Syncing Camera Roll and Shared Photos between iPhone and iMac using Photos app

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Level 1

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Syncing Camera Roll and Shared Photos between iPhone and iMac using Photos app

Background/Configuration:

I’m using the Photo app (ver 8.0 (50.0.0.114) on my 2017 I-Mac (Venture 13.7.7), latest apps I think. For a long time I had my I-phones and I-Mac synced so that camera roll pic’s would appear on all Photo app’s. I even set up Shared photo’s between the 2 iPhones (now 16’s).

Setting Changes:

A few months ago I revised my Photos settings on my I-Mac per below:

a. Set Photo to “Shared Albums” vs the “i-Cloud Photos" Settings which I used before. (Ref I-Cloud” tab)

b. Set Photos to “Copy Items to the Photo library

Only items copied to the Library will be uploaded to I-Cloud Photo’s” (ref General tab)

Question?

a. I Would like to go back to getting camera roll uploads to the i-Cloud library for my i-Mac. Camera uploads do occur for the I-Phone i-Cloud library, Sharing also is enabled. FYI all devices use the same ID for Photo.

b. Ha Ha just writing this out may have pointed me to the solution … So If I were to remove the “check mark for item a.:

— Would I then start getting camera roll photo’s on my I-Mac?.

— Would I also be able to see “Shared” and “Personal” photo’s on my I-Mac like I do on my I-Phones?

c. Since I want the Shared photos feature I believe I want to leave item a. As is? Correct?

Perspective Now and in Future:

Right now the i-Cloud libraries viewed on the i-Mac and on the i-Phones appear partially out of sync. Many are ok, some toward the later months do not match.

Some photo’s manually uploaded to the i-Mac do not appear now in the i-Phone I-Cloud library. Also I-Phone camera roll photo’s previously uploaded by the i-Phones do not appear in the I-Mac I-Cloud library.

The question is what happens when I make the change recommended in a. Do all photo’s now appear in all libraries? I know only I will know afterwards.

I am concerned about making a change that would drastically corrupt the library ,,, many duplicates or missing photo’s.

Thanks for your suggestions, advise!

Bill S

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Photo Settings Questions

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Aug 26, 2025 01:56 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

markwmsn

Level 6

16,625 points

Aug 26, 2025 04:00 PM in response to Bsaw67

First, iCloud Photos is for synchronizing photos and videos among the various devices using your Apple Account. Shared Albums are for sharing (reduced resolution copies of) photos and videos with other users. You can use them together or separately; they are not alternatives.

If you enable iCloud Photos on your iMac(s), your iPhone(s), and any iPad(s) you own, all of the photos and videos on any of them will be uploaded to iCloud (with provisions for avoiding exact duplicates), then each device will receive any photos or videos that are missing. So long as each device has iCloud Photos enabled, any change (e.g., addition, edit, deletion) made on any of the devices will propagate up to iCloud and then to the other devices.

By the way, your mention of two iPhones leads to ask whether you are the sole user of both phones. I ask because this scheme would require that both phones use the same Apple Account, and we see numerous people here dealing with the eventual fallout of sharing one Apple Account (formerly Apple ID) between different users.

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Answer 2

Aug 27, 2025 07:08 AM in response to Bsaw67

Bsaw67 wrote: b. Set Photos to “Copy Items to the Photo library

Are you sayin that Photos was NOT set to "Copy Items" before? "Copy Items" is the default setting, and the Photos app always starts that way. Having that "not checked" will cause no end of trouble, so if it was unchecked earlier, you will have some work to do. Let us know-- this can be a big problem.

If I were to remove the “check mark for item a.:

From here on, I'm not sure what "a" you're meaning, since you have two. Always keep "Copy Items" checked.

markwmsn gives a good account of how iCloud Photos works. It does whatever is necessary to keep all connected Libraries having exactly the same pictures. With different devices, different OSs, and different "Optimize" choices, the Libraries can't be identical, but the pictures are.It combines the pictures from all Libraries. It does not erase pictures just because another Library doesn't have it.

I am concerned about making a change that would drastically corrupt the library ,,, many duplicates or missing photo’s.

First-- you MUST have at least one backup of your Photos Library on a separate external drive before you go messing around with this stuff. If you ever had "Copy Items" unchecked, then you also need to back up the folders where earlier pictures were kept.

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