What is the difference between Photos and All Photos

I'm glad it worked 🙂 You're welcome.

Right

Too bad they

1 - threadjacked another thread

2 - spend their time winning rather than providing real information and answering questions

3 - did not bother to read the responses that both you and I gave

Oh Well - at least in spite of their rudeness and lack of effective communications they got the solution

LN

4 - added a nice apology 🙂

🙂

I was needing some clarification on the difference between Photos and All Photos and found this thread. Thanks helping to clear this up. I really do wish the ambiguity could be better dealt with by Apple. I mean, who on the dev team decided naming a category "Photos" and another category "All Photos" is sufficiently clear and self explanatory?

I also wanted to comment that, as someone who does training, it is one of my pet peeves when the learner who admittedly doesn't understand how something works, simply starts getting upset and declaring that something isn't working properly or is "messed up". While that may be the case - such as in this situation - most of the time, a better understanding of how something works makes all the difference in alleviating the stress that something is broken.

Lastly, when asking for help, I recommend not getting upset at the person who is making an attempt to assist. Even if you don't find the answer completely useful, if there is an attempt, help him to help you. Being a jerk to someone who is trying to help never works.

kencanuck wrote:

I was needing some clarification on the difference between Photos and All Photos and found this thread. Thanks helping to clear this up. I really do wish the ambiguity could be better dealt with by Apple. I mean, who on the dev team decided naming a category "Photos" and another category "All Photos" is sufficiently clear and self explanatory?

I also wanted to comment that, as someone who does training, it is one of my pet peeves when the learner who admittedly doesn't understand how something works, simply starts getting upset and declaring that something isn't working properly or is "messed up". While that may be the case - such as in this situation - most of the time, a better understanding of how something works makes all the difference in alleviating the stress that something is broken.

Lastly, when asking for help, I recommend not getting upset at the person who is making an attempt to assist. Even if you don't find the answer completely useful, if there is an attempt, help him to help you. Being a jerk to someone who is trying to help never works.

AMEN!

LN

I'm with you all the way eembardo. Apple has completely lost the plot. It seems, since Mr Jobs left us, they're now employing geeks in the the R&D department who have absolutely no idea how the average casual computer user thinks. On Jobs' watch everything just worked. Nothing was ever complicated. His insistence on simplicity (simple enough even for someone who's never seen a computer) was the key to Apple's success. How different it is today. If Jobs had walked into the R&D department during the creation of Photos he would almost certainly have thrown a fit. I've been an Apple user since day one (yes, day one) and never before have I seen so many complications. I have images in my library that have come from Whatsapp and other apps. Why would I want all of these added to my library automatically? I daren't risk Apple Music for the above reasons. Hope you manage to find the answer to the missing pics.

Thank you so much, Keetle. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your comment. To answer your question, yes, my initial question has been answered. I have additional questions, but I think I'll refrain from this discussion in trying to follow up. Oh, and your comments about Apple products were also quite welcome. I've worked with PCs since the mid-80s and only fairly recently switched to Macs because I'd heard so often how much easier to use that Macs are. You're right, this seems no longer to be the case. Thanks again.

I actually disagree. While there are some odd things about the new Photos application, it is quite streamlined compared to iPhoto.

The application was built from the ground up and some features have been removed. They may reappear. Who knows. As for how photos appear in your library, it depends on whether or not you use the new iCloud Photo Library feature or if you don't. If you don't, little changes in comparison to how you would have managed your photos in iPhoto.

I'm curious what you find so different. Come up with a list and perhaps I can help clarify.

The repair worked perfectly! Whew! Thank you!

Thank you to the two people who provided assistance in solving this problem - your suggestion worked for me as well. I can understand the original poster's frustration, as adjusting to the new photo has been by far the most user-unfriendly part of upgrading my OS to Yosemite. It took me a long time to figure out what the actual issue was, and then an even longer time to find the right answer to the right question. Really do appreciate the help from the mac community!

I know I am coming to this party late - but unless I missed it in the thread, my recent experience has led to a different impression of the "photos" and "all photos" function. Display sorting preferences may be different - or there may be a way to select them to match, I haven't checked - but I think PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS represent something different: I believe PHOTOS keeps track of what is in the Cloud and ALL PHOTOS keeps track of what is locally available on your device. Here's why:

I keep the hi-res originals on the cloud and backed up on a large internal disk on my MBP; but I have switched to using a smaller capacity MBA daily, so I need optimised images there. I set Photos on my MBA to have optimised versions taking up less space, and kept the MBP as the high-res backup that stays home.

In addition to my iPhone and iPad which sync directly, I use two cameras that require direct download from cards. We were on holiday, so these hi-res images went into the MBA. What I noticed was that as the new original-res images were loaded, they appeared in my ALL PHOTOS but not PHOTOS section. The PHOTOS section seems to represent what the current state of the cloud is, and the ALL PHOTOS seemed to represent what is locally available.

The original res files then began being uploaded to the cloud. As this happened, the number of images in the PHOTOS section increased - and those photos became available in the PHOTOS section, indicating that they had made it up to the cloud. At the bottom of the screen, you could see update info - either Uploading or Downloading going on. It began as "uploading files" - because first the MBA uploaded the hi-res files to sync with the cloud library, THEN, once that was done and safe, the cloud began to send them back down to the MBA to replace the hi-res originals loaded on holiday, with the lo-res optimised copies being kept locally on my MBA, and you could see it saying "downloading..." Eventually, the new holiday pics that went into my MBA as original-res, were uploaded at original res, then downloaded to the MBA once again as optimised, replacing the original res ones.

EVENTUALLY, after all the images were uploaded and then downloaded again, the process was complete, and the PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS count matched EXACTLY.

When I returned home, I launched my MBP which is still a keeper of the original res images. And because it had been shut down while away, it had less PHOTOS than ALL PHOTOS - indicating it had more local images than images from the cloud. It began to download the hi-res originals that had been uploaded to the cloud while on holiday. Eventually, the PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS count matched EXACTLY on this machine as well, all in original res, indicating that the sync was complete. Now both my MBA and MBP have the same number of images in both PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS, but it didn't always. I have never hidden a photo, so I know the difference in count never had to do with that. (though it might also affect that, I don't know - but it is definitely not the main driver of the differences).

So there you have it - iCloud Photo Library working as promised - uploading, then distributing the proper resolution versions down - or back down - to my different devices, until the PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS matched perfectly!

One word of advice: BE PATIENT. And leave your devices and photo app on overnight, etc. until it is done. Upload speeds are notoriously slower than download - and Photos syncing might also be competing with iCloud Drive syncs, Dropbox syncs, Mailbox checking and downloading, streaming from your family's multiple devices, etc. - depending on the number of originals you add to the library, and whether you are keeping them at original res or optimised on your local devices will all have an impact on the amount of time it takes to complete the sync. Eventually though, the PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS should - and will - match.

The numbers in "Photos" and "All Photos" can differ, if you hide photos. It is a feature, not a bug. Hidden photos will show in "All Photos" or any album, but not in the Photos View - Moments, Collections, Years.

All Photos is also showing you "My Photo Stream".

And if Photos are missing from Photos, that you are seeing in All Photos even after the syncing with iCloud has finished, the Library probably needs repairing. (Repair your library - Photos Help)

As I said, hidden/not hidden may affect the count, I have never hidden a photo so don't know. Not everyone uses "My Photo Stream", but My photo stream, if used, could certainly work to create the count differential, just like iCloud photo library seems to, until everything is synced. Everything you have pointed out could and probably does affect the count, but this does not negate the fact if you are not using My photostream, and are not hiding photos, you will still have a count differential between PHOTOS and ALL PHOTOS until everything is synced.

So before one rebuilds a library, I would make sure that all the uploading and downloading is complete, and you have unhidden all your hidden images. If after this, there is still a count differential, then yes, rebuilding the library is the next logical option.

Your observations on what happens while the iCloud sync is going on, are indeed interesting. Our previous replies were referring to the stable state of the library, when the library is in sync, or is not syncing at all. Are you using "Optimize Mac Storage"? I do not use this option on any of my macs, and the "Photos" does always show exactly as many photos as I can see in the library in my Master folder. Photos is showing the photos that have been imported to the library, minus hidden Photos.