I've just discovered Photomator and have downloaded it in trial mode. I installed it on my Mac Mini and on my iPad Pro.
How do I sync photos between the two devices? Or even a third as I also have a Macbook, but as yet haven't installed it on the Macbook?
On the ipad Pro version the side menu shows the usual folders and locations that you see in the Files App. But on the desktop version all I see are either under "photos" the various albums that you see in the Photos App and under "Files" the default folder Pictures which resides on the Mini's SSD.
Adding different images to each copy of the Photomator app means that they only reside on the respective devices. I can choose to save images (or copy them) to iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox or other cloud storage using the iPad but this isn't an option for me on the Mini.
I'm desperately trying to move away from the Adobe ecosystem which has a supposedly good library sync system (it's hit and miss with me at times). Photomator looks like a viable alternative for me.
So, any help to sort out how to sync photos uploaded to the ipad (usually done when away on holidays and taking photos) to the Mini back at home. Or vice versa.
My workflow is basically, take the photos, copy them from the camera to my Synology NAS, then import the selected images from the NAS into the photo editor (LrC, Photomator).
Or if I'm away, from the SD card to the iPad Pro and into Lightroom Mobile (and Photomator when I can sort this out).
Then when I get home ideally I'd like to continue the editing and cataloging process from home.
I know that you can sync across devices when images are uploaded to the Photos app via Photomator. The problem there is that my iPad has only 128gb of storage and the iPhone is 256gb. So, they're limited in how much storage is available. Whereas, my NAS has 6 terabytes, OneDrive, 1tb and iCloud Drive 50gb.
Thanks in anticipation.
Martin
Sync Photos and Edits between Mac Mini and iPad Pro
2024-02-28 03:16:07
2024-02-28 07:32:34
Hi there!
Photomator for Mac and Photomator for iOS currently have different file browsers – on iOS, we use the native one, and on Mac, we've created our own custom one to provide an improved browsing and editing experience. At this time, you can drag and drop your network locations into the Mac app and, although the saved locations themselves don't sync between devices, if you save the same locations on each device you use, you'll see those changes and they'll sync whether the app is running or not.
Here's a short tutorial on the topic on our YouTube channel.
One thing though: Photomator for Mac doesn't have its own library database and reads the contents of each saved location when launching to create a kind of library. For that reason, I'd suggest not adding entire network drives with potentially tens of thousands of photos because getting all the info for network files after launching can result in rather long library loading times. So I'd say it's best to stick to folders within those drives – several thousand photos shouldn't be an issue at all if the speed of the network drive and internet connection are both good.
On iPad, you'd need to use the system browser to navigate to locations on network drives and edit the files that way. These changes will also appear on the Mac if you've saved the same folders in the browser (or if you import them later).
Photomator for Mac and Photomator for iOS currently have different file browsers – on iOS, we use the native one, and on Mac, we've created our own custom one to provide an improved browsing and editing experience. At this time, you can drag and drop your network locations into the Mac app and, although the saved locations themselves don't sync between devices, if you save the same locations on each device you use, you'll see those changes and they'll sync whether the app is running or not.
Here's a short tutorial on the topic on our YouTube channel.
One thing though: Photomator for Mac doesn't have its own library database and reads the contents of each saved location when launching to create a kind of library. For that reason, I'd suggest not adding entire network drives with potentially tens of thousands of photos because getting all the info for network files after launching can result in rather long library loading times. So I'd say it's best to stick to folders within those drives – several thousand photos shouldn't be an issue at all if the speed of the network drive and internet connection are both good.
On iPad, you'd need to use the system browser to navigate to locations on network drives and edit the files that way. These changes will also appear on the Mac if you've saved the same folders in the browser (or if you import them later).
2024-02-28 21:12:53
Thanks Andrius. I'm slowly getting there. And yes, I will avoid importing my entire photo collection (it takes up around 3tb on the NAS) into Photomator.
Regards
Martin
Regards
Martin
2024-02-28 21:28:29
If you select “optimise iPhone/iPad storage” under the photos settings (in the settings app) on your iOS devices then all your photo libraries will be in sync and the photos library can be much larger than your iPhone or iPad storage. Thumbnails are stored in the iOS devices until you access them and then the full image is downloaded.