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Level 1

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Photo order within Events broken on iOS devices synchronized with iPhoto

I have a Mac running OS X 10.8.2 with iPhoto 9.4.2 (710.42) and an iPhone and an iPad, both running iOS 6.0.1.

In iPhoto, I import photos from a memory card that I use in various digital cameras and organize them by events. I view photos inside events ordered by date in ascending order. This is also the order that I want to see my synchronized photos on my iOS devices (and which I did see in the past). I sync my photos from iPhoto via iTunes by the option "Select albums, Events and Faces automatically".

My most recently imported events cause some problems on my synchronized iOS devices. Now the photo order in the iOS "Photos" app is broken in the Events view. All photos that are taken in upright format appear BEHIND all photos taken in landscape format within an event. However, I want them to be sorted by date irrespective of the picture rotation, just as I see them in iPhoto on my Mac.

Events that I had imported earlier (before ~ mid October) are still ordered as expected, just as I see them in iPhoto.

According to this, the sorting of iPhoto should be preserved: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4221

I assume that photos of newly imported events are displayed on iOS devices in the order of modification date instead of creation date (EXIF) since iPhoto automatically rotates pictures that are taken in upright format by 90° and saves them as 'modified' files besides the 'original' files. I also assume that photos of my older events are displayed in correct order on my iPad since they had already been synchronized at a time when everything worked as expected. I also tried to re-synchronized these older events on my iPhone (to see what happens) by unchecking "Synchronize Photos" -> Apply -> checking "Synchronize Photos" -> Apply and on my iPhone, those older photos are also out of order now.

Also note that my photos are ordered correctly in the "Albums -> Photo Library" view on iPhone and on the "Photos" tab on iPad. These are the same pictures as under Events. So the sorting is wrong in the Events view of newly imported events only.

I know that there are some other discussions about the order of photos on iOS devices. I want this one to be specifically about problems with a synchronized iPhoto library. Anybody else experiencing this issue?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Nov 8, 2012 2:18 AM

25 replies

concept

Level 2

165 points

Apr 28, 2013 6:46 AM in response to RKGer

Just checked that I'm on the latest iPhoto update, and then synced my iPhone again (first unticking "sync photos" and removing them from the phone, and then reticking to sync my photos again). The photos seem still to be in the old ("wrong") order. Did you guys need to do anything special for it to take effect?

Apr 28, 2013 7:05 AM in response to RKGer

Mine looks good now, too!

iPhoto 9.4.3 on Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3

The photos are sorted as I have them in iPhoto - in my case they are by date taken.

Funny that this bug fix wasn't in the release notes among other seemingly minor additions.

Apr 28, 2013 7:22 AM in response to RKGer

The effect of this bug is indeed fixed by the iPhoto 9.4.3 update. (The effect being a bad sort order on an iDevice in the Photos App.) All that's needed to fix the sort problem in iOS is to open iPhoto 9.4.3, let it update the library, then quit iPhoto. After syncing in iTunes, the iOS Photos App will sort correctly. But iPhoto is still wrongly changing the modification date/time on all portrait format images from creation date/time to the date/time of import into the iPhoto library. So a bug still exists in iPhoto, but at least that bug no longer impacts the iOS Photos App.

léonie

Level 10

194,767 points

Apr 28, 2013 7:30 AM in response to Mike Connally

But iPhoto is still wrongly changing the modification date/time on all portrait format images from creation date/time to the date/time of import into the iPhoto library. So a bug still exists in iPhoto, but at least that bug no longer impacts the iOS Photos App.

Since iPhoto is modifying the photos by rotating them, it is correct to change the modification date - strictly speaking. I'd rather consider that an inconvenient feature than a bug.

The remedy would be to improve the handling of the rotation flags, without modifying the photo.

Apr 28, 2013 9:49 AM in response to léonie

Must disagree. iPhoto does not modify the image; it just refers to the EXIF information to determine the orientation it should use in displaying the image. Indeed, nothing about the image or its EXIF data is modified in any way. Now if you were to tell iPhoto to rotate the image to some other orientation, then that would constitute a modification, and the modification date/time would correctly be changed.

léonie

Level 10

194,767 points

Apr 28, 2013 10:02 AM in response to Mike Connally

it just refers to the EXIF information to determine the orientation it should use in displaying the image.

Mike, that will depend on the camera and the settings in the camera. For camera settings like "autorotate" iPhoto has to translate the tags on import to other tags and that will modify the file.

Apr 28, 2013 10:41 AM in response to léonie

All modern digital cameras record an Orientation tag in the EXIF data, which indicates how to display the image according to how the camera was held when the image was captured. This Orientation tag can have values from 1 to 8, and can be seen with many EXIF viewers, including Graphic Converter. The values indicate:

case `jpegexiforient -n "$i"` in

1) transform="";;

2) transform="-flip horizontal";;

3) transform="-rotate 180";;

4) transform="-flip vertical";;

5) transform="-transpose";;

6) transform="-rotate 90";;

7) transform="-transverse";;

8) transform="-rotate 270";;

*) transform="";;

So any software displaying the image simply refers to the orientation tag and displays the image with the indicated transformation. It does not modify the image. Aperture doesn't. Photoshop doesn't. Lightroom doesn't. Graphic Converter doesn't. Even iPhoto doesn't. But iPhoto does change the modification date. Wrongly, since no modification has taken place.

léonie

Level 10

194,767 points

Apr 28, 2013 12:01 PM in response to Mike Connally

Mike,

we are talking at cross purposes here.

I checked again, if I set the EXIF "Orientation" tag for a photo and rotate it this way (with Preview, without modifying the contents, or with EXIF tool) then iPhoto will import the photo correctly. All dates - "Taken" and "Modified" are the same, when I look in iPhoto. And the original revealed in the Finder also has the correct tags.

But iPhoto does indeed translate the EXIF tags for the edited versions by creating a new, rotated jpeg preview with lower jpeg quality and rotation 0° for sharing with the Media browser. That preview has the modification date of the import session.

Apr 28, 2013 2:34 PM in response to léonie

The dates will be the same immediately after import. But when you quit iPhoto then the modification date will be changed to the date/time of import. Subsequent iPhoto sessions will show the changed date.

léonie

Level 10

194,767 points

Apr 28, 2013 3:11 PM in response to Mike Connally

But when you quit iPhoto then the modification date will be changed to the date/time of import

Interesting. Indeed, after quitting iPhoto and Aperture I see a new "Last Modification Date". Both programs set the modification date to the date of the preview file, shortly after the import session date.

Aperture:

iPhoto:

In both programs the preview of the current version does not have a rotation flag.

Photo order within Events broken on iOS devices synchronized with iPhoto