Gerben Wierda

Q: Photo duplicates on iPad only

My daughter has an iPad and an iPhone and she uses a Mac. With respect to photos, My Photo Stream is turned on on all devices, but not iCloud Photo Library. Se syncs phone and pad with the Mac.

 

This all works fine, except that only on the iPad a large number of photos, but not all of them) are displayed twice. I'm afraid to remove one of them (and besides, it is a lot of work, we are talking hundreds), because I'm afraid that on sync the single one on the Mac (where backups are handled) disappears.

 

What can I do?

Posted on Jul 31, 2016 5:32 AM

Close

Q: Photo duplicates on iPad only

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by shirakotakumo,

    shirakotakumo shirakotakumo Jul 31, 2016 7:10 AM in response to Gerben Wierda
    Level 1 (68 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 31, 2016 7:10 AM in response to Gerben Wierda

    disconnect the iPad from iCloud then select to delete the iCloud photos off of the iPad, don't worry the photos should be safe, then delete all photos off go the iPad then reconnect the iCloud photos. the photos should be exactly the same.

  • by Gerben Wierda,

    Gerben Wierda Gerben Wierda Jul 31, 2016 9:06 AM in response to shirakotakumo
    Level 2 (187 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 31, 2016 9:06 AM in response to shirakotakumo

    Are you certain? As she is not using iCloud Photo Library this sounds like a way to remove the photos altogether.

     

    There is this whole thing with syncing that scares me. Sometimes when you remove things on an iOS device it also gets removed from the Mac. Sometimes it doesn't.

  • by shirakotakumo,

    shirakotakumo shirakotakumo Jul 31, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Gerben Wierda
    Level 1 (68 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 31, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Gerben Wierda

    don't worry, if you're scared that you'll lose everything, go to her mac and download all the photos into a USB and do the process, so i said to disconnect the iPad from iCloud, when you do that you'll be asked something along the lines of: "would you like to download these photos into your iPad library?" if you select download it'll create a copy of the photos in the cloud and put it in your iPad. now the iPad is disconnected from iCloud, any changes on the iPad now will not affect iCloud. then delete all the photos on the iPad, once you've done that reconnect the iPad to iCloud then you should have the same amount of photos on each device connected to your iCloud. hope this helps.

  • by elcpu,

    elcpu elcpu Jul 31, 2016 10:10 AM in response to Gerben Wierda
    Level 6 (16,265 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 31, 2016 10:10 AM in response to Gerben Wierda

    Where did these photos come from? If they were synced from the Mac to the iPad you should try a new sync with only the photos you want on the pad. If they were all taken on the iDevices and never synced back to the iPad then ignore the above.

     

    If the photos are on the iPad or iPhone now and you can see them ok there, please please import them first to a computer and then backup the computer to an external HD so you will not lose anything.

    Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

     

    FWIW, there is an issue with synced photos being duplicated. See this:  Re: Photos sync'd to iPhone from iTunes all messed up in iOS 8.1

  • by Gerben Wierda,

    Gerben Wierda Gerben Wierda Jul 31, 2016 1:04 PM in response to shirakotakumo
    Level 2 (187 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 31, 2016 1:04 PM in response to shirakotakumo

    This is not something I can do because, as I said, I do not use iCloud Photo Library.  So any solution that depends on iCloud is not possible.

  • by Gerben Wierda,

    Gerben Wierda Gerben Wierda Jul 31, 2016 1:07 PM in response to elcpu
    Level 2 (187 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 31, 2016 1:07 PM in response to elcpu

    I have no idea where the duplicates come from. What is special, though, is that she may take a picture on the iPhone, it travels to iPad and Mac via My Photo Stream. Both on iPhone and Mac, everything is fine, a photo is shown only once. Only on the iPad, it is shown twice.

     

    I suspect that  maybe at some time she (accidentally) turned iCloud Photo Library on and off. But that is conjecture. I actually have no idea.