How does iPhone sort photos synced to it? (WinXP)

Then post somewhere else, not here.

I came here because in my emails it looked like istariwhiterider's response was to Rahpha man above him... and i thought it sounded pretty mean. But i figured out that it really was in response to jojo1941, who for some reason thought he was contributing by informing us it works the way he wanted. Thanks jojo... we're thrilled for ya... though i guarantee you're just as susceptible to this iphone-wide issue as anyone.

That said... my real reason for posting explains why i can guarantee that. I spoke to someone from Apple yesterday who told me that Apple is very aware of the issue, and they consider it an oversight rather than a bug (I told him i'll be ok with them not calling it a bug as long as they also won't call it a feature.). He hinted it might be resolved in the next ios update. I sure hope he's right.

Thanks Heybarry. Yeah, with a company that is astute and attentive as Apple has been with a dynamic phone, it's the little menial day-to-day functionalities that they sometimes overlook. Moreover, when it has been a "feature" that has been present since the G1 iPhone, and now it's suddenly changed, forcing us to take drastic and lengthy measures to resolve it and restore it to what we have become accustomed to, then shame on Apple. LISTEN TO US, for crying out loud, Apple. Stop pointlessly changing things like this, and if you do, then fix them. We pay top dollar for your new releases, and we expect them to, ahem, be "magical", and ahem, "just work."

A big +1 on the hopes that Apple gets this fixed sooner rather than later.

I want to go bbbaaaaacck!!!!

Knowing something about software development, they must have gone out of their way to break this.

I am also wondering if this is not related to iTunes itself, since it creates the ipod photo cache folder and content in Windows. It may be that the iOS5 is working just as before but that this optimization stuff is not working as before.

I compared a cache folder on a backup image and the folders are the same but the content is completely different and yet based on exactly the same photo folders.

Here is hoping that in the near future an upgrade (update) will fix this and not downgrade some other useful feature.

It IS iTunes fault!... I've been up on 5.x and back down to 4.3.3 and 4.2.1 and back and forth and back and forth...many times trying to figure this out... It workes fine on 4.3.3 and 4.2.1. 5.x and iTunes 10.5+ doesn't. I went down to 4.2.1 running iTunes 10.6. Problem is still there! Puts pics back on phone out of order! Went back to iTunes 10.3 to go with my 4.2.1. Works just fine! 4.2.1 is best on 3GS! Long live 4.2.1!

Tried the 10.6.1 update...went through the whole thing again...Same issue! Still puts pics in wrong order on the phone...dumb....back on 10.3 and 4.2.1 again....

i just found out this thing guys, CMIIW

apple does sort the photo by the last optimized file, for example:

• 1 january : i took 5 photos continuously, the file named A, B, C, D and E
• 2 january : i sync the photo file A, B, D, E to my ipad (note that i forgot to sync the C photo file)
• 3 january : i realized i forgot C photo, then i add the C photo later, therefore the sort on my ipad will be A, B, D, E, C
• this will always happen even though you delete and resync the photo from your idevice, your photo will be A, B, D, E, C (so, the ipad will sync based on the optimized file they create)

what makes me even sure about this?

because at 4 january : i sync the whole A, B, C, D, E to my iphone, and the photos sorted alphabetically perfect, unlike my ipad

for me, the solution is:

1. unsync ONLY the folder that is out of order from idevice
2. rename that containing folder on your pc/mac, so it's different from your previous folder (e.g. you may add name, or date, or anything if you're unsure what to rename)
3. resync your renamed folder to idevice
4. itunes will detect it as a new photo since the folder name is new, therefore it will create new optimized photo on your idevice
5. then your photo will sorted alphabetically

hope this helps

CMIIW, thanks

On your computer create a folder for your pics. I call mine "iPhone pics". From there you can create the subfolders you have been wanting. Birthday,Party,Vacation, ect. Now you can sync this main folder to your phone and you will have separate folders for your pics.

More Reviews about iPhone Photo Transferring:

How to transfer or copy photos from iPhone to Windows PC

How to transfer photo/picture from iPhone to Mac OS

Hope that can help you a favor.

EASY EVENTS SORTING SOLUTION BELOW

After many months of struggling to sort "events" properly, I finally figured out how to correct the problem (actually by accident)...adding "faces" from your iPhoto software to your iOS device(s). You do not need to name all of them, just one face will do so that it adds the "faces" section into your photos app on your iOS device.

This past weekend I started naming the faces in my iPhoto library and then did an iPhone/iPad sync via iTunes. Then, after looking at the "events" section of the photos, VOILA, all the events were sorted properly as I have them in iTunes.

This is obviously a bug within iTunes, but needless to say, I am a very happy camper now that this "workaround" fixes the problem. Hopefully, this works for the rest of the community.

pmas76, it finally worked!!!

Plus, I think you found the main cause of the iphoto itunes macos sorting photos bug! I'm so glad now!

Many thanks!

Please Apple, could you please correct the problem now?!

This is only a workaround (that I'm happily right using now)...

After reading the trials and tribulations here I tried some experimenting. What I finally got to work for me was to change the create date/time stamps on the pics to the order I wanted them to be in (I used touch from the command line), rename the folder, sync, name the folder back, and sync again.

JCVR1 is right. It sorts as if it is sorting words alphabetically. If you names your photos in numbers, instead of a normal counting pattern, go 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 3, 30 etc. Think of it as letters. If the letters were 'a, b, c, aa, ac, az, bc, cz', the order would be a, aa, ac, az, b, bc etc. instead of a, b, c, aa, ac, az, bc, cz. Hope this helps but it definately worked for me.

Incorrect. It is now, for whatever reason, syncing them by "Date Taken" metadata. If you use a batch metadata program to change the metadata to reflect all the same day, and then name your files by date, they'll all then appear with the same date taken data so that will no longer be a factor. It THEN sorts alphabetically if there is no "Date Taken" metadata. For whatever reason the new update sorts them by Date Taken and then alphabetical by default.

Hey guys and girls,

After playing around with it for a little bit, I've worked it out, at least for iTunes on a Windows platform and iOS 5.1.1.

Photo Library sorts photos by "Date Modified".

Your folders are sorted by "Date Taken".

After ordering by these two attributes I have everything in order.

I have no idea if this is the case for Mac users too; maybe someone else can check it out.

Hope this helps!