Preserving original photo names and sequence when importing to Apple Photos

The Photos.app is handling the filenames differently, depending on where I am importing the files.

• When I import an image file only Mac, Photos is renaming the file internally to a unique filename, but showing the original filename in the Info, and recreating the original image file, when the file is exported from Photos or shared. When I sync image files imported with Photos for Mac to my iPhone or iPad with iOD26 or iPadOS 26, they will also show the original image files in the Info on the mobile devices.
• But when I save an image file to Photos on my iPad or iPhone, then Photos will assign a different filename starting with "IMG" and not save the original filename. When I use exiftool to show all metadata, I cannot find the original filename anywhere.

If you have access to a computer you could use it to upload the photos to iCloud Photos and sync them to your iPad to ensure they will keep the original filename.

But you may not need the original image numbers to be able to sort the images according to the time they have been taken. have you tried to sort the photos by the date they have been taken, not the date they have been added? In your screenshot I can see that there still seems to be the correct capture date assigned to the imported photos. Try to add the photos to an album and sort them by "Oldest First". Are they in the correct chronological order?

Steve J 1963 wrote: …These images have titles like “D&S0001” etc, a

You say titles-- do you mean file names? Pictures can have Titles and also filenames. Here is part of an Info Window (⌘i) for a picture in Photos:

The first line is the Title and the second line is the filename. How do yours look?

i want to import them into Apple Photos … I wasn’t sure how best to do this,

For my Nikon, I use a cable (to an SD card reader) to copy the picture files to Finder folders. Then I use Photos' menu File>Import to copy those into the Photos Library. This means I have two copies. The Finder pictures I save to an external Archive Drive as a backup.

seems to have created duplicates

If you use the Import routine, Photos avoids duplicates, or it gives you a choice.

• the photo name that shows has changed when I click on the info button from as example “D&S0001” to “IMG_0342”.

IMG_0342 sounds like the original file name. Perhaps D&S0001 is the title? I wonder if you can ask the photographer what each of these mean.

Photos doesn't change the filename that you see in the info window. It preserves the resolutions, the creation date and other metadata like caption, title, and keywords, etc. In the Thumbnail view

you can choose to see titles under the pictures with the menu "View>Metadata."

With View>Sort you can sort the pictures by Title or by Date. Have you tried sorting them by date? How does this align with the D& or IMG names?

If I send a photo from apple photos, do people receive it as the original image name and resolution from photographer?

That depends on how you "send" the picture. Often email and/or text will strip metadata to protect your privacy.

You have not indicated what Mac you're using or your OS-- that would be helpful.

Check those things and we can answer questions…

léonie wrote:

• But when I save an image file to Photos on my iPad or iPhone, then Photos will assign a different filename starting with "IMG" and not save the original filename. When I use exiftool to show all metadata, I cannot find the original filename anywhere.

Thanks for the info.

Yes, when you copy image via iPhone > Files.app > Save image ... it goes to Photos library and iPhone inserts the next available Camera number as a new filename to it as if was taken by the iPhone's Camera. So if the previous actual image taken by the iPhone is IMG_4029, the image saved from Files.app is IMG_4030.

But I can't still explain where OP's "S&D0021" filename comes from. Maybe a detailed workflow would explain that.

It is not only crazy, but frightening, Richard. Even in Photos for Mac the original image filename is stored separately from the original image files in some database entry. We need to be able to open the library in Photos to be able to restore the original image file with its original filename.

When I run exiftool on the original image files in the folder "originals" in the library package, there is no exif tag with the original filename on any of them, only for those, where I wrote the filename to the image description of he original, before importing them to Photos.

This is my main reason why I am archiving all originals separately before importing them to Photos.

Richard.Taylor wrote:

I was disturbed when Photos started using GIUID names--it seems so simple and useful to keep the filename in the metadata! Within Photos the filename is pretty useless but, like you, I also have all originals kept separate. And there is just no simple way to cross reference if you don't have that filename. You're forced to use dates and use QuickLook to hunt through the images. Crazy!

My strategy is to keep the filename in the metadata. In other words, I routinely copy EXIF and movie metadata dates to filenames (and also file creation & modification dates) so the files sort correctly in Finder lists and everywhere and it is easy to spot errors in dates.

So even if some workflow happens to yield Photos database filename like 17E4E04C-114B-40F2-99F8-ED373FB8C4C7.jpg, I can in a split second revert that to the original filename like 2025-1121-1200-00.jpg by renaming it based on its EXIF date with GraphicConverter or exiftool (and set also file dates accordingly).

léonie wrote: …But when I save an image file to Photos on my iPad or iPhone, then Photos will assign a different filename starting with "IMG" and not save the original filename. When I use exiftool to show all metadata, I cannot find the original filename anywhere.

Well, that's crazy!

But I can't still explain where OP's "S&D0021" filename comes from. Maybe a detailed workflow would explain that.

Matti, as the files came from a USB Stick sent by the photographer, I assumed the photographer did not send the original files, but assigned custom filenames after developing, editing, and preparing the files, perhaps the filenames are initials for the name of the event and a running number to preserve the chronological order.

A very wise precaution. Better be safe than sorry.

léonie wrote: … It is not only crazy, but frightening, Richard.

I was disturbed when Photos started using GIUID names--it seems so simple and useful to keep the filename in the metadata! Within Photos the filename is pretty useless but, like you, I also have all originals kept separate. And there is just no simple way to cross reference if you don't have that filename. You're forced to use dates and use QuickLook to hunt through the images. Crazy!