I am considering using iCloud photos instead of my Photos library on my Mac. I have carefully organized my thousands of photos into a number of Albums and Smart Albums on my Mac. If I enable iCloud Photos which copies all these photos to iCloud, will they be organized in the same folder structure on iCloud?
Thanks,
Neal
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
Yes, except any Smart Albums do not sync to iCloud. Also, not People, Places, etc.
Also re: "I am considering using iCloud photos instead of my Photos library on my Mac. "
iCloud Photos is not something that you use instead of the Photos library on your Mac. It is a syncing service and the photos will be on iCloud and on your Mac and on any other device where you have iCloud Photos turned on. More information in Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
Yes, except any Smart Albums do not sync to iCloud. Also, not People, Places, etc.
Also re: "I am considering using iCloud photos instead of my Photos library on my Mac. "
iCloud Photos is not something that you use instead of the Photos library on your Mac. It is a syncing service and the photos will be on iCloud and on your Mac and on any other device where you have iCloud Photos turned on. More information in Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
I doubt that iCloud Photos is what you want to use for that. For one thing, it will sync all of your photos to every device where you have it turned on; i.e., all of your photos would be on all 3 of those devices.
If that isn't what you want and if you decide not to use iCloud Photos, another possibility is a 3rd party app: https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html
Thanks for your response. My purpose for using iCloud Photos is to sync my photos to two iOS devices. For years, I've done that using the sync routines in iTunes/Music. Since "upgrading" to Catalina, the sync fails to work with my Photos. The routine is to synch a folder of smart Albums which contain photos from the last 2, 3, and 4 years. Until recently I've been able to depend on iTunes/Music sync to push my photos from my Mac photo library to my devices. That appears to fail and Apple Support doesn't seem to have any solutions.
Neal
There is another thread that describes a bug in the Photos sync routine where any albums located inside a folder in the My Albums list in Photos on a Mac fail to sync.
This was precisely my problem, when I moved them from their folder and directly into the My Albums list, they synced as expected. This is the result I was hoping for and find no further reason to use iCloud Photos, which doesn’t do exactly what I need.
Neal
Does iCloud photos maintain the albums I have in my Mac photo library?
