All Devices Syncing Photos between iOS devices and mac (w/o) iCloud

[toke lahti]

Is there any simple and clean way?
I wouldn't like to store entire pic/video library in iCloud, but current pricing isn't so bad now (200GB/3€/month).
I just don't like the idea that Apple's is pushing me to pay for this by not offering other options.

I've got 3765 pics+vids (18GB) from iphone and 1221 pics+vids (1,7GB) from ipad.
I've always copied these from iOS devices to mac with Image capture, but because of some unknown errors or bad settings in the last 9 years, all pics are not copied to all devices via Photostream. And videos don't transfer via Photostream? (With my 1st and 2nd iphone I didn't even want to keep all videos in phone, because not enough storage.)

I don't want to copy all pics from mac's Photos, since I have there a lot more big dslr pics.

I finally started finding the way to do this and it seems to be, that if you set both iOS devices in iTunes (mac uses Mojave) "Copy photos from" a folder that include all stuff from both devices, there will be duplicates in the devices.

So, if I want to sync pics+vids, I'll have to delete all of them from devices storage first?

If there's no efficient way to avoid getting duplicates to iOS devices, I'd need to find a nice way to remove them.
Of course free & cheap apps don't work.
There's this

Delete Duplicated Images

www.icloud.com

from here

5 Ways to Remove Duplicated Photos on iPhone in 2024 - Chrunos

Deleting duplicate photos can save a lot of space and you don’t have to do it manually. Check these 5 methods to remove duplicate photos on iPhone automatically.

chrunos.com

and my phone says "This shortcut cannot be opened because your Shortcuts security settings don't allow untrusted shortcuts."
And the settings say, that I can't change the setting before using the shortcut?
w00t?

Any help greatly appreciated!🙏

 

[mikzn]

I use Photos to manage all my photos (and videos) from all devices into my MBP (Photos 4 / Mojave) and then select Photos Playlists to sync back only specific pictures and videos to phones and iPad (using iTunes in moJave)

This might save you from having the large DSLR pics from transferring to iOS devices (unless you wish to via the play lists)

Playlists don't create any duplicates and you can have multiple playlists with the same pictures

Also I split my Photos library into 3 separate libraries that each have over 10 years of photos in each - 1) Work Pictures, 2) Personal and family Pictures, 3) Hiking Pictures.

I use Power Photos to move pictures between libraries and to manage duplicates - Power Photos - The ultimate toolbox for Photos on your Mac - tons of good info for Photo management on this site and I have been using since iPhoto days as a companion management tool for pictures

I don't use iCloud for back up of pictures and Videos either mostly because all the "back ups, syncing and app updates" can choke the wifi and slow down iOS devices when syncing ( at least that's my theory 😃 ) - I found the above works for me and has the added benefit of an easy back up with CCC (back up the Pictures Folder and contents) to 2 separate external drives - weekly but 3 days apart (in case I make a bad backup by mistake)

just a few thoughts that work for me

 

[harriska2]

I use Image Capture. I put them into an import folder and sort through, delete things I don’t want and put the rest into a dated folder by year. Then only curated images are put into photos using referenced pointer.

 

[toke lahti]

I use Image Capture. I put them into an import folder and sort through, delete things I don’t want and put the rest into a dated folder by year. Then only curated images are put into photos using referenced pointer.

This doesn't solve the quest: keep all content in sync in all devices.

 

[toke lahti]

I use Photos to manage all my photos (and videos) from all devices into my MBP (Photos 4 / Mojave) and then select Photos Playlists to sync back only specific pictures and videos to phones and iPad (using iTunes in moJave)

This might save you from having the large DSLR pics from transferring to iOS devices (unless you wish to via the play lists)

Playlists don't create any duplicates and you can have multiple playlists with the same pictures

Also I split my Photos library into 3 separate libraries that each have over 10 years of photos in each - 1) Work Pictures, 2) Personal and family Pictures, 3) Hiking Pictures.

I use Power Photos to move pictures between libraries and to manage duplicates - Power Photos - The ultimate toolbox for Photos on your Mac - tons of good info for Photo management on this site and I have been using since iPhoto days as a companion management tool for pictures

I don't use iCloud for back up of pictures and Videos either mostly because all the "back ups, syncing and app updates" can choke the wifi and slow down iOS devices when syncing ( at least that's my theory 😃 ) - I found the above works for me and has the added benefit of an easy back up with CCC (back up the Pictures Folder and contents) to 2 separate external drives - weekly but 3 days apart (in case I make a bad backup by mistake)

just a few thoughts that work for me

It is of course highly possible, but not smart or logical in any way, that if you use Photos as "Copy photos from", then those pics already in the device, won't get copied there again.
But, if you use any other, like normal folder, every sync produces duplicates.
I've

Now, iTunes tells me that I have 4755 "photos" in "Copy photos from" folders. These should include all "photos" that already are in the devices. I don't know if screenshots(.png) and videos (.mov & mp4) are calulated in that number. Those folders use storage space 40GB minus "iPod Photo Cache" 8GB = 32GB.
Those folders that I offload stuff to with Image Capture also have sidecars (.aae). Total number of files in "Copy photos from" folders is 4986.
Photos in iphone says it has 7601 pics and 345 videos.
And it show (almost) every pic twice...
(It's hard to tell precisely, since my GUI isn't in English, maybe I should change that too...)

Maybe I'll try one more time how non-Photos folder works with deleting all pics & vids from the device and then see if syncing doesn't produce duplicates any more...

I wonder if I could ask this from Apple's support, of are they flooded because of covid19...

 

[harriska2]

Google photos

 

[stephenschimpf]

Yikes, all this trouble to save a few bucks a month? Seriously, just use iCloud Photo Library and your stuff will be synched between all your Apple devices. I used to copy stuff from my iPhone to my PC but after switching to an iMac I started using iCloud Photo Library and now my photos, cropped and enhanced, are available on my iPhone, iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV...best thing since sliced bread!

 

[toke lahti]

Yikes, all this trouble to save a few bucks a month?

Nope, this is also about principle.
Apple should offer alternative methods, that DO work, not just subscription to a service.
Seems to be that syncing with Mojave's iTunes and iP11 does not work with regular folders (2 options in sync: from Photos or just a folder). My phone's Photo's is now jammed, syncing forever and showing multiple times same pics. Apple is investigating the problem.

How many hours of video you keep in iCloud?

 

[harriska2]

Why does it have to be synced? Dump and delete.

 

[stephenschimpf]

How many hours of video you keep in iCloud?

I've got about 900 videos right now. I don't know how many hours that is. Sorry.

 

[toke lahti]

Why does it have to be synced? Dump and delete.

I'd like to have all pics in iphone, ipad & mac.

Seems to be that isn't possible without using iCloud.
Syncing bugs produces duplicates.
Somehow the system does not identify pics already in the device.
I first deleted all pics from ipad.
Ipad's Photos really had zero pics.
Then started the awfully slow syncing.
800 pics appeared from nowhere.
It can't be just Photostream, ipad tells that it has 433 pics.