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User profile for user: jbrasna
jbrasna Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Photo library "imports" on all photos taken in the past

I've never manually imported any photos the past couple of years, so noticing this recently is kinda weird:



Basically starting OCT 2017 up until JULY 2021 all the photos I've taken are in Imports as "imported", however they've been shot directly on an iOS device and been part of my iCloud Photo Library since the moment they were taken.


This must have changed somehow recently, as I've never seen this before (only really manually imported images from years ago were in "Imported" beforehand), noticed this just now as I was restoring to a brand new iPad and checking if the backup was applied correctly; now this "Imported" for all my photos/videos/screenshots is there on all devices.


Has anyone experienced anything similar?


These items were not imported. They were shot directly to iCloud in the first place. 🤷‍♂️

Posted on Nov 16, 2021 12:59 PM

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,954 points

Posted on Nov 16, 2021 1:13 PM

Hi


It sounds like you might have accidentally imported them while conecting your ipad to your mac for the backup. Is it possible you have it set up to automatically sync your ipad when you connect it by USB?


If so check if they are duplicates of the items synced via iCloud. If they are it should be easy to fix by deleting them driectly from the imports view. Test first with a small number of less important files - that the iCloud synced ones are avaialble after deleting the imported ones.

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,954 points

Nov 16, 2021 1:13 PM in response to jbrasna

Hi


It sounds like you might have accidentally imported them while conecting your ipad to your mac for the backup. Is it possible you have it set up to automatically sync your ipad when you connect it by USB?


If so check if they are duplicates of the items synced via iCloud. If they are it should be easy to fix by deleting them driectly from the imports view. Test first with a small number of less important files - that the iCloud synced ones are avaialble after deleting the imported ones.

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User profile for user: jbrasna
jbrasna Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Nov 19, 2021 2:34 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi!


Thanks for the tip, I've checked for dupes the first thing after seeing this, my thoughts exactly some sync went haywire…


But no, I'm absolutely positively sure they weren't really imported — they come from 3-4 different devices, there are no duplicate photos etc., I've never manually moved photo files in the past couple of years etc. — that's what so mysterious about why this just recently appeared out of the blue… (with no apparent reason I'd be aware of.)

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Photo library "imports" on all photos taken in the past

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