Photos does no longer import edits I did on the iPhone

How are you importing to the Mac?

The only way I know of how to transfer the Favorite badge and the edits to the Mac is syncing with iCloud Photo Library. If you transfer by My Photo Stream or using a USB connection the photos will be transferred as the original versions, without any edits applied. Transferring by USB will only add the filters set in the camera, but no cropping or further adjusting done in Photos. Have you changed the way how you are transferring the photos?

Maybe enabling the iCloud Photo Library resulted in disabling the import of edits. I would consider this a bug.

Per definition the direct import by USB is supposed o import the unmodified originals, not the edited versions, unless you are saving an edited version to the camera roll as a new photo. It would be a bug, if you could only download the edited versions and not the precious unmodified originals.

Well, since editing is non desctructive Photos should (and did) always import the unmodified original and then add the changes to it, as they where stored in the database.

Yes, editing is non-destructive, and iCloud Photo Library is transferring both the the edits and the originals this way. Syncing with USB does only transfer the originals plus an .AAE file with the effects added by the camera, but not cropping or other adjustments added in Photos.

Good luck for your report to Apple.

I know this is a month old but I just noticed this today myself and a search for an answer brought me to this thread.

Oliver, you are correct in that importing with the Photos.app from iOS to OS X/MacOS would also keep the edits made on iOS. My workflow is similar to yours, take picture on iPhone, edit in iOS Photos, import to Photos on my MacBook. Edits made on the iPhone were retained when working in Photos on my MacBook.

Checking my Photos Library on my MacBook, the last time this worked exactly as described above was 18 FEB 2017.

Incidentally, the import I tried today actually displayed the little toolbox icon (indicating an edited photo) in the lower right of the picture immediately after import. That icon disappeared after a few seconds following import which suggests for whatever reason Photos on my MacBook originally imported the edits but for some reason disregarded them.

I am guessing this may be an El Capitan and Photos bug since I am running the same versions of each as you: Photos 1.5 on OS X 10.11.6. I don't have a machine running Sierra though to test.

Thanks for the follow-up. Liked the OpenDoc reference.

I think I've finally figured out why this was all happening. The editing features in the Photos application (both for iOS and macOS/OSX) are slightly different between versions. In the iOS 10 and macOS versions of the Photos application, another editing option under the "Light" section for the Adjust tool was added, that option is "Brilliance". So in both of those versions (iOS 10.3, macOS 10.12), here are the adjustments that can be made under the "Light" section:

Brilliance

Exposure

Highlights

Shadows

Brightness

Contrast

Black Point

For iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), the Photos application does not have the Brilliance adjustment, just the six listed from Exposure down.

Had to borrow an older phone and newer Mac to finally figure this out. But it looks like for my own setup, when I edit in Photos.app on iOS 10.3.3, it's making adjustments that Photos.app on my MacBook running El Capitan 10.11.6 doesn't understand due to the extra adjustment in the newer version of iOS, so it just throws out all the adjustments.

Basically, edits in Photos from iOS 9 will be maintained when imported into Photos on OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). And edits in iOS 10 will be maintained when imported into Photos on macOS 10.12 (Sierra). Edits were not preserved otherwise.

(Note, I don't know if there are versions in between that work, I was only able to test with the latest versions of iOS9, iOS10, OS X El Capitan, and macOS Sierra)

Hi,

I'm using the latest software on both my iPhone 6s (IOS 10.3) and MacBook Pro (Sierra / macOS 10.12), yet for some reason, when I use iCloud to sync photos, cropping is the only edit that's preserved: lighting, exposure, filter, etc. are all lost.

Help!