Photo order scrambled on iPad

[Speed3]

I have a 2009 iMac running the latest version of Mt. Lion and an Original iPad also running the latest version of iOS 5

I was syncing my photos choosing Selected albums, Events, Faces and automatically include All Events.

Problem is that I recently notices that the organization of the photos on the iPad bears only a passing resemblance to the order of the photos in iPhoto on the iMac.

When I choose Events on the iPad, the contents of each event are all over the map. I can discern no order whatsoever. Same thngs for Albums

To fix this, I have tried the following:

1. Unchecked <Sync Photos from iPhoto> in iTunes so that all the photos were removed from my iPad then checked the iTunes box for <Sync again> but that failed. The photos on the iPad are again almost random.

2.

A. Unchecked the box for sync photos in iTunes to delete all the photos on the iPad.

B. Backed up iPad

C. Restored the iPad to its original stetting and then restored it from today's backup.

D. Checked the box for sync photos in iTunes and saw the photos all restored to the iPad

No joy. The photos in the albums on the iPad were like scrambled eggs: all mixed up once again.

3. Restarted iPhoto holding down the command and option keys and one after the other: rebuilt iPhoto permissions; rebuilt the thumbnails; repaired the database; rebuilt the database.

Again, failure. The photos in Albums on the iPad are a mess.

Does anyone have any suggestions I might try? Many thanks if you do. I am out of ideas.

 

[Pocobear]

May I suggest "Photo Manager Pro" by Linkus, in the App store at only $2.99 it's a steal.

 

[Speed3]

Thanks, I'll check that out. I am assuming that with that software, I'll be able to sync my photos to my iPad??? I.e., use it in place of iTunes?

 

[Pocobear]

If you must, yes, you don't have to use iTunes, you can use wifi. iTunes is easier, faster, and everything gets backed up properly. You do do backups don't you?

 

[Gunni]

Sorry to have been so slow to respond to your last post, Pocobear; been on the road.

To answer your question: yes. I have TM running and I do a full clone backup once a week using CCC.

I am missing a beat here.

Could you explain a bit what you mean by >you don't have to use iTunes, you can use WiFi<?

I have a WiFi Actiontec router at home, but I didn't realize that there was a different way to arrange your _photos_ in folders or whatever and then sync them to your iPad, keeping that photo arrangement, using something other than iTunes.

I looked at Photo Manager Pro as you suggested and saw that you have to use in-app transfer functions to transfer photos. PMP support FTP and USB transfer.

The USB transfer is a deal killer for me as mine is the original iPad w/ no USB connection.

 

[Ipheuria]

If possible can you do a screen shot to show what it is you're referring to? I had the same problem or what I think you're describing but unsyncing the media off and then back on did the trick for me. So that is why I thought perhaps it is a different issue than what I'm thinking. Anyway before you answer try this disconnect your iPad from your Mac then go into whatever folder you sync the pictures through. In my case I keep all my pictures in an "iPad" folder then organize Folders/Albums inside that main folder. So once in the main folder look for the iPod Photo Cache directory and delete it. Then empty your recycle bin to make sure the folder is gone. Now connect your iPad and in iTunes click unsync to remove all the images. Then after that is done reboot the iPad and when it boots back up connect to iTunes and click Sync with your normal settings and after the sync see what happens.

 

[Speed3]

Thanks for chiming in. My wife took the iPad on a trip and is due back late tonight, so I can reply more fully tomorrow.

A scree shot won't be helpful. It's easier to explain in a narrative.

Imagine you have multiple albums set up in iPhoto on your iMac.

There are 15 photos in album A. In addition, there are many other albums with photos in them.

You connect your iPad, original model, to your iMac.

Go to album A, and there are 15 photos in it, but three or four of them do not belong there.

The three or four that are missing are scattered somewhere among all the other albums.

Is that clearer?

 

[BradM73]

The USB transfer is a deal killer for me as mine is the original iPad w/ no USB connection.

I'm pretty sure the iPad 1 can connect to a USB device, otherwise you couldn't charge or sync it with your computer? Or are you talking about connecting it to a memory card or memory stick or some other kind of USB device? It is my understanding that you can use Apple's camera connection kit to connect certain memory cards, cameras or other devices to the iPad 1. Depending on your use, it should work.

And yes, you can sync your iPad via WiFi if you have it set up to sync that way.

Having read through the thread, I guess I'm just confused as to what you meant when you said it didn't have a USB connection.

Now, on to the next item.

I'm assuming that what your iPad is doing is arraigning photos by file name and not date or folder. I'm guessing by what you've described is that when you go into "Photos" on your iPad and you select the sort method as "Photos" at the top, it shows all photos at one time (as it should) and some or many of your photos are jumbled, is that correct? If so, I believe it ha to do with the sort method that is being used by the iPad, and I don't believe there are any other sort options for the Photos sort method, as it goes by file name and not any other criteria. From there you can tap the "Albums" sort method, and view your album folders individually, but I think what you're wanting to do is for your photos to first be sorted by the current albums you have, and then by file names within those albums so that photos are shown linearly with the Photos sort method active. Unfortunately I don't think it is currently possible to do.

One comparison of my own was when I went to an local city event and snapped about 150 pics with my iPhone. Later I sorted about 25-30 into a separate folder and resynced it to my iPhone (yea, it's an iPhone, but same difference). Anyway, whenever I would view the entire camera roll (Camera Roll is the equivalent of Photos on the iPad), the 25-30 pictures from the new album folder would be doubled because their file names were the same, even though they are in different folders. Does that make sense?

I could never figure out a way to for identical photos to appear only once, and have just learned to accept and live with it. Heck, even Windows does the same thing. I've just been able to trace it back to having photo names being the same. Like whenever you empty your camera roll by hoping off all your photos and videos or if you delete everything, the file sales will start back at zero. I deal with this all the time with my Nikons, and it's just a fact of life.

Hopefully I've made sense. Or maybe I've just misinterpreted whatever it is you're really trying to do! LoL. I hope not though.

 

[Ipheuria]

Thanks for chiming in. My wife took the iPad on a trip and is due back late tonight, so I can reply more fully tomorrow.

A scree shot won't be helpful. It's easier to explain in a narrative.

Imagine you have multiple albums set up in iPhoto on your iMac.

There are 15 photos in album A. In addition, there are many other albums with photos in them.

You connect your iPad, original model, to your iMac.

Go to album A, and there are 15 photos in it, but three or four of them do not belong there.

The three or four that are missing are scattered somewhere among all the other albums.

Is that clearer?

OK got you now, well let me know when you've tried removing the iPod Photo Cache folder.

 

[Gunni]

At first I thought What do they mean by: well let me know when you've tried removing the iPod Photo Cache folder.

So, using Devon’s Easy Find, I searched my iMac HD for >Photo cache< and found this:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597869/Photo Cache.jpg

When I chose Open, this was revealed in the Finder:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1597869/Finder.jpg

Years ago, I did have a iPod and I did have my photos on it.

You can see from the first of the above two links that the contextual menu is offering, inter alia, the choice to Destroy that cache or Move it to the trash.

I am reluctant to destroy this w/o confirmation that this is a good idea. Should I go ahead and do so then try to resync the photo albums between the iPad and the iMAC?

---------- Post Merged at 01:37 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:30 AM ----------

>Having read through the thread, I guess I'm just confused as to what you meant when you said it didn't have a USB connection.<

What a bonehead! Thinking USB, I was focused on a USB port on the iPad and forgot that of course it connects to the iMac via the USB port on that iMac. My bad there.

>I'm assuming that what your iPad is doing is arranging photos by file name and not date or folder. <

I don’t understand this. The iPad shouldn’t be arranging anything, should it? It should simply mirror the arrangement of your photos in iPhoto; as you have them arranged on the Mac to which you connect to your iPad for syncing.

On a suggestion I found elswhere, to sync ONLY albums, and not Events, I chose in iTunes to sync only Albums. I also did a Restore on the iPad and started iPhoto holdin down Option and one by one, did all the options offered there to essentially rebuild iPhoto on the iMac. I then deleted all photos from the iPad, and resynced, including only Albums. The problem described in my original post persisted.

So, the sort method I have used in iPhoto on the iMac is to create Albums, vice Events, and drag and drop individual photos into each Album.

When I first set up my original iPad when I got it a year or two ago, _everythng_ synced just fine: Photos, Albums, and Events. Somewhere along the line, things just went blooey.

>but I think what you're wanting to do is for your photos to first be sorted by the current albums you have, and then by file names within those albums so that photos are shown linearly with the Photos sort method active.<

No. I don’t care how they are sorted _within_ each album; I just want the _same_ photos to be in the Albums on the iPad and in iPhoto on the iMac. I.e., I want iPad Albums to mirror iPhoto Albums.

An example: If I now go to an Album titled 2012, Italy on the iPad, I want to see the photos of my 2012 trip to Italy, and nor for that Album to be both missing some of my Italy photos , and have photos of my dog taken ten years earlier included instead.

 

[Gunni]

Just a "bump" hoping that one of you who offered advice will advise me on whether I have identified the correct iPod file to delete.

Also, I now realize that the URL I posted for that screen shot somehow got corrupted.

Here it is again: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1597869/Finder.jpg

Thanks again for any help.

 

[Gunni]

Receiving no reply and hoping that I would do no permanent damage, I deleted the iPod folder and its contents which I found using Devon's EasyFind and then sync'ed only iPhoto Albums, and _not_ Events or Faces to my iPad

I was pleased to see that it worked.

The contents of each Album in iPhone were reflected in the contents of each folder in Photos on the iPad.

However, the _order_ of photos _within_ each Album appeared somewhat jumbled, but examining each iPhoto Album via View > Sort, I realized some were sorted manually and some by date. I went through them Album by Album, reordering them all by Date > Ascending and now I will again delete that iPod file and resync the photos to the iPad.

 

[Ipheuria]

sorry I answer so many threads something I lose track of which ones I answered before. Anyway dying to see if you got everything all sorted out? You can always delete the iPod Photo Cache folder it will be re-created the next time you sync the device. It holds all the settings of your photo sync and it also has the images of the pictures you're syncing onto the device. So when you delete the folder if you go into iTunes you'll notice that under the Photo tab all your previous settings are gone. I suggested deleting it as sort of a start fresh option.