Organizing Photos by Faces on iPad

A few days ago I received an email from a reader asking me how she could organize pictures by faces or names on the iPad. I immediately thought about the “Faces” feature available on iPhoto which recognizes faces and allows you to add their respective names.

After researching a bit more I found out that this feature is only available on iPhoto for Mac. It is not currently available on the iPhoto App for iPad.
In this post I will show you an alternative way to use this feature. The solution to this issue consists of transferring our iPad pictures to iPhoto on the Mac, performing the facial recognition there, and then transferring the pictures back to the iPad using iTunes.

Importing pictures onto your Mac

To import pictures from your iPad onto your Mac, you can follow the following support article from Apple.

Recognizing Faces

On iPhoto for Mac, click on “Faces”, then “Find Faces”.

For each of the pictures presented, enter their respective names.

For more information check out View and Organize Photos Using Faces.

Downloading Pictures Organized by Faces onto iPad

Now it is time to send the facially recognized pictures back to your iPad.

Connect your iPad to your Mac using the white data cable. iTunes should open automatically. Navigate to your device by clicking on the iPad button.

From the top menu, select “Photos”. Then select “Sync Photos from iPhoto” and “Selected albums, Events and Faces, and automatically include no Events”.

On the “Events” frame, select “Face Recognition” and from the “Faces” frame, select the name/faces of the people you would like to transfer to your iPad.
When you finish choosing the “Faces”, click the Apply button and Sync.

Finding the Faces on iPad

On your iPad’s Home Screen, tap on the “Photos” App.

On the bottom of your screen, tap on “Albums”

Here you will find an album called “Faces from My Mac”. Tap on it and you’ll see pictures of faces with their respective names.

Thoughts? Questions?

Do you know any face recognitions Apps for iPad? Which ones?
I would love to hear your comments! Share with me by posting a comment below.