iPad Can This be Done? - Photo Import

[quarkrad]

Apologies if this question is in the wrong section. I've looked everywhere on the web and need to try and get a definitive answer as I'm wasting a lot of time. A friend has a large number of photos on a windows machine organised in a folder structure, within this structure some have sub folders - in all there are thousands of photo files. They wish to dump the windows machine and asked if I can find a way of viewing these photos on their ipad. I have access to both their icloud account and ipad. I've have put the icloud for windows app on their windows machine and done a few test transfers of a small folder/directory structure from the windows machine into icloud. All the test photos now appear in Photos on her ipad but in a form she cannot understand - i.e. the folder structure is stripped away. This makes sense to me in that my understanding of OSX is that essentially all photo files are in a 'flat' structrue (all together) and are organised via tags. My undertanding is that on a osx device (e.g. ipad or iphone) we humans see things like albums (or search by key words) but the underlying structure in OSX itself is flat. I have no problem with this, in that if OSX works this way, I can stop wasting my time trying to find a way of copying a structured photo hierarchy into OSX. (We are talking about approx 8K photos in 500 folders so tagging individual files before transfer is a huge task. I have explained addition icloud storage is going to be required if this can be done).

note: My friend already has a large number of photos in icloud/ipad/iphone and is happy with this set up. The issue is how to get the photos off the windows machine and into the OSX environment; to be sorted out and eventually merged into the existing osx environment. I have suggested sorting the photos on the windows machine first but they would like to do it 'on their ipad/iphone - personally I do not think this is the way to go as there is too many (8K) photos/folders to manage. However, I may will be wrong.

 

[Slartibart]

You want to bring the photos preserving their folder structure to MacOS (you wrote above [“… The issue is how to get the photos off the windows machine and into the OSX environment…”]?

That is easy: get an external Storage and copy the folder structure incl. the photos to it, connect and copy them to the Mac. Done.
You can even import them into Apple’s Photos on MacOS using “Keep folder organisation”.


Because you mentioned an iPad and you have posted under iOS 13 (btw. I recommend if possible to update the iPad - which model btw.? - to iPadOS 15.5):
Sadly the above mentioned option isn’t currently available on iPadOS. Apple’s Photos app will sort the pictures according creation date and you have to recreate the folder structure and sort the photos into it.

What is possible, is to copy the photos and folder structure to external storage as mentioned before (the storage should be formated FAT, FAT32 or exFAT in this case), connect it to the iPad (how depends on the model) and access these photos via Apple’s Files or Photos app (or better Raw Power or Pixelmator Photo).

All “new” photos your friend creates can then be edited (or managed) on the iPad, saved&organized internally or copied&organized on the external storage.

Caveat: iPadOS together with Apple’s Files is prone to introduce inconsistencies to external file systems - your friend should get FileBrowser Pro/Go or FE File Explorer/Pro to minimize such problems (and keep the windows machine (or a Mac or Linux computer) around just in case fs inconsistencies have to be repaired).

If you want to use any form of cloud storage you have to recreate the folder structure there.

 

[quarkrad]

Thank you very much for your reply. Afraid I'm not an Apple/OSX user so my terminology is not correct (linux user). My first issue is that this ipad is old and fixed at 10.3.3 - but the user is looking into buying a new ipad so that issue will go away. I didn't realise ipads had a usb c interface. My friend also doesn't have a Mac type device - only a phone and tablet. So ... it seems to me that the only option, if she wants to view these pictures in their existing hierarchy, is to put the folder structure on external storage, connect that storage to the ipad (new one), and install one of the file browser apps on the ipad that you suggest.

Would you agree with the following - reference the problem I'm facing?

Generally - phone/tablet devices tend not to have file browsers built in and have apps that organise their files/photos by date. PC type devices have file browsers built in and so offer the ability to change file structures and create folder hierarchies. (There are pros and cons re app functionality vs a file browser but I'm ignoring these).

 

[Slartibart]

I didn't realise ipads had a usb c interface. My friend also doesn't have a Mac type device - only a phone and tablet.

Depending on the model they might have a Lightning connector, but adapters or dual Lightning/USB-sticks are available.

Would you agree with the following - reference the problem I'm facing?

Generally - phone/tablet devices tend not to have file browsers built in and have apps that organise their files/photos by date. PC type devices have file browsers built in and so offer the ability to change file structures and create folder hierarchies. (There are pros and cons re app functionality vs a file browser but I'm ignoring these).

that covers it - on a pc type device you can make changes almost everywhere in the file system, on an iPad this is restricted to certain folders.

a few more remarks:
You have to run at least iOS/iPadOS13 to have access to to external media.

There are some apps, like the forementioned Pixelmator Photo or RawPower which are ridiculously cheap for what they offer - and there is a certain magic satisfaction one can find when working with photographs on an iPad, even more when you use a pencil.

Moving away from a purely folder based structure to manage your images and photos has advantages - e.g. machine based auto-categorizing and immediate access to EXIF metadata on OS-level makes managing quite comfortable.

If available for minimal cost (like e.g. unlimited photo cloud storage with Amazon Photos or as it comes with Amazon Prime) I would upload all images and photos as an additional backup to the cloud and maybe invest a weekend or two to ”reconstruct” my folder structure.

When you plan to use external storage use an SSD like e.g. a Samsung T5 or T7.

 

[DoFoT9]

The advice given thus far is excellent. I'd like to suggest a slightly different angle:..

Purchase a NAS (Such as this Synology), and transfer the existing folder structure to the NAS file system.

Then make use of the excellent Synology iOS/iPadOS tools, such as Photos. They will be accessible from any device, tablet, phone, or even the web browser. Photos and videos can be arranged from anywhere. You can even back up photos taken on your iDevices to the NAS automatically (who needs the cloud anyway)!

I appreciate this is an out of the box suggestion, and incurs an investment to purchase more hardware - sometimes it's nice to think of the alternatives.

Goodluck!

 

[quarkrad]

Thank you all - saved me a lot of time trying to do the impossible!