syncing mac, iCloud and iPad

Question

syncing mac, iCloud and iPad

I have a large photo library which was synced between my mac and iPad. 30,000 items on my Mac, and probably 3,000 of these in albums which were synced to my iPad.

I've now switched to iCloud, and my Mac library is all in the Cloud.

But my iPad library still seems to have a lot of items and if i connect it by cable to my Mac it starts to copy items across to the Mac, which are then duplicates.

I don't want thousands of duplicates in my library. How do i sort this?!

thanks in advance

Paul

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Jan 4, 2022 7:56 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

muguy

Level 10

82,129 points

Jan 4, 2022 8:16 AM in response to Paul Richards4

On the iPad:

Disable iCloud photos (Settings > Photos). If you're able to connect the iPad and sync photos manually, iCloud is not enabled.

Delete your pictures (assuming all have already been synched to your computer)

Enable iCloud photos on the iPad

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Answer 2

Jan 4, 2022 8:29 AM in response to muguy

thanks. however...

i synced my iPad to my Mac, and it backed up.

my my iPad is now not connected to my Mac.

i turned off iCloud Photos on my iPad.

I opened iPhotos on the iPad to delete the pictures, but it shows 25,109 photos and 705 videos! and there is a Recently Deleted folder showing 11,909 photos and 412 videos.

Do i have to delete all these manually (using "Select" and scrolling...?) it will take hours!!!

Would it be easier to just erase all content from my iPad?

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Answer 3

muguy

Level 10

82,129 points

Jan 4, 2022 8:33 AM in response to Paul Richards4

Probably. You just want to make sure that you have iCloud photos disabled on the iPad so that any changes do not affect the entire photo sync on your other devices.

But, you indicated that you turned off iCloud photos. Did you have it on before? So on your other devices you also have approx. 12,000 photos in Recently Deleted?

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Answer 4

Jan 4, 2022 10:57 AM in response to muguy

yes. so presumably i have to delete the Recently Deleted items before i switch off iCloud.

once they're gone, i can switch off iCloud and delete everything on my iPad.

i can then start my iPad up as a new device (otherwise it will just reinstall all the items i just deleted..) and then switch on iCloud..?!

this is not easy!!

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Answer 5

muguy

Level 10

82,129 points

Jan 4, 2022 11:09 AM in response to Paul Richards4

If you delete Recently Deleted items, they will delete everywhere. If you're already syncing with iCloud, there is no real reason to reset your device as everything on the iPad should be everything already in the cloud. When you connect the iPad to your Mac, in Finder it will say that you are using iCloud photos. In the Photos App, it may show items to import but you can safely ignore that as everything is already in the cloud and on all devices. There isn't anything new to import. Provided you use iCloud photos on the iPad, if you add something new there, it will upload and be synced with all of your devices.

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Answer 6

Jan 7, 2022 6:53 AM in response to muguy

"If you delete Recently Deleted items, they will delete everywhere." - seems not to be the case.

Since Apple have unfortunately not added a Select All on iPhone or iPad, i thought the only way to delete large numbers of files would be on the Mac,.. so...

I backed up to an external drive, then, with iCloud turned on, i opened Photos on my iMac and deleted all files. Then opened the Recently Deleted files, and emptied it.

But my phone and iPad both still have Recently Deleted folders each with over 5000 items!

So Apple's failure to add a Select All button on phone and iPad doesn't have a work-around after all, and i now need to sit here for ages while my phone, and then separately my iPad, scroll up through 5000 items, just so i can hit delete!

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Answer 7

muguy

Level 10

82,129 points

Jan 7, 2022 7:14 AM in response to Paul Richards4

That shouldn’t be the case if you have iCloud enabled on all devices. But, you can select delete all in Recently Deleted. tap select. Then tap delete all.

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syncing mac, iCloud and iPad

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