All iPads Silly question: How do I sync Photos library from iPad to Macbook Pro?

[ozreth]

Honestly seems like a silly question, but I want to be careful. The way that my photos library is currently setup on my iPad is how I want it to be on my macbook. Should I do this via iCloud or a manual sync? If iCloud, how do I ensure that the iPad library is the one that is downloaded to both devices, rather than the library that is on the macbook? I'm afraid I'll accidentally override the iPad library with the MBP one.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shirasaki]

iCloud “sync” is bidirectional, meaning that iPad can override Mac library and vice versa. There is no way to set preference, and I believe macOS photo library will be prioritised if possible over iPad photo library.

 

[ozreth]

iCloud “sync” is bidirectional, meaning that iPad can override Mac library and vice versa. There is no way to set preference, and I believe macOS photo library will be prioritised if possible over iPad photo library.

And how do I know which it is choosing before it happens?

 

[Shirasaki]

And how do I know which it is choosing before it happens?

I have no idea, although I’d guess Apple will prefer iCloud version as much as possible and just push the photo from the source to other devices automatically.

 

[Wando64]

As far as I know they merge and synch on both devices with the merged library.
I don’t have time right now to look for the Apple documentation to prove this though.

No overwriting or overriding, (as far as I am aware and I can remember)

 

[ozreth]

As far as I know they merge and synch on both devices with the merged library.
I don’t have time right now to look for the Apple documentation to prove this though.

No overwriting or overriding, (as far as I am aware and I can remember)

How does that work for the way that I have albums and folders setup though? I'm not sure how they can merge. I looked at the various apple pages on this and they're rather convoluted and I'm unable to find a clear answer.

I guess this wasn't as silly of a question as I feared haha!

 

[Wando64]

How does that work for the way that I have albums and folders setup though? I'm not sure how they can merge. I looked at the various apple pages on this and they're rather convoluted and I'm unable to find a clear answer.

I guess this wasn't as silly of a question as I feared haha!

Merging the libraries does not mean that album and folders are going to be merged with one another.
Each album and each folder will remain independently accessible. The difference is that it will add to your iPad library all of the albums and folders that were previously only on your Mac, and vice-versa. Nothing gets deleted or overwritten.

Again, this is my understanding based on what happened when I enabled it on my devices, but I don't have the time to look for a documented answer. Your situation might be different for whatever reason unknown to me.
If you are really concerned, just call Apple and ask them. Their support is free.

 

[ozreth]

Well, I've turned on iCloud for Photos on both devices and I see that the Photos app is uploading ~7,000 photos. Guess I'll let that finish and see what it looks like.