Catalina Finder and photo syncing

Question

Level 1

7 points

Catalina Finder and photo syncing

There is now a facility in Catalina Finder to sync Photos. Can anyone tell me whether it is possible to connect two iPads to my desktop Mac (which I can do and they show up numbered 1 and 2) and copy photo albums from one iPad directly to the other. I can’t work out whether this feature only allows syncing of photos between the Mac and an external device. If I can copy a photo album to the Mac and then back out to the second iPad I would happily do this but I don’t want to risk pressing the ‘sync’ button without understanding where the photos are being taken from and where they are going to. I have many photos on my Mac and I don’t want any of them moved to either of the iPads.

iMac 21.5" 4K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 12, 2020 3:31 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Jan 14, 2020 3:00 PM in response to Zenodorus

Good afternoon Craig 2244,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

I understand you want to sync photos between your two iPads. The best way to do this is to enable iCloud Photos just on the two iPads, and not on your Mac. The sync you are referring to in Finder is from your Mac to your iPad, which is not what you are describing. Take a look at the resource below:

Access and view iCloud Photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

You have to have enough iCloud Storage to accommodate all of the images on your two iPads. If you have limited space available on your iPads, you can choose the Optimize option, which keeps the high resolution photos and videos in iCloud and reduces the file size on the iPad.

About storage on your device and in iCloud

Make sure you back up your two iPads before making these changes.

Make sure you do not have iCloud Photos enabled in Settings > iCloud on your Mac before you do this.

Set up and use iCloud Photos

If, down the road, you decide you want these photos in sync with your computer as well, you can create a new library in the Photos app on your Mac, and designate the new library as the System Library. The photos and videos from your two iPads would sync with that new library.

Designate a System Photo Library in Photos

Enjoy your day!

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Answer 2

judysings

Community Specialist

Jan 15, 2020 2:41 PM in response to Zenodorus

Hi Craig2244,

I'm happy to clarify. If you want to keep your photo albums in your photo library database intact, you need to work within the Photos application. iCloud Photos provides wireless syncing using the Photos app. If you choose to sync manually, you would have to do so between the Mac and each iPad individually. You can't use your iPad devices like they are two external drives using the Finder app.

See the section titled "Import to your Mac" and "Get photos from your computer to your iOS device" below:

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Take care.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

217,104 points

Jan 15, 2020 3:10 PM in response to Zenodorus

You can't do what you want without the iCloud. You'll have to download the photos from iPad 1 and import them in to your Mac's library.

Then sync from the Mac's library to iPad 2 using the Finder:

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Answer 4

Zenodorus Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 15, 2020 2:55 AM in response to Joseph_S.

Hello,

Thank you for your detailed reply. Can I check a couple of things that you have said. You say ‘the best way’ which implies there are other ways. If I do not want to use the Cloud, what other options are there ? Not clear on what you have said about FInder. Are you saying that Finder is not designed to allow me to transfer between two iOS devices (iPads) attached to my desktop Mac even though I can see them in Finder ? Thanks for your further help with this.

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Answer 5

Zenodorus Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 15, 2020 2:55 PM in response to judysings

you are the second person to provide advice with a link that tells me to use iTunes. As I have moved on to Catalina ( stated in the subject line of my enquiry) how am I supposed to use a feature which has been removed from this latest MacOS ?

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Answer 6

Zenodorus Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 16, 2020 12:40 AM in response to Zenodorus

Follow-up to earlier post - Sorry to have to get back to you on this but the graphics are moving just a bit too fast to see what is actually being selected and in what order. I am concerned that the list of albums I can see in Finder is a list of albums on my Mac. Don’t want to touch them at all. I would be grateful for a step by step instruction on how I can view in Finder album 1 on my iPad and be certain that when I click on the sync button, album 1 will be copied across to the Mac. The ‘Learn More’ link on the Photos tab of Finder is not working so I cannot check out for myself how this feature works. Do you know if there is a user guide online that covers all aspects of Finder in Catalina and particularly moving photos between Apple devices. Thanks

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Answer 7

Zenodorus Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 15, 2020 11:57 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for this reply and the graphics. If this works and the albums go across from one iPad to the other via my Mac without the running order changing then it will have solved the problem.

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Catalina Finder and photo syncing

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