How to fix the order of photos in iPhone's Recent album after disabling Google Photos sync?

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How to fix the order of photos in iPhone's Recent album after disabling Google Photos sync?

On my iPhone, the recent album is messed up after I turned off Google Photos sync. Now a lot of old photos were re-added and the order is completely wrong — photos taken on the same day are scattered randomly. Since apps like Instagram and VSCO only let me choose from Recents (not Library), it’s super frustrating. Is there any way to fix the Recents album so it shows the correct order again?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Recent folder

iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on Sep 2, 2025 03:48 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 2, 2025 08:16 AM in response to mathilde246

Recents is showing pictures in the order they were added-- that's the correct order for Recents. That's what its name means.

You can sort pictures in albums and in Library by the order they were captured. The fact that "Instagram and VSCO" restrict you to Recents seems to be a problem for those apps. To me, that sounds kind of silly. I'd want to go by capture date.

The only way to change the "date added" would be to export all the pictures and re-import them. Even then, when you import a bunch of pictures, the order in which they arrive at Photos can be pretty random, since parallel processing has files taking different routes.

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