Choosing which photos/videos to sync for each device

Question

Level 1

8 points

Choosing which photos/videos to sync for each device

With the new Photos app/program you have a super handy way to get your photos/videos on every apple device you own.

However it is not possible to choose which photos/videos you want to have on each device.

I don't want to download every photo again with the optimize photos option, mis-clicking on videos will give me extremely high data usage (used 1200mb in 1 day).

I can't have everything on my iPhone as it's just too much, neither do I want all photos/videos automatically synced with my iPhone.

A solution would be to exclude most of my videos and/or albums downloaded to my iPhone.

But as far I know there is not option for this.

Does someone have any idea how to deal with this situation?

I'm sure more people with large collections of photos/videos have the same issue.

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.3, 64GB Space Grey

Posted on May 12, 2015 2:50 PM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

May 14, 2015 12:55 PM in response to Haensenson

Hi Haensenson,

From your post it sounds like you have iCloud Photo Library enabled on all of your iOS devices and want to be able to designate what images/videos are on each device individually. You can sync the photos you want to have on each device using iTunes but you need to turn off iCloud Photo library first:

iCloud Photo Library FAQ

In iOS 8.3 or later, go to Settings > iCloud > Photos, then turn on iCloud Photo Library.

Substitute 'Off' for 'On' in the previous quote. Then use this article to sync your desired photos to your devices with this article:

Sync photos to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in iTunes

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Regards,

Sterling

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Answer 2

Haensenson Author

Level 1

8 points

May 14, 2015 1:03 PM in response to sterling r

Yess but this would stop automatically saving my photos on iCloud when I'm getting on WiFi.

I need to manually connect to iTunes to make a back up of it and the Photos app on my iMac would then upload them to the cloud.

Wish there was a function on each device where you could say to delete album "x" from this device but keep it in the cloud and on other devices.

Or an option don't sync videos that are over 500mb unless manually downloaded. 😟

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Answer 3

Haensenson Author

Level 1

8 points

May 26, 2015 12:50 AM in response to Haensenson

bump

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Answer 4

Haensenson Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 7, 2015 3:01 AM in response to Haensenson

bump, still looking for a solution

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