How to sort iPhone photos by capture date on Mac

What this does

If you dump photos from more than one source into the same folder, an SD card from a real camera alongside phone shots, it’s useful to keep iPhone photos separate rather than mixing everything together. This rule filters specifically for photos taken on an iPhone using the camera information embedded in the photo, then renames each one with its capture date and files it into an iPhone Photos folder by year.

What you’ll build

A rule that matches images taken on an iPhone, renames each with its capture date, then sorts it into an iPhone Photos folder by year.

Open the rule editor

This walkthrough happens inside FilesAutomator itself, so install it from the Mac App Store first if you have not already, then open it. In its toolbar, choose Add, then New Automation Rule.

Name the rule and choose a folder

Name it something like “Sort my iPhone photos by capture date” and use Add Folder to choose the folder your photos land in.

Build the condition

Leave the group set to “All of the following are true”.

Add a condition: Kind is a kind of public.image, which matches every image format.

Add a second condition: Camera contains iPhone.

FilesAutomator

Add the action steps

Step 1: Rename

Choose Add Step, then Rename. In “New name, built from the parts below”, use Add Part, then Date, then Full date: y-MM-dd. Change that chip’s source to Date photo was taken. Add Part again, choose Text, and type an underscore. Add Part once more and choose Original name.

Step 2: Sort into subfolder

Choose Add Step again, then Sort into folder. In “Name the subfolder with the parts below”, use Add Part, choose Text, and type “iPhone Photos”. Add Part again and choose Subfolder separator ( / ). Add Part once more, choose Date, then Year: y, and change that chip’s source to Date photo was taken too.

FilesAutomator

Turn it on

Select Create Automation Rule, then switch the rule on. Every iPhone photo that lands here now gets a date stamped name and its own year folder, separate from anything shot on other cameras.

A faster way

The template gallery inside FilesAutomator already has this rule ready to install, named Sort iPhone photos by capture date.