Basic photo viewer app for organisation for iPhone & iPad

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Level 1

4 points

Basic photo viewer app for organisation for iPhone & iPad

Hello, I am looking for an app that will allow me to organise my photo library on my iPad and iPhone. On my Mac, I use Photos to edit and organise my photos, before importing them into folders that live on the desktop (these folders are also synced to my other devices). When I need an image or a collection of images, I can find it easily and scroll through the folder with Preview. But on both my iPhone and iPad, I can only view one image at a time, not scroll through them like a portfolio. I would appreciate any suggestions as I can’t rely on my laptop anymore! I would also like to be able to use my iPhone and iPad more, that’s kinda what they’re there for, if everything is synced together. Thank you!

iPad Pro, iPadOS 26

Posted on Nov 30, 2025 4:53 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

16,897 points

Dec 1, 2025 9:10 AM in response to ahoneymac

Photos isn't just an editor-- it's an Image Management System. It allows you to organize pictures using way more than dates or file names. And unlike Finder (mostly,) images can be in several different albums without taking up any more space. So the pictures Martha at Yosemite at Thanksgiving can be in the Martha album, in the Yosemite album, and in the Family at Thanksgivings album. If you're not using Photos for organizing your pictures, then you may be missing out on a lot of simplifying! You can see this:

Organizing photos with Folders & Albums - Apple Community

iCloud Photos copies the Mac Photos organization to iPhones and iPads exactly. Without any extra work, I have all the same albums and folders (containing more albums) on all my devices. (Well, iOS and iPadOS don't do Smart albums and some other limitations.) I can edit, crop, and annotate my pictures from any of these devices, though it's much easier on the Mac. But because they all use the same format, it's easy to get used to.

Photos is very powerful and easy to use. Let us know what you think…

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Answer 2

ahoneymac Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 1, 2025 9:57 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi, I really appreciate you getting back to me. I'm afraid I have never enjoyed Photos, seeing 30,000 unsorted images in one go makes me feel really uncomfortable. I don't like my work archives muddled in with family photos, which is why I've imported work images into their own neatly organised folders since 2012...I can find them easily that way, and bring the folders up when I need to reference them.

I was also previously able to type 'January 2025' and get photos from January 2025. I now get anything taken in January, as well as photos taken in, for example, June, that include the text 'January' inside the image. It seems to scan the images and present anything it deems relevant, with the option to search by date removed! If this smart search can be disabled, and there genuinely is no alternative to this app, then I'd appreciate any advice on making it more bearable and useable. It seems like my best bet would be to put 30,000 pictures in one album, and weed through them to separate into different albums, deleting as I go from the main album, in order to make sure everything is labelled correctly and be certain I've not left any photos unsorted. I could live with that for personal pictures. But the idea of going to a job interview and presenting a digital portfolio alongside albums like 'Christmas 2022' and 'Pets' just makes me uncomfortable. I just like my work archive and my research folders separate from holidays and family.

I'd potentially then have to go through the additional 13 years' worth of work archives on my desktop and the idea of reformatting these all via Photos (ie losing their current organisation system and having to reorder everything from scratch) is.....daunting! iCloud also maintains these folders across all my devices. There is no reason why I would ever need to cross reference work photos across multiple albums, and again, I just like work and personal stuff separate. I've just always done it that way.

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Answer 3

Dec 1, 2025 10:30 AM in response to ahoneymac

ahoneymac wrote: 30,000 unsorted images in one go makes me feel really uncomfortable.

Of course, not organizing them is a choice you can make. Mine are sorted, but in many different ways.

I don't like my work archives muddled in with family photos,

I keep a Library of work pictures separated from a Library of personal pictures. But again, that's simple stuff-- if it can be done in Finder, it's easy in Photos.

neatly organised folders

You can import pictures into Photos keeping the folder organization. But, of course, that's just one of the many ways that pictures can be organized.

I was also previously able to type 'January 2025' and get photos from January 2025.

I just did that in Photos, and I got the pictures from January 2025 and no others.

include the text 'January' inside the image.

If you want the capture date to be what you mean to search, then you just say that in a Smart Album. Or you can find text. Or date added. Or type of camera used. Or included person. Or location. And on and on.

I'd appreciate any advice on making it more bearable and useable.

The link was an attempt at that. Did you look at the Smart Album section?

It seems like my best bet would be to put 30,000 pictures in one album,

I just don't see that.

weed through them

That's what Smart Albums do for you.

But the idea of going to a job interview and presenting a digital portfolio alongside albums like 'Christmas 2022' and 'Pets' just makes me uncomfortable.

I can't see why you'd do that.

iCloud also maintains these folders across all my devices.

You can choose the Library that you synchronize.

I'm not sure where all these ideas came from, but they don't seem to apply to the Photos app. The Photos app does involve a different and more versatile sort of organization than file systems can use, and that can take some getting used to. A file system that organizes Exel files with images, data bases, presentations, etc, doesn't have much to organize with, since those things don't have much in common. But when you're working with photographs that have so many attributes in common, you can take a more dynamic in approach. Otherwise it's like having a Library organized by ISBN number and not having a database that allows you to search by title, author, dates, theme, and so on.

It's worth looking at.

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Answer 4

ahoneymac Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 1, 2025 12:14 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Of course, not organizing them is a choice you can make. Mine are sorted, but in many different ways.

I would really love to be able to organise them, thank you! So I currently have the options of organising by Years, Months, Days and All Photos at the top. I can't see where to add categories though?

I keep a Library of work pictures separated from a Library of personal pictures. But again, that's simple stuff-- if it can be done in Finder, it's easy in Photos.

So the idea would be to have, say, 10 libraries for my various categories and projects, and open each one up at a time?

I just did that in Photos, and I got the pictures from January 2025 and no others.

This was on my iPad. I've tried it again, and it presents a small calendar which I clicked, and now it matches the correct search results for that period. I'll just have to make sure I've clicked the calendar symbol in future!

The link was an attempt at that. Did you look at the Smart Album section?

I did, thank you so much! I'm not sure I understand though. For example, 'horse show'. Would you not have to add that as the keyword in order for the Smart Album to work? I've used them before and they cannot identify my subjects at all - they don't seem to have a capacity to divide my own artwork from my reference photos, for example. I'm going to get properly stuck into it tonight and watch some youtube tutorials as well, I'm sure I'm missing something that explains it properly. It seems like I'd have to add the keywords manually to the photos, which makes the Smart Album redundant, as I'd just put them into a folder/album manually each time I passed by them anyway? Is that me understanding correctly?

I can't see why you'd do that.

Well, because you said keeping my work in Photos was a good idea, so the 'Portfolio' album will naturally show up alongside my other albums. As you've said earlier, I'd need to have a Work Library, a Projects Library, etc etc and then open the appropriate album, so splitting the collection into multiple libraries is already a fab idea. Also overrides the fact this is taking place on the iPad which doesn't seem to have Smart Albums in the first place.

Otherwise it's like having a Library organized by ISBN number and not having a database that allows you to search by title, author, dates, theme, and so on.

I totally get that - my problem is that if I'm searching for a a specific 'book', let's say a history book, the 'library' is presenting me with the historical fiction genre muddled up in with the actual history books. Artwork from gallery visits is alongside reference images and my own artwork. So when I'm searching, the search results are too vague?

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