Zanudin

Q: What are the meanings of folders in iPhone Photos.

I am struggling to understand the logic behind folders in iPhone Photos. Unfortunately Apple chose the worst possible name for its application, any search on "Photos" results in millions of useless findings. After an update of a system, Photos made multiple copies of existing photos so that now my storage is full. I am not sure how it works. For example, I tried to delete photos in "Selfies", but for some reason, it does not allow me to do so. I tried to download photos to mac, but now in Photos on mac the option "delete uploaded photos" is missing, and the photos can be downloaded only from the folder "Camera Roll", whatever it means. It seems that I have zero control over the photos. What I want to do is to understand the logic behind iPhone Photos, I want to remove copies of existing photos, and learn how to transfer photos from iPhone Photos to mac Photos.

 

How to use Photos, does it work at all? 

iPhone 5s, iOS 10.0.2

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 10:07 PM

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Q: What are the meanings of folders in iPhone Photos.

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Sep 28, 2016 7:13 AM in response to Zanudin
    Level 10 (107,891 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 28, 2016 7:13 AM in response to Zanudin

    Photos made multiple copies of existing photos so that now my storage is full.

     

    Did you sync the photos to your iPhone during a sync with iTunes?  Photos cannot be deleted from the iPhone, if you synced them there with iTunes. These photos will be deleted, if you sync again and select an empty folder to sync.

     

    What I want to do is to understand the logic behind iPhone Photos, I want to remove copies of existing photos, and learn how to transfer photos from iPhone Photos to mac Photos.

    Photos on the iPhone and the Mac is keeping your photos in a library. This library is a database with many different views of the same photos.  The photos are stored only once, but the predefined albums are showing you the photos grouped by different criteria so you can access and find them more quickly.

    • The Moments, collections, years are grouping your photos by the location and sort them by date, the oldest first.
    • The All Photos album is showing all photos, but sorted by the date you imported them, so you will always find the most recently added photos at the bottom of the album.
    • The smart album "Selfies"is showing all photos taken with the front camera.
    • The album Panoramic is showing all photos with an extreme aspect ratio.
    • The Camera Roll album is showing the photos that have been taken with the iPhone/iPad , transferred with My Photo Stream, or have been saved to the Camera Roll, but not the the photos synced with iTunes.

    There are more predefined albums for special purposes.  And you can create your own album to group your photos as you wish. Move related albums into a folder, so you can easier find your albums.  A photo can be in many albums, but will only be stored once. The albums do not need much extra storage, since they are referencing the photos in the photo library.

     

    To save your photos on your Mac see the options here:    Keep your photos safely stored and up to date on all your devices - Apple Support

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201313

     

    You can use iCloud Photo Library and sync the devices with iCloud, or connect the iPhone by USB and download the photos to your Photos Library on the Mac. That works best if you are to using iCloud Photo Library.

  • by Zanudin,

    Zanudin Zanudin Sep 28, 2016 7:44 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 7:44 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you very much! I think that now I understand better the logic behind iPhone Photos, but I am still not sure how to use it with Mac's Photos.

     

    Did you sync the photos to your iPhone during a sync with iTunes?

     

    No, I do not sync iPhone with iTunes.

     

    A photo can be in many albums, but will only be stored once. The albums do not need much extra storage

     

    This was my first thought, but then when I uploaded photos from "Camera Roll" to Mac's Photos, and ask Photos to remove all photos from "Camera Roll", I noticed that I am not allowed to remove some of the videos from Camera Roll, and none of the photos in Moments (and some other folders) were erased. Furthermore, photos in Moments still occupied much of my storage. I had to remove them separately. I still do not know how to remove photos in the folder "Selfies" -- those photos apparently have been erased from all other folders. I would also want to remove all videos from Camera Roll. Probably Photos does not allow me to remove some of the videos, because those are used by some applications, but I do not know how to trace those applications and tell them not to use those videos any more.

     

    I understand that it is possible to download photos using iCloud, but I do not use that programs (I find it troublesome to sync 4 devices with very limited storage), so I hoped that there is a way just to use Photos. At least it seems to me that before it was possible.