Managing Photo Organization within iOS

Types of Photo Collections

The iOS Photos application offers various types of photo collections to organize images and videos. These generally fall into the following categories:

• Automatically Generated Albums: These albums are created automatically by the system. Examples include "Recents," "Favorites," "Selfies," "Live Photos," "Panoramas," "Bursts," "Slo-mo," "Time-lapse," and "Screenshots". They aggregate content based on metadata or automatically recognized characteristics.
• User-Created Albums: These are collections created manually by the user to group photos and videos based on a desired theme, event, or project.
• Shared Albums: Collections that users create and invite others to view and contribute to.
• Albums Synced from Other Sources: These collections originate from external platforms or services (e.g., iCloud Shared Photo Library or synced from a computer)

Modifying User-Created Collections

Albums created directly by the user offer options for customization and organization. These include renaming, reordering, and adding or removing items from the collection.

Behavior of System-Generated and Synced Albums

Automatically generated collections are typically managed by the system. The ability to directly modify or remove these is usually restricted. Similarly, albums synced from external sources may have limitations on modifications depending on the source's policies.

Impact of Photo Deletion

It's essential to distinguish between deleting an item from an album and deleting the item itself. Removing an item from an album only affects its presence within that specific collection. The original photo or video remains in the "Recents" album and the device's storage. To permanently remove the item, it must be deleted from "Recents", which then moves it to the "Recently Deleted" album, from where it can be permanently erased.

Considerations for Shared Albums

If the collection is a Shared Album, removing items only affects the user's view unless the user is the owner. The owner can manage the content and permissions of other participants.

Recovering Recently Deleted Items

The "Recently Deleted" album provides a temporary storage location for deleted photos and videos. Items remain in this album for a period (typically 30 days) before being permanently deleted. Users can restore items from this album during this grace period.