Apple Intelligence now features Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools enhancements, seamless support for ChatGPT, and visual intelligence.

Apple Intelligence has also begun language expansion with localized English support for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. Learn more >

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: Nicholas Brandt
Nicholas Brandt Author
User level: Level 1
111 points

Photos in shared albums not sticking to sorting

it is sadly the case that when you share an album the order of the photos in the original album is not maintained in the shared album. There are only three ways to sort them in the shared album: by date added to the album; oldest photo date first, or newest photo date first.


I have therefore done the very laborious workaround of adding photos one by one (94 of them!) in reverse order so they come out as arranged in the original album....IN THEORY! However, about 20 photos in suddenly the next ones i add do not go to the top of the list but the bottom. One person an a forum suggested going in to the original photos and changing the dates. this also does not work, as the adjusted date is not carried to the shared album.


Why does shared albums suddenly "break" its instruction to put the most newly added photo (irrespective of the date the photo was taken or added to Photos) at the top or beginning of the album?


I am wanting to share and album so that it can be played as video or slideshow in the original order in which it was made, but this seems impossible given the above.


Anyone know what to do, our another way of achieving this? Does Google Photos work better?



MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 3, 2021 3:41 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,966 points

Posted on Jul 4, 2021 2:07 AM

Hi - If I wanted them to be displayed as video or slideshow, I'd create that as a slideshow project in photos, export the video, then share that (max length 15 minutes).


Shared albums are very limited, and not much use for anything other than making pictures available for viewing by others. If you want anything more, including specific order of display, you need to be looking at other solutions. One option could be a shared iCloud drive folder, with the image files sequentially named.

View in context

Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,966 points

Jul 4, 2021 2:07 AM in response to Nicholas Brandt

Hi - If I wanted them to be displayed as video or slideshow, I'd create that as a slideshow project in photos, export the video, then share that (max length 15 minutes).


Shared albums are very limited, and not much use for anything other than making pictures available for viewing by others. If you want anything more, including specific order of display, you need to be looking at other solutions. One option could be a shared iCloud drive folder, with the image files sequentially named.

Reply
User profile for user: arvindfromgurgaon
arvindfromgurgaon
User level: Level 1
38 points

Jul 4, 2021 12:57 AM in response to Nicholas Brandt

Shared albums save photos in the sequence of addition to the album. After adding them in reverse order, how are you viewing the shared album? Photos assigns the sequence numbers in ordinal fashion (1, 2, 3....99), but web apps or non-macOS systems may evaluate the numbering differently, so you may see 1, 10, 11, 12-19, 2, 20, 21...


  1. Instead of using a shared album, try exporting the album (original album with custom arrangement): File > Export > Export X Photos (or Unmodified Originals) > File Naming > File Name > Sequential > (assign a prefix) > Export. Save the photos in a folder. They'll be saved as Prefix1, Prefix2...Prefix94.
  2. Since you have less than 100 photos, renumber only photos # 1-9 as 01, 02 etc.
  3. Upload the exported folder to the web app, cloud service or computer where you earlier saw the wrong order.


See if this works?

Reply
User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,619 points

Jul 4, 2021 3:06 AM in response to Nicholas Brandt

Is you use the "Newest Date Added" sort order, the most recently added photos will appear at the end of the shared album.

But any sort order you specify will only be visible on your device, it does not change how the subscribers will see the shared album on their devices or in the web interface. When I share an album, I do not allow subscribers to add photos. If they could add a photo, it would change the sorting on the published web page, even a comment is changing the sort order. The photo with the most recent comment will appear at the end. I am also careful not to invite anyone at all, before the album is complete, or the subscribers will be harassed by a flood of notifications whenever I add an additional photo.

Reply
User profile for user: Nicholas Brandt
Nicholas Brandt Author
User level: Level 1
111 points

Jul 4, 2021 4:02 AM in response to léonie

Thank you. The issue I was having was that it was NOT sticking to the newest added first order.


but I didn’t know that even that may not be what the other person sees. really, shared albums are a means of doing a “photo-dump” to someone and not much more.


I tried the date changing but that didn’t work and in couldn’t face renumbering then all as I wasn’t sure if than would work.


thank you everyone

Reply

Photos in shared albums not sticking to sorting

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up