexy and has lots of features, but I can't believe that something as basic as ordering photos within albums is not possible without convoluted workarounds (most of the ones in this forum don't appear to work in my case).
To cap it all off, I was re-directed through about 7 or 8 different help pages before finally being able to register for this forum. Not good.
Still style over substance? I'll leave it to you to decide.....
I have just seen through other forums that people were tearing their hair out with this problem as far back as 2007 - I can't believe that the apple team still haven't addressed it nearly four years later...
You have to get the basics right before you start developing other bells and whistles. Sexy it may be, but next time I think I'll just stick with something that does what you want when you want it...
I simply did a batch edit to change all the EXIF tags to an identical date/time and synced my iPhone in iTunes & it reverted to syncing the photos alphabetically.
NOTE: As Burky39 mentioned, some photo formats which do not support EXIF data needed to be converted to JPEG format prior to doing the batch EXIF edit with ACDSee Pro. I used Adobe Photoshop CS4, but as a simple Google search reveals, there are plenty of other options.
It goes by Date created (not date modified). Use a simple utility to change the date created. I use FastStone viewer.
1. remove all jpeg metadata (this will also save you some space)
2. set all creation date to the same date.
3. when you go back to explorer it since all the dates are the same it will then sort by alpha.
remember, the key is creation date not modified date.
You will have to delete the pictures from the iphone and resync them.
Obviously Apple could make the whole process alot simpler if they just let the user sort the way they wanted in Itunes.
