How to sync photos FROM vintage iMac TO iPad/iPhone without iTunes?

First, using iTunes to "sync" pictures from a Mac to an iPhone doesn't really synchronize them-- it transfers pictures to the "From My Mac" section where they can be viewed on the phone, but they can't be edited or deleted or transferred back. So I hope that any pictures you transferred to your phone are still on your iMac. And I hope that you are backing them up to an extra external drive in case something happens to the iMac.

Since your new iDevices have a USB-c port, one neat way to transfer stuff between them and your Mac is with an external drive-- perhaps one you use for backing up your Mac. You can save pictures from the iMac's Photos to the drive, and then plug that into the iThing and save them to Photos. You'll need an adapter, since your iMac has USB-A ports.

As MrHoffman said, the very best way to synchronize pictures between a Mac and an iDevice is to use iCloud Photos. With iCloud, the pictures never leave a Photos environment, so more metadata can be synched with the pictures.

iTunes is still the tool for use with macOS 10.13. Not Finder.

(iTunes was replaced with macOS 10.15 Catalina. Your iMac running macOS 10l13 predates that.)

If iTunes is not working here, then uploading all to iCloud and sync with that is probably the path.

Hi Cherry166,

Welcome to this Apple (user-to-user) Community!

Re: "How to sync photos FROM vintage iMac TO iPad/iPhone without iTunes?"

Am no expert in this area, yet your question toi the community deserves some response. Getting your discussion underway also allows more opportunity for others with expertise to joiin in, and to share their experience.

As you know:

There is quite a discrepancy between the OS versions on the Vintage Mac and the more recent devices.

I understand AirDrop can be used for smaller parcels of files, rather than for sync of large numbers of albums, yet it miay be suitable for some purposes.

Wondering whether the method in this online article (link below) for MacOS High Sierra 10.13 may be helpful.

See how to: Use AirDrop on your Mac to send files to devices near you - Apple Support

Eg: says:

"You can send and receive items between Mac computers and iOS devices that are on the same network".

and

"You can send items from the Finder, the desktop, or from within apps ... "

Article also says:

• "From the Finder: Click AirDrop in the Finder sidebar, then drag the item to the device you want to send it to.
• From an app: Click the Share button in the app’s toolbar, choose AirDrop, then select the device you want to send it to.
• If you don’t see the device you want to share an item with in the AirDrop window, click “Don’t see who you’re looking for?”

"When you receive items ..". (on the iOS devices: If you don't use iCloud you may need to click to accept them:

"Look for the item in the appropriate app. For example, photos open in the Photos app"

NB: There is a great deal more info. in the linked "Use AirDrop" article at the top.

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Re: "Since the demise of iTunes I am unable to sync photos FROM my iMac. The iMac does not show either the iPad or iPhone under "devices" in the Finder sidebar, nor can I see "Finder Sync".

Seems it is only from MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and newer MacOS versions that we can transfer specific files from a Mac to a device using the Finder.

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Re: "How can I continue to sync my selected albums from my iMac (which, although old, functions perfectly well as a repository for all my photos and albums) to my iPad and iPhone?"

Wondering how many selected albums you want to sync.

and

whether or not you use iCloud on your Mac and devices (There is 5Gb free iCloud use available to each of us).

All the best :-)