r/ApplePhotos

10 years of memories, gone like that. I had the same issue as this poster:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254972924?sortBy=rank

Which was never answered in the iCloud community, as far as I can tell.
This happened to me once or twice, I noticed that my Windows iCloud was doing this and went to Recently Deleted to restore them. I thought it was weird but I very naively underestimated that this was an issue.

I didn't notice that this happened recently, probably about 5 weeks ago, because now they are permanently deleted from the Recently Deleted folder. Apple support cannot help. I've spoken to two of their reps, they both said the photos are permanently erased.

I am trying some recovery software online, but most likely in vain.

I guess this is the experience that will finally make me go analog and trash my smartphone. If anyone out there has any advice, I'd love to hear it, but I accept that those memories are just gone.

My photos, seemingly random, gets sent to my two friends. These two people are the only people i have a shared album with. But i didnt add them. I even deleted the album and disabled shared library, however new photos still appear in their camera roll. How do i fix this? Can someone pm me????

Hello!

I am a photographer using iPad Pro m4 2TB version. I frequently comes across that when I export from Lr to jpegs, it takes some time before the file/image is ”usable” in files system? Like it can’t be opened in Photos app even. No corrupt files as when I upload them to Dropbox they work and can be viewed.

Anyone have a clue what can be the issue or problem?

I went from a 512gb to 128gb. In order to copy settings I had to delete all my photos to get under 128gb. I thought nbd because I have them backed up on my PC, but now I can’t get them back on my iPhone.

I don’t want my photos going to iCloud or any other free service. I tried uploading and downloading from proton drive, but they aren’t showing up on my phone.

kinda freaking out rn. all the nude content ive ever taken for myself that i stored on the hidden folder of camera roll on iphone is completely gone and i hadn’t visited this folder in months, i never deleted them. its pics ive had for years of myself that i would never delete and all of it is gone and idk why or how …… my icloud is linked to my own devices. i dont have a shared icloud with anyone.

So recently I realised discord was asking for permission to use photos, and I couldn’t get that working, I’d click where it takes me to give access to my photos but there’s nothing there about photos. I thought this was annoying but it’s fine cause there was ways around it, but it’s happening with multiple apps, how do I fix this??? I tried checking in the photos app settings and the settings for the other apps and idk what to do

A couple of months ago I switched from Android to my first iPhone. One thing that really annoyed me was how difficult it seemed to transfer photos and videos from my Windows PC to the Photos app on my iPhone.

Every solution I found involved third-party apps, syncing libraries, or emailing files to yourself, which isn’t great for large videos.

I eventually found a simple method. It’s probably already known, but I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I figured I’d share it.

On your Windows PC:

1. Install the Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store.
2. Connect your iPhone to your PC with a USB-C cable.
3. Open Apple Devices, select your iPhone, then go to Files.
4. Choose any app listed under File Sharing, click Add File, and select the photos/videos you want to transfer.
   On your iPhone:
5. Open Files > On My iPhone > open the app you selected earlier.
6. Tap the … menu > Select > Select All.
7. Tap the Share button, then choose Save to Photos.

I did find a method like this on the Apple Support website, but it didn’t involve photos at all so you couldn’t really find a solution from there.

That’s it! The photos and videos will now appear in your Photos app. You can delete the copies from the Files app afterward if you don’t need them anymore.

I made this post hoping that it becomes the search result that helps someone else.

Currently, I edit my photos in Luminar Neo, and export my edited photos to a “Saved Photos” folder on my Windows 11 laptop. Within this folder, I have many subfolders that are organized according to trips we’ve taken, events, etc.

I like to view these thousands of photos on my iPad, to do that I sync the “saved photos” folder to my iPad in iTunes for Windows. It works well, the photos are categorized according to my windows folder structure, and I don’t have to be on WiFi to view the photos on my iPad.

Should I come out of the stone ages and start using iCloud Photos?
- I’d like to share my photo library with my wife so she can view my photos on her iPad.
- I’d still like to be able to save and view all my photos on my iPad without being connected to the internet.

If the Reddit recommendation is yes, I should be using iCloud Photos, how should I proceed?

Thank you!

I'm sure this will get downvoted, but after searching this group and online, I'm still not sure I have an answer. And I don't think this can be easily done. But you guys are the pros, so I'll ask here.

There's the "What" and the "How." The What: I really would like to have one app on my iPhone that holds only photos that I can let my grandkids or anyone else look through, and another app for the photos I work with (I do a lot of photo and video editing for people, nothing NSFW but not for sharing.) I would love the second app to also use iCloud for storage so I could access them on my Mac or iPad when needed. I realize I could simply move all of those to the HIdden album, and I would if there was some way to create folders in the Hidden album, but there is not and I need the organization. So - the What I am looking for is a second app on my iPhone that I can move, not copy, photos and videos to that also uses iCloud to store and that is secure. I know that sounds like porn; it's not, fwiw. The How is what I'm looking for.

Thanks,

I'm a solo iOS dev in Germany. For a while now I've been building an app I think of less as a "filter app" and more as a small museum of photographic history you scroll through like a film strip.

Each "era" is a distinct process rendered on-device with Core Image + Metal: wet-plate collodion from the 1850s, dyed-starch-grain autochrome from 1907, a spirit double-exposure from 1862, subminiature spy film, a two-color office-duplicator print, and so on — 43 of them, in chronological order from 1839 to now, each with a little museum placard explaining the era.

Two constraints I refused to bend on:

1. Fully on-device. No backend, no accounts, no analytics, nothing uploaded — ever. A camera app that literally cannot see your photos felt like the only honest way to build this. Bonus: zero server costs and zero data to leak.

2. Brand-free everything. No product names anywhere — it's "Subminiature Spy Film," not the brand; "2-bit Handheld," not the console. Every filter is named after the process or device class, like labels on a gallery wall. That turned out to be harder than the graphics work.

Honestly the hardest part wasn't the code — it was resisting scope creep. "Weniger ist mehr" became a hard filter: no in-app gallery, no cloud, no video that isn't motion-native. Every "wouldn't it be cool if" got killed unless it fit the museum framing.

I'm going on vacation soon, and I want to take pictures and record a lot of videos; however, my camera is kind of broken. I'm thinking about getting a second-hand old iPhone, because I've always loved their photos and quality, but I'm not sure which one since I've never had one. I really only want it just for the camera and space. Any recommendations?

Guys, I am not a novice apple user, been using them since 1979 when my school was one of the first to get them in the classrooms (yes I am that old). So I am a bit perplexed about how all this works.

I take photos with my phone, a lot of them ( I am a professional photographer ) they sync to the iCloud based on the setting on my phone. One a month I download everything to iPhotos on the desktop (Mac Studio). I am nearing reaching capacity on my iPhone, been getting the storage is full notice. I understand that if I delete a photo from the phone, it also deletes from iCloud. But since I have the iPhotos on the studio also syncing, will it delete it there as well? I am hoping to off load a lot of photos from the phone but still have copies of them. I suppose I can turn off the syncing on the studio, not sure why I have it on TBH.

Also, where exactly are the photo files stored on the computer? I see them in the Photos Library.photoslibrary, all 525GB, but that requires the app to open them. Is there a place where I can find the actual .jpg file? I am not opposed to dumping everything into an external drive ( I have LOTS of space on RAIDS ) but I would rather have the actual files rather than the .photoslibrary app file.

I've built a workflow around HashPhotos that works really well for organizing sensitive/private photos:

\- Add keywords to photos in Apple Photos (e.g. \`hash-category1\`, \`hash-category2\`)

\- Sync keywords into HashPhotos

\- Hide the photos in Apple Photos

\- Search by keyword inside HashPhotos — this works perfectly ✅

\- Use HashPhotos notes to log info per photo ✅

The one thing that doesn't work: \*\*Smart Albums\*\*.

When I create a smart album with a keyword rule, it works fine while photos are visible. The moment I hide those photos in Apple Photos, they disappear from the smart album in HashPhotos. Keyword search still finds them, but smart albums don't include them.

My questions:

1. Is this a Photos API limitation (HashPhotos can't access hidden photos for smart album queries) or a HashPhotos-specific issue?

2. Has anyone found a workaround — any way to pre-create browsable categories for hidden photos on iOS?

3. Any other apps that handle this better?

Running latest HashPhotos on iOS 26. Already emailed the developer but curious if anyone here has solved this.

Appreciate any help with this 🙏

I'm currently building a gallery cleaning app, and before adding more features, I wanted to ask people who would actually use one.

Most gallery cleaners seem to focus on having every possible feature:

• AI duplicate detection
• Similar photos
• Large files
• Screenshots
• Contacts
• Widgets
• Battery tools (for some reason 😅)

Personally, I think they've become too complicated.

I'm trying to build something that feels almost effortless.

The experience I'm aiming for is:

• Open the app.
• Swipe left to keep.
• Swipe right to delete.
• Clean thousands of photos without it feeling like work.

I'm curious:

What frustrates you most about existing gallery cleaner apps?

I'd genuinely like to build around real feedback rather than assumptions.

Been using Google Photos for years now and I like it, but find it a real pain having to ensure it’s backed up, and having to clear pics off iPhone etc

Also need iCloud for things like WhatsApp backup etc so thinking of just going full iCloud

Has anyone experience with switching and will it be better overall?

I have lots of collections with pics added to these albums, would this move over ok?

Have lots of treasured family pics I need to keep safe / organised as they are

Thanks