PHOTO TRANSFER SOFTWARE

rkot

Member
PHOTOS TRANSFER SOFTWARE

Is there any software that would transfer photos from an iPhone to an iMac where photos would be placed in dated file folders that are automatically created in the transfer process?

I am moving to Mac from a PC and find that the PHOTOS app on iMac does not do this.

On my PC, running the photos transfer program, photos are placed in automatically created dated folders, like this 2021_12_25 . I find this useful, as after the date, one can add a few words to describe content, eg 2021_10_05 Vancouver visit. Then you can scan a whole year of days in a year where you took pictures and easily find subjects of interest, by day, using the assigned notes.

On iMac, transferring into the PHOTOS app, all goes into the library, and photos are not presented in a way that you can easily put a few notes on to a folder as above. This YOUTUBE video has a method to organize photos


but this is not so automatic as I am used to.

On iMac, PREVIEW app lets you transfer photos to a folder, but you manually have to set up the dates, so that is not a solution either.

Is there a software alternative to PHOTOS that lends itself to doing the above: photos transferred from iPhone into auto crated dated folders and ability to add notes to the filename?

In general I am not finding the PHOTOS app easy to use in any case. So would appreciate hearing what others use as an alternative to the PHOTOS app. I do not wish to use iCloud for photos, so the feature that the LIBRARY is key to store all photos on iCloud to sync between all devices is not a factor for me.
 

TimRichards

Well-Known Member
Several years ago, I switched from PC to Mac. All of my folder photo organization was completely lost. It was the biggest stunner of a blow it completely blew me away that Apple would destroy years of work and organization.
Nowadays the Mac Photos app (at last) lets you select dates -e.g. months and leaf through the months of the year. But all the imported photos go into a unorganized jumble under ‘all photos’. And of course, in Photos you cannot rename the files themselves. (You can add descriptions and tags). The ability to name files and organize into folders on the disc it is a cultural or technological blindness that the Mac designers have chosen not to see. Apple does that. You can now tuck photos into folders after import, but as you say, this is not what you are after. I believe Lightroom may do what you want. I’ll rely on one of our members who uses Lightroom to chip in. Apple implements tools like “people” where you can, with limited success pull up photos of individual faces, but idiotically does not let us name files or experience the folder system directly.
 

rkot

Member
Thank you for the comment and tip re Adobe LIGHTROOM. Looking forward to other members who use LIGHTROOM for additional comments. The method i described is just so useful, and the PHOTOS app is so confused..... and restrictive. I am not looking for a solution that requires one to use the product companies cloud storage. Does LIGHTROOM require their cloud storage use?

At the most basic level I am just looking for a simple photo transfer method to create dated folders, where i can add a few extra comments to the file name. Beyond that, there is the whole libraries and tools to create albums etc, but that is lower priority setup 2 for me. Maybe there is a program that does the first and second together? If not, is there anything in the APPLE world that can do what i want? What about using APPLE SCRIPT? I have never tried it. Does VMUG have an APPLESCRIPT library, to borrow from for some key useful functions like this? APPLESCRIPT says
Script Editor lets you create powerful scripts, tools, and even apps. You can create scripts to perform repetitive tasks, automate complex workflows, and control apps or even the system. ... In Script Editor, you can edit, debug, and compile your scripts.
 

Bruce Whittington

Well-Known Member
I use my own file tree system for image filing; I dislike having my images filed by someone else like Photos or Lightroom. Not sure if it will help you, but you could look at Image Transfer (on your Mac) and see if it will work. I use it to upload image files from one of my cameras, and it allows me to tell it to put the images into a specific folder. I also use ACDSee, which is really a digital asset management software. It's good for that, and does not mess with my filing system. For image processing, though, the Mac version is less capable than the PC version. I have not tried it for uploading images but there is an import function.
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
Photos is much less restrictive than you believe, but this would be a lengthy article to try and explain. But as a brief example, In Photos you can EASILY create a folder (called an album) or smart album based on any date range you desire (or any of many other criteria). To me it is borderline nonsensical to organize folders by hand — when this is precisely what computers excel at!

That said, for people who prefer such granular control, Lightroom is certainly an option. It is bundled with Photoshop for $12 or so dollars a month, which if you like these programs is a very cheap price to pay IMO for the extra abilities these apps provide.
 
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