iOS Photos to OSX Photos favorites sync

SERIOUSLY Apple. This completely stinks.

I have favorites on my phone.

I have Apple Photo Streaming on.

I sync with a freaking USB wire to my Mac AND IT DOESN'T COPY MY FAVORITES METADATA???

Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave.

It is very helpful, since it tells you not to waste your time dong any edits on the iPhone or iPad, since you will not be able to sync them back to the Mac easily, unless you are ready to pay for iCloud Photo Library. Download the photos right away to your Mac and do your editing there.

I sync with a freaking USB wire to my Mac AND IT DOESN'T COPY MY FAVORITES METADATA???

It is meant to be this way. My Photo Stream is uploading your unmodified, precious originals to iCloud, right from the camera, before you add any edits, so you will always have the best quality version of your photo.

If you want to sync all edits, including your favorites, you have the option to do just that - use iCloud Photo Library. That is the way that Apple provided to keep the photo libraries on all devices in sync. It will sync the albums you create on the iPhone, the favorites, and any adjustments you apply.

I'm having the same problem. I'm running iOS V10.3.3 and have enabled iCloud photo library. When I add a favorite heart to a photo on my phone, it does not appear on iCloud photos on the web, and when I add a favorite heart on iCloud photos on the web, it doesn't show up on my phone. This sync function appears to have worked as recently as 8/20/17, but hasn't worked for me since. I've waited a few days and even manually initiated an iCloud backup.

Hi mateuschwarz,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! You've come to the right place to get answers about maintaining the favorites indicator for pictures between your iOS device and your Mac.

I'd recommend that you enable iCloud Photo Library across your devices. By using iCloud Photo Library to sync your photos, that will automatically keep the pictures marked as favorites on each device. If you import the pictures using USB, you will need to manually favorite the pictures again.

Here's a couple of great articles about iCloud Photo Library to get you started:

iCloud - Photos

iCloud Photo Library FAQ

Have a wonderful rest of your day!

When you import the photos from your iPhone to Photos on your Mac, it will import the unmodified originals, not the edited versions from your iPhone.

The same will happen, if you transfer the photos using my Photo stream.

If you sync your iPhone with Photos on Your MAc using iCloud Photo ibrary, the favorites heart will be transferred.

But the problem would be, that all photos from your Macs Photo Library would sync to iCloud and then back to your iPhone. You would need enough storage in iCloud and on your iPhone for that to be possible.

Sorry Sarah, I did not see your post!

This is awful. I've never had this problem before but just upgraded my phone. Is there anyway to get the edited photos to transfer?

This is awful. I've never had this problem before but just upgraded my phone. Is there anyway to get the edited photos to transfer?

Which version of iOS are you using on your iPhone?

The easiest way to transfer the edited phtos as well as the originals plus the favorite heart is to use iCloud Photo Library and keep the photos Library on your Mac and your iPhone in sync. But you would need to sign up for enough iCloud Storage to keep all your photos in iCloud.

You could also mail your edited Photos to transfer the edited versions or create a copy of the photo. This will save the edited version to the camera roll (Share > Duplicate), so you will be seeing it in My Photo stream or in the Import panel in Photos on your Mac.

Thanks for your quick response! I am using iPhone 7 (not a plus) on iOS version 10.1.1. Also Photos on my Mac is 1.0.1. When i try to using the iCloud Photo library it says I need 1TB of storge for my Photos and I'm not going to pay another $120/year just to edit my photos. Plus, I don't want the hassle of storing them in the cloud. The good news was that I was able to get the photos back by restoring my phone since it was backed up right before I downloaded (and deleted them all).

Thanks for the second option. I did try that and duplicating the photos had no effect. When I duplicated them and then tried to download them they were still originals that pushed over and said they have been already downloaded to my Mac.

I did try this method so I am posting for others, but it was not pretty. I sent them all to an iCloud sharing folder from my phone and then downloaded them from the iCloud folder into my library on my mac. The upside was that the edits to the photos (Cropping, retouching, etc.) stayed. However, the two downsides here were that the photos look like they were downgraded in resolution (UGH! Do you know a way or a setting I can change to make sure they are full resolution?) and the heart/favorite tag did not push over, but that was easily corrected by putting them all in a folder and then just selecting all and tagging them again. Still, not a fun or easy process. Also, not all my photos would port over either.

It's like Apple has done this just to get you to buy storage and so they can control your photos in the cloud. I've been a mac user since the age of 10 and have owned almost every mac and every iPhone out there but this really takes the cake! Generally Apple has been very good to me but they need to fix this feature.

Sorry for the rant...I am off my soap box now. Thanks for your help!

This is only helpful if you want to spend more money. Come on Apple, this is the simplest of tasks. Did this answer come from Gavin Belson?

The easiest way I've found is to go to your favourites folder on your iPhone, tap Select > Select All. Then tap the share symbol, and AirDrop them to a MacBook.

The easiest way is using iCloud Photo Library which is totally automatic and works seamlessly in the background with no user action required - there are other ways but none as easy as ICPL

LN

good workaround. the level 1287s were sounding like idiots so i’m pleased i scrolled to page 2 and found your simple response.