How Do I Sync These iPhone Photos to iCloud?

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Level 4

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How Do I Sync These iPhone Photos to iCloud?

OK, so I've been a Mac user forever, and an iPhone user since the iPhone 3G, but have never used the iCloud photo syncing feature. I want to start using it, as it seems more convenient to have photos taken on my iPhone automatically added to my Mac's Photos app.

So I've synced all my Mac's photos to iCloud, and now want to sync my iPhone's photos to iCloud as well. On my phone, I went to Settings-->Photos, and turned on iCloud Photos. I then get a warning that says "Photos and videos synced from Finder will be removed". In the smaller text below that it says that 7,331 photos will be removed.

Obviously, I don't want to lose these photos. I was assuming that all of those 7,331 photos would be uploaded to iCloud and any that I didn't already have on my Mac would be added to it. However, this doesn't seem to be the case.

I have 8,423 photos on my Mac now (in case this is important).

My Mac and iPhone both have up to date software on them.

Is there an ideal solution to this issue?

(This question was asked in the iCloud community, but after more than one day and only nine views, I thought I'd try asking it here).

iPhone 11

Posted on Jul 1, 2021 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

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FoxFifth

Level 10

469,917 points

Jul 1, 2021 9:54 AM in response to MacMikeInOK

If the photos are on your Mac, they would sync with iCloud Photos and you won't lose them.

The only way that the synced photos would be on your iPhone and not be on your Mac is if you deleted them from the Mac and then never again did an iTunes/Finder sync with your iPhone after that.

It has been a very long time since I synced that way but my memory is that it was only possible to sync entire albums; it may be possible for you to manually identify the synced albums on your phone and compare them using that as a starting point.

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Answer 2

FoxFifth

Level 10

469,917 points

Jul 1, 2021 9:27 AM in response to MacMikeInOK

Those are photos that were previously synced from a computer to your iPhone by using iTunes (or more recently Finder). The originals should still be on your computer and should sync to iCloud from there.

The way that syncing via iTunes/Finder to an iPhone has always worked is that each time you sync, the photos on the iPhone are set to match the current status on your computer; i.e., if you deleted a photo from your computer then it would be deleted from the iPhone the next time you sync. Also, the only way to delete a synced photo on the iPhone was to sync again without that included in the syncing selection. In other words, the entire design of iPhone syncing with iTunes/Finder on a computer is dependent on the photo remaining on the computer if you don't want it deleted from both devices.

If you did delete the photos from the computer, the only way to recover them is via a 3rd party app.

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Answer 3

MacMikeInOK Author

Level 4

3,640 points

Jul 1, 2021 9:37 AM in response to FoxFifth

Fox,

Thank you for the quick reply!

You're right, in that for many years I synced my photos via iTunes using a cable from my phone to my Mac. (I haven't done so, though, in many years).

Am I correct in assuming that most, if not all, of the 7,331 photos mentioned in the warning are already on my Mac, and that I probably won't lose these photos? And to be doubly sure, is there a way to do a spot check or verify this?

Thanks again for your help.

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Answer 4

MacMikeInOK Author

Level 4

3,640 points

Jul 1, 2021 9:59 AM in response to FoxFifth

Many thanks again, Fox!

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How Do I Sync These iPhone Photos to iCloud?

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