Importing photos

[jkingrph]

I have a new Ipad pro coming and would like to know how to import my photo library from my pc. They are arranged by subject and or years in folders on the pc. When I in the past imported to an older ipad the folders were lost and all the pictures were mixed up so it makes it difficult to locate a photo. Any suggestions.

 

[twerppoet]

There is no way to preserve folders and photo order when importing to the Photos app in iOS (or the Mac for that matter). Not that I know of. If there is a tool to do this, it’s probably a part of the iMazing app. I’m not that familiar with all it’s capabilities.

Photos are automatically organized by date using the photo’s meta-data. If you have older photos without metadata, it will use the file creation date. Or maybe it’s the edited date. Not sure.

Photos has albums, but these are not actual folders. They are functionally lists of photos. The actual photos is tagged as belonging to that list, but it’s location is not saved nor is the photos duplicated.

This all works pretty well for photos taken or added to the Photo album individually, but as you noted it has issues when importing a large collection of already organized photos.

If I were in your shoes I’d probably try importing the photos to the iPad one folder at a time, then creating an album in Photos and adding them from the Recents album to the new album. It might be possible to automate the album transfer part to some degree using the Shortcuts app.

There are also a variety of third party photo album apps available. If you don’t mind losing the convenient integration with iOS that Photos gives you, you could see if one of them will do the trick.

Of course, you could just import the entire folder structure to iCloud Drive. You would have to pay for the extra space, and they will not show up in the Photos app; but they will be on the iPad, and viewable as individual photos in the Files app.

Afraid that’s all I’ve got.

 

[Aerofly]

Twerppoet is quite correct, iMazing can do exactly what you require. If you’ve never used iMazing before, then check out the iMazing website where you will find many tutorials on the app, including how to transfer pictures from your PC to named folders on the iPad.

 

[LannyC]

I don't know about on a PC, but in iTunes on my iMac I can designate folders of photos to sync with my iPad. The files stay in their folders/albums, but the image order within each album seems determined by something other than alphabetically as on a real computer. If you have iTunes, check it out.

 

[Aerofly]

Yes, if you have an iMac, then iTunes makes it easy, but as the OP say’s he has a PC, which unfortunately can’t do what the iMac can do, then iMazing appears to be the only easy alternative.

 

[jkingrph]

I bought imazing and it is not amazing now. Absolutly not working, i emailed their support and they said there was a problem with apple, don't know what and probably would not understand. I asked for refund and it was not forthcoming, and they indicated it might be fixed soon, don't know about them.

 

[twerppoet]

Sorry to hear that. Thanks for the report. I hope they can resolve it, or at least come around to refunding your money if not.

 

[Aerofly]

That is unfortunate. This is the message that comes up on the screen. Hopefully it won’t be too long before they get it sorted.