I just got through writing about this elsewhere, so I will rewrite it here as it is a similar issue.
The photo sync problem has been around for some time. The original problem was that the personal "Albums" that we created in a different folder would not stay in the order we put or created them. No matter how we tried, how we named them, or how we set them up. they would still be skewed all out of order. This still is the problem today. The workaround is a real pain, too. and often it fails. They have never addressed this bug and it's been around ever since they revamped photos long ago. iTune likes to put the photos in the order they were created, not in the order of file name. that means if you want older photos next to newer ones, I must recreate it and save them all in a certain order. but then, you can't add one in between the ones you made before. you must re-save them all again. and when you sync, it still may not display in the order that you want...
The only way to correct the display order, was to go to the source folder of the photos, remove the folder "Ipod photo Cache" and then rename the folder that contained the family album. Then, it would sync properly. BUT, when I re-sync, the photos in the family album are all skewed again and no longer in proper order. So, each time I sync, I must re-name the folder Prior to syncing, Which puts the photos back in order. But only once. This is especially a real pain because I have several devices and each has it's separate Library, but share the Personal Pics" folder. Therefore I must apply this across devices when I sync. As i use the same source folder for my albums. If I Created a different photo album source then I would have to keep re-naming them all, each time. (I originally did this, and boy, what a pain.) I have made many comments to Itunes over the years, and still nothing. Why they messed this up in the first place is a mystery as is why they still wont fix it.
I have an album of family photos that I put in a certain order. With this last update, when I synced, itunes created another album on my device with the same name, just below the original, but with different photos from another album. (there was no folder created on the mac, just appeared on the devices) so, I re-synced and unchecked Sync Photos. Then synced again and chose the folders i had renamed and also i applied the method, and it removed the phantom. I hope my "Fix Method" helps. And putting all my photos in iCloud is out of the question.
