Copy Album info from iPad to Windows PC

[etaf]

Hi,
best Wishes for New Year

I want to be able to transfer all the photos from an iPad to a windows PC
i do not have the ipad - its my sons so limited access

Long story , i'm afraid

Windows PC using PSE8
using itunes copied all photos (about 2000 ish) and album info onto ipad in 2014
all photos and albums working fine on ipad - now on ios 10

windows pc crashed
replaced harddrive and managed to recover the PSE8 catalog file
But album info nolonger in this file !!!!
installed PSE15 and unable to recover albums
(Note: i tested this on two other pc and created albums - converted catalog file on new pc and albums worked on new PC)

so my only option is to see if i can import into windows 10 from the ipad
was told by apple support- i should be able to do that using windows photo app and import

connected the ipad to the PC
run photos app
import -
BUT it only saw the images that were in the camera roll actually taken on the ipad - NOT those that had been synced from itunes ????

i looked at the hardrive id from windows explorer and in DCIM could only see those images taken and not synced
Also tried looking via itunes - but could not work out how to see images on ipad on new itunes version ????

so question is

How can i copy all the images on an ipad and include all the album information, so they can be viewed via the albums on a windows PC

thanks

 

[twerppoet]

Albums synced to the iPad using iTunes are not normally available to copy back to the computer. They aren't even full copyies of the photos you had on the computer, since they were optimized for viewing on the iPad (downsized if bigger than necessary for good display on an iPad screen).

There may be some tools that will let you recover synced albums. I'm not sure. But it's not going to be as simple as copying those photos back via iTunes or another standard app. The synced album feature through iTunes was never meant to be a backup, just a quick way to show photos from your iPad.

Worst case, you can view each photo on the iPad full screen, and take a screenshot (press the Home and Power button at the same time). This will place a screen resolution copy in your camera roll, which can be copied back to the computer by normal means. Not as good as getting the original, or even the optimized version on the iPad, but better than nothing.

Note: You've probably already thought of this, but I highly recommend you set up some kind of automated backups. I use a combination of Time Machine (Apple's backup software) with an external drive, and BackBlaze for internet backups. Two backups is better than one, esepeciall if one of them is online or at another pysical location. Data loss is not a maybe, it's inevitable if you use a computer long enough.

 

[etaf]

Thanks for the very quick reply

The images are not the issue - its the Album structure i have lost

yes, all the backups are now in place (horse bolted, stable door and all that) 3-2-1 strategy
And we also have all the original images , so full resolution - BUT none of the album information
its the album structure i'm after , rather than have to redo all that information onto 1000s of images again.

I have the ipad now infront of me and W10 PC
but reading the apple support site - if i enable icloud photo library ,it will delete ALL the itunes photos on the device
so not an option
as you say itunes will not sync backwards

so I guess i'm stuck

 

[twerppoet]

I'm almost certain you won't be able to retrieve the album info. That's a separate file that records file names and locations in relation to albums. Even if you found the file (burried somewher in the iPad's directory) it wouldn't be something you could plug into your Windows photo app and expect to work.

Think of it as a map and inventory of a building. If you burned down the building, but somehow kept all the inventory, the old map and inventory would be mostly useless unless you somehow built exactly the same building and placed all the items in the same place.

 

[etaf]

Thanks
I had managed to copy a PSE catalog file - which has a DB of all the locations and albums on a PC and copied to a new PC and picked up all the album info
So had hoped this would have worked - BUT the calalog file is corrupt
and itunes used the same PSE structure to copy onto the itunes

it also looks like the Itunes copied files are not even backed up to the icloud !!!!!!
it says in the apple article - if i turn on Icloud photo library - all the itunes copied images will be removed !!!!
so if this ipad every goes wrong, then all the album information is lost.
I have just subscribed to 50GB icloud storage ,as i had hoped to use icloud photo library (apple support said it would work today) and have album info
ONLY to find this article !!!!

Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

If you've already synced photos to your iOS device from iTunes, and then you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your iOS device, you'll see a message that says "Photos and Videos Synced from iTunes will be Removed." The photos and videos that you synced from your computer will stay on your computer, but they're removed from your iOS device.

 

[twerppoet]

iCloud Photo Library does not backup iTunes synced albums. Albums synced by iTunes are completely different in how they are stored, handled, and managed than albums create in the Photos app.

The whole premise of iTunes synced albums was that all editing, managing, backups, etc. would be done on the computer. The albums on the iPad were for display only. A very limited sort of album for when the iPad was a much more limited device.

As the Photos app become more capable, got better integration with Photos on the Mac, and eventually iCloud Photo Library, the iTunes synced albums became less relevant. At this point they are little more than a legacy method of viewing photos on the iPad. I rarely recomend using them, unless the person clearly wants nothing more than a way to view some photos on the iPad without having to manage them on the iPad.

The reason that the iTunes photo albums get removed when re-syncing with iTunes is that the albums were meant to be managed on the computer. The disapearance of the photos on the computer is a signal for iTunes to remove them on the iPad as well.

Besides, despite what you've read, the method of syncing the photos back to the comptuer only works on Camear Roll photos and albums. It would not work on the iTunes synced albums.

 

[etaf]

Excellent thanks very much for taking all your time in replying in full and explaining the reasons.

I guess we are stuck........
Itunes used to sync all photos a few years ago onto the ipad
PC breaks , managed to recover all the images - but not the album catalog .....
and then you are stuck with a legacy system on the ipad with 1000s of images all nicely sorted into albums that cannot be recovered.

i guess will have to redo ALL the albums at some time if ever........

Thanks again for all the support and help

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.

Good luck with the albums.

Though, with some of the newer smarts in photo apps, albums aren't quite as necessary as they used to be. Someday, maybe not terribly far off, the kids will look at us as if we were crazy for manually sorting photos into albums.

 

[etaf]

mine do now ..... why do you want to do that Dad

 

[twerppoet]

After I said that, I went into the People album on the iPad and tweaked the living daylights out of face recognition albums. Took me about an hour, and I ignored everyone except family and a few good friends.

Still tedious, but much faster than manual sorting. Though, I'm sure I missed a few.

Unfortunately face recognition doesn't sync between devices and computers; yet. But that's ok with me, I don't use the computer for much these days.

 

[etaf]

i wondered if sharing the albums would keep the album structure
Although it looks like you create 1 shared album - i was thinking of using the albums on the ipad

 

[twerppoet]

Shared albums are synced through iCloud to every device that is subscribed to them. I don't know if you can subscribe to a shared album to any Windows photo apps. You can access shared albums on Windows through a browser. Perhaps someone with Windows can offer a better overview of what you can do.

It is not possible to share an existing album, but you can open an album, Edit, Select All, then copy those photos to a shared album.

Shared albums do not count against your iCloud Storage space, but they do have a cap on the number of photos. It's been a while since I checked, so I don't know what the current caps are, but it's reasonale for sharing; but not enough if you wanted to try and synce your entire library (depending on how many photos you have). Also, it's all manual which is kind of a pain. It also doubles the storage on the iPad. Unlike normal albums, shared albums store duplicates of the originals.

While shared albums can be synced between iOS devices and Macs, there's no point in using it if you are using iCloud Photo LIbrary and self syncing is all your going to do.

 

[etaf]

Thanks for another comprehensive answer
Not a route to go down.

I have today looked at some old backups using norton 360 and as suspected , they only stored info for the user and Photoshop elements use the Programdata folder on the C: drive - so backups useless in this case

I'm having ago to recover the old drive again and see if i can find the catalog for PSE

Thanks again

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. Let us know how it works out.