Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
How do I sort Albums > All Photos by date on the iPhone? I recently uploaded several thousand old photographs to Photos for Mac and they are appearing in the order I uploaded them to Photos/iCloud Photos, not in the order they were taken. They are organized by date taken in Photos and I would like to keep that order on the iPhone.
iPhone 6s, iOS 11.4.1
O.k. That is not the "All Photos" album. It is the basic "Photos" view of the library, corresponding to the Moments, just without the grouping into Moments.
The "All Photos" on your iPhone corresponds to "Imports" in the sidebar. Is Imports really missing from your sidebar? It should be there in macOS 10.13.6 - or did you hide the library section with the Places and Memories?
https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/view-photos-pht56eafa987/mac
I'm running 10.13.6.
If you are still seeing an "All Photos" album on your Mac with High Sierra, you have probably created it yourself, some time ago. High Sierra does not have any longer an "All Photos" album, only the "Imports" album as a replacement. I created an album "All Photos" as a smart album.
This smart album has all photos and videos in my library, and I can sort it by the date created.
I suspect, you also created a custom "All Photos" album this way. But you will not see it on your iPhone. Smart albums do not sync with iCloud Photo Library to your iPhone. If you are seeing "All Photos" on the iPhone, it will be the predefined album "All Photos" (on iOS 8 to 10) or "Imports" on iOS 11. Or a standard album called "AllPhotos" that you created yourself.
It is a design principle and not a bug. Because there is not much space on the display of an iPhone, the developers have been stingy with sorting options or smart albums metadata. Instead of offering commands to sort the photos in albums, they are offering a collection of predefined smart albums for different purposes and with a different fixed sort order. Nearly all predefined albums are sorted by the capture date, with the All Photos album as the one exception, so we have at least one album where we can see the photos sorted by the date we imported them and can find the new photos in a fixed placed. This could work well, if there were not some occasions, when the "Date imported" will become different across devices. It seems like iCloud does not sync the "date Imported" reliably, or system upgrades and repairing or rebuilding the Photos Library may change it. The All Photos album is usually showing the most recent photos we are taking with the iPhone correctly at the bottom of the album, but older photos may change the sort order after a system update or when syncing with iCloud Photo Library to a different device.
I am ignoring "All Photos" (or Imports on iOS 11) most of the time and only use it to find the find the photos I have just taken quickly. For older photos it is pretty useless anyway, because it is not possible to navigate an album with 50000 photos by scrolling a touch screen.
It may not be a bug, but it is yet another consistency issue between OS and iOS. It’s sloppy on Apple’s part and there’s no reason for it that I can see. The whole appeal of the Apple ecosystem is consistency and synchronization. If “All Photos” on OS is organized by date, “All Photos” on iOS should be too.
I - and many others, I'm sure - have no issue navigating tens of thousands of photos through "All Photos." I find it more difficult to look through moments, etc. than "All Photos." I'm using iCloud and Photos as a photos backup service, not to necessarily be able to easily access pictures I took in 2008. I'd like them up with the rest of the pictures I took in 2008, as they are on OS.
Again, for me, it's a consistency issue that makes Apple's design look sloppy.
Again, for me, it's a consistency issue that makes Apple's design look sloppy.
Indeed, the missing consistency when syncing with iCloud between devices is a poor implementation and should be fixed. The same goes for the occasional changing of the sorting of All Photos after a system upgrade or a library repair.
What I meant by the design principle is the intended behaviour - "All Photos" is meant to be sorted by the date of import. If the import date coincides with the capture date, All Photos may be sorted by the capture date.
"All Photos" is meant to be sorted by the date of import. If the import date coincides with the capture date, All Photos may be sorted by the capture date.
Of course, I stood that from your first response. However, that does not explain or justify the lack of consistency. Why is "All Photos" meant to be sorted by the import date on iOS, but is still sorted by capture date on OS? I'm even given the option to change how it's sorted on OS. You see my frustration.
Why is "All Photos" meant to be sorted by the import date on iOS, but is still sorted by capture date on OS? I'm even given the option to change how it's sorted on OS.
Which version of MacOS X is running on your Mac?
Nope, I have created nothing in Photos. I have no album/option called “Imports,” but I do have one called “Photos,” which organizes everything by date. It sits at the top beside Collections and Memories. It is not a smart album.
The "All Photos" album is always sorted by the date the photos have been imported to a device, not by the capture date. Only the moments are sorted by the capture date.
Well, that's a bunch of ********. Thanks for the response!
10.13.6
Oops, I pressed the wrong reply button. I'm running 10.13.6.
Sort Albums > All Photos by date on iPhone
