In this guide, I’ll discuss some of my favorite tips to organize your photos on the iPhone and iPad. These tips will help you find your photos even if your Library has thousands of pictures and videos.
You’ll notice some tabs at the bottom when opening the Photos app. When tapping on Library, you have the option to see All Photos, or you can look at photos based on Years, Months, or Days.
However, if you have thousands of photos, it would take forever to scroll through all of them to find the photo you’re looking for. Let’s look at some helpful tips for organizing your media into Albums and folders.
How to Use Albums
Organizing your photos and videos by Albums is one of the easiest ways to organize. For example, if you vacationed in Nova Scotia, you can make an album called Nova Scotia and put all your photos from your trip inside.
To Create an Album:
- Open the Photos app
- Select the Album tab
- Tap the + sign and choose New Album
- Give your album a name
- Use the search bar to locate your photos
- Now Select all the photos you want contained in this album
- Tap Add in the upper right corner
Note: you can narrow the search using locations, messages, and other options
Hide Your Sensitive Material
Your iPhone and iPad can hide photos and are protected by Face ID or Touch ID to prevent access, even if you hand over your unlocked iPhone or iPad to them.
So, if you’re in the habit of taking screenshots or photos of your tax returns or bank statements or have other photos and videos you want to keep private, use this helpful feature.
- Open the Photos app
- Tap the Library tab
- Long press on any photo and a pop-up menu will appear
- Select Hide and your photo will be added to the hidden Library.
To access the hidden Library:
- Open the Photos app
- Tap the Albums tab
- Scroll to the Utilities Section
- Select Hidden
Clean Up Duplicates
Duplicate photos not only take up storage but keep your Library manageable. You can manually delete any duplicates if you just have a few of them. But you can find and manage all the duplicates if you have many. Here’s how:
- Open the Photos app
- Tap on the Albums tab
- Scroll to the Utilities Section
- Select Duplicates
Here, you will find all of your duplicate photos. You can merge or delete them by choosing Select in the upper right corner.
Get Rid of Screenshots and Unnecessary Media
Screenshots, selfies, and bursts clutter up your Library. You can clean them up by going to:
- The Photos app
- Tap on Albums
- Scroll to Media Types
- Choose the relevant section, such as Screenshot
Now, you can delete unnecessary photos by selecting all or selecting and deleting only the ones you want.
Use Location to Organize Your Photos
Your iPhone can geotag all the photo you take by adding correct location information. Now, you can easily find images by using their location.
- Open the Photos app
- Tap Albums
- Scroll to the People, Pets & Places Section
- Tap Places
Now you’ll see the photos on a Map. Tap on Grid at the top to see all photos sorted according to their place and date.
Organize Your Photos by People
Once you start shooting photos of the same people or pets, the Photos app will automatically sort these photos in the People section. This makes it easy to find a specific person. You can also tag people to help the Photos app get this right. To view people or pets:
- Open the Photos app
- Tap Albums
- Scroll to People, Pets & Places
- Choose People & Pets
Here you’ll see your photos organized by the people and pets in the Photos app.
To add a tag to a photo:
- Open the Photos app
- Tap on Library
- Open a Photo
- Swipe up on the photo or tap the (i) at the bottom
- Select the small icon located on the photo
- Choose Name This Pet
- Add the Name of the pet
- Tap Next
- Select Done
Use iCloud Photos
iCloud Photos automatically backs up everything and ensures the photo library is synced across all your devices. Keeping your photos organized with multiple Apple devices could be tedious without iCloud.
To Turn this feature on:
- Open Settings
- Tap your Name at the top
- Choose iCloud
- Tap Photos
- Toggle on Sync this iPhone
Note: Remember that Apple only gives you 5 GB of iCloud storage. If you have an extensive photo library, you may need to subscribe to a paid iCloud+ plan.
See Only Edited Photos
If you edit a photo and can’t locate it among all the images you’ve taken.
- Open the Photos app
- Choose Recents
- Tap the Circle with three dots in the upper right corner
- Choose filter
- Tap Edited
Now, all the edited photos will show up, allowing you to locate the photo you were looking for.
Conclusion
This guide provides practical tips for organizing photos on your iPhone and iPad. From creating albums and hiding sensitive content to managing duplicates and utilizing features like geotagging and facial recognition, these methods help streamline photo management. Additionally, leveraging iCloud Photos for synchronization across devices and utilizing filters for edited photos further enhance the organization and accessibility of your media library.
Need help with your device? I’m always available for a Free Consult.
Like Video instead? Head to my YouTube channel for more great tips.
