10 Things You Are Missing Out On If You are Not Using the Photos App

[@sundaynightdrunk]

I have Pixelmator, Affinity and Photoshop on my Mac, but I end up editing probably 80% of my photos right in Photos. It's significantly more powerful than most people give it credit for. Especially useful are the little sliders at the top of each section (with the photo previews background). Just a few quick adjustments of the Light and Color main sliders is all many photos need.

Great video as always, thanks! I’d like to get a local copy of my photo library, keeping as a backup in an external HD. I have about 400 GB of images .

[@davidandhometech]

Another great video. Thank you confirming that the Photos library contains the photo once even though it may be in many different folders. Similar to contact cards in Contacts. I've seen quite a few folks confused by this concept and so your clarity helps.

[@slingingsteve]

Gary, great list ... here's a suggestion to cover as well - for those of us who have thousands of non-digital-native scanned slides and photos, I've found the Photos app to be adequate if not preferred for importing scanned photos and then allowing you to edit the metadata for date (of photo taken, not the scanned date) as well as location. The location aspect that drives me CRAZY though is why Apple doesn't provide a way to see the GPS coordinates within the app ... so far as I know, you have to export the photo(s), then use Finder Preview to see that GPS Info. This plus your previous video regarding different ways to preview/view photos within MacOs are indispensable aids for photographers.

[@60beats44]

Hi Steve, I am in a similar position, having scanned thousands of slides, now editing each in the Photos app. Whilst changing dates and locations is an obvious task, I struggle to come up with how to best name each jpeg, e.g. what to put into ‘Add a Title’ and ‘Add a Caption’ for best organisation purposes? Thanks Steve and also Gary for being such valued resources.

[@javtimestwo]

Gary, I also agree that the Automatic sync with iCloud Photos is the best feature and also my favorite. From time to time I notice it might take minutes or dozens of minutes for the sync to complete. During those times I begin to question if I have done anything wrong to cause the delay.

[@indigofruit59]

What I have learned is there is a special upload protocol for iCloud Photos, which preserves all the metadata and linking between files, it is different to the iCloud drive syncing. That's why it is much slower and it is also why it does not work to put your photos libraries in iCloud Drive.

[@wcjf01]

I really enjoyed this tutorial. Thanks so much. I love the photos app.and use extensively but somehow had not realised there was a retouching tool available within!

[@onecarwood]

Holy Color Correction Batman I never knew about linking and the extensions! Good tip!

[@minideluxe3942]

Thanks, Gary. This was a very interesting tutorial. I use NAS to store my photos and have had many attempts to use Photolibrary for it. Without any luck. (Import or saving a photo doesn't work at all). I found someone answering this problem: „Nas is not a compatible storage location for a photos library. Only directly connected exernal drives are suitable: It must be formatted APFS or MacOS extended (journaled) (preferred for spinning drives) and not case sensitive. It Must not be (or have been) used for time machine. (A time machine drive can be used if re-formatted) It must be able to have the 'ignore ownership" checkbox ticked. It should not be on a memory stick, SD or similar. It must also not be a network drive (a direct connection is required - eg USB or Thunderbolt). File sharing services such as iCloud Drive, Drop box, Onedrive etc are not compatible with Photos libraries.” Can you relate to this? Isn't this a rather accurate description of the problem, maybe with one exception for iCloud which Apple made possible by allowing it to be synced with the iCloud environment as you explained in your tutorial? Could you make another tutorial addressing the issue of using NAS for storing Photolibrary? Thanks.

[@macmost]

Even if you could use it, it would be too slow to access a Photos Library over a network like that. What is your underlying reason to use a NAS for your Photos? Is it simply because you don't have enough space on your Mac's drive? Then use iCloud Photos instead, with "Optimize" turned on.

[@alejmc]

Fantastic summary, I became a Photos user too, mostly to quickly edit things as the light/shadow/brightness/temperature/etc editing became quite easy to use, out of laziness of either going to a computer (directly on the phone) or not wanting to bother to open up something else, it’s already there ready to go. That said, I had no clue that photos edited on a separate app through Photos (the Affinity Photo example) also supports the ‘revert to original’ functionality :O, that’s actually great.

[@SPR8364-0]

Thanks for the video, Gary. I really enjoy using Photos for all the reasons you mention except iCloud. I've noticed that since Apple has been pushing iCloud Photos, they have been neglecting the "My Photo Stream". Photo Stream not only won't upload videos and panoramas, but lately, it also won't upload about half the regular photos. I don't like the added expense of full iCloud just to simplify the process of uploading photos to my Mac. Especially since I don't like to have photos on my phone. I just want to keep them on my desktop. I'm starting to think I may have to look elsewhere for a Photo storage solution.

[@RickPaquin]

Gary had an outstanding video, as usual, but I had a similar question. I use a NAS for all of my storage, including photos. I hit a roadblock when I copied several photo's from my NAS into Apple photos, which is a neat, powerful product, but found no easy way to move them back to the NAS after editing. It's like once they go in, you can't get them back out! That's why I have never used Apple Photos. I need a way to drop anything I do on my MAC, back into my NAS or store it elsewhere. I can do that with just about anything except photos! Now, I can take any photo in Apple photo's and open it with another editor that will then allow me to share it back to the NAS, but if you're going to do that, what's the point of Photos? Way too may steps. Copy and paste also works but Apple Photo's really needs to be an export feature. It appears companies try to continually push and trap you into their cloud solutions, along with a fee per month. It's kind of like they are holding your photo's hostage with out an easy export feature. Now if I'm wrong about this, perhaps Gary has a solution.

[@SPR8364-0]

​@@RickPaquin Gary just uploaded another video that may address some of your concerns. I think the option to have the images stored in folders in the Finder, but still visible in Photos - At least that's what I think he was saying. I think it helped with one of mine especially since Apple recently announced they are going to no longer support Photo Stream.

[@CF55443]

Informative as always Gary. Another cool thing about photos I use is capturing a photo in my videos. It’s pretty cool to take a video of my dog flying around the park and capture a video frame of her in mid air and make it a picture to edit. You are my number one source for all things Apple!

[@JohnnyLeuthard]

you dog can fly?

[@CedricMcCay]

These are great tips! Thank you for sharing them. I am a huge fan of Photos, but you have increased my appreciation for the software even more.

[@cecilhudgins6569]

Gary, I have been a Lightroom user, for personal and paid work, for many years while using Apple Photos mainly for iPhone photos. Recently my wife and I started looking at how to collect all our personal photos into a common process. Here is the question, If we scanned in all our printed photos, imported everything to Apple Photos and maybe imported from Lightroom, and then organize everything in Apple Photos, is this a safe and robust way to move forward. I know the Apple Library will eventually get really large, but it will also be in the cloud for backup. Thanks for all your informative Apple videos.

[@macmost]

That's what I do. Works best when you don't use the Optimize function on your main Mac, so all of the photos are local as well as in iCloud. Then you can use Time Machine to backup that Mac and have everything in a good local backup. Otherwise, you'll probably want to scan them all in, bring into Photos, but then also keep those scanned files on an archive drive somewhere as a local backup.

[@cecilhudgins6569]

@@macmost Thanks for the reply. I love Lightroom, but as I move to more personal than business, Apple Photos is really so simple. For the non-Optimized solution, are the images there individually or still hidden away in the Library database? I just get worry about the eventual Library size. I realize that Lightroom has the exact same problem but maybe a more robust solution. Can Photos be linked to the images vs imported. I thank you for al your excellent instruction. My go to place for Mac info.

[@macmost]

@@cecilhudgins6569 Either way, optimized or not, they are inside the library and not really user-accessible as files. Think of the Photos library as its own filing system, separate from the Finder. You can link to external images, but then you can't have those images as part of iCloud. Remember that the Finder is just a virtual space for organizing "bits" into files, and so is the Photos library. It is just built for pictures with features to match.

[@cecilhudgins6569]

@@macmost Excellent info, thank you again. Go Heels!

[@jacquelynmetry2689]

How can I take a frame from a video and make it an individual photo? Ive been with apple since the first iPhone but this is my first Mac book pro and love detailed your tutorials are.

[@macmost]

See kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYvIl5ujl51mkKs

[@JoeTourist]

I have been tempted by the lovely integration between my Apple devices offered by the Photos app, but I simply can't make use of it for several reasons: 1. My current media storage from multiple cameras is currently 3.5Tb. This would make iCloud very expensive, and currently there appears to be a 2Tb limit! 2. Photos stores media somewhere mysterious (I assume in a database), so there is no way to see individual media files like HEIC, CR3, MOV, MP4 on a macOS file system. This limits backup options, since all the media is backed up as a "blob", so (more importantly) restoring a particular file or group of files appears to be impossible. 3. Further to #2, if at some point the user decides that Photos is no longer doing the job for them, I don't see any way to migrate the media to a third-party photo management app. I realize my perspective is likely in the minority of users, but perhaps you could do a follow-up video reviewing the best options for media management who are "serious" photographers & videographers.

[@macmost]

Is the reason you have 3.5TB in your library because of videos? Maybe consider storing videos as files separately, and only putting photos in your Photos library. As for 2 and 3, you can always export (unmodified originals) from your Photos library.

[@RickPaquin]

I have the same issue. TOO many photo's for ICloud storage when you want to retain the original size of your photo's. I did the same as you and also found it's backed up as a "blob" instead of individual photo files that you can easily move to external devices. Your not alone.

[@JoeTourist]

@@macmost I have a combination of photos (~1.5Tb) and videos (~2Tb). I used to store photos and videos separately, but that didn't work for me - made search awkward.

[@lawrencediggs7957]

Thanks Gary. Is there a way to sync Photos with other Cloud services or the storage on my wi-fi router?

[@macmost]

I'm not following your question. If you want to sync with another service, you'd need to follow the instructions for that service.

[@razvanmihai4884]

This tutorial is fantastic! I've discovered the iCloud copy link feature on the iPhone and iPad's Photo app. It's incredibly convenient for sharing photos and videos through WhatsApp without cluttering up the app or duplicating photos. I do wish there was a similar feature in the desktop photo application, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to find one. The album sharing option you showed seems to do the trick, although it's not as straightforward as the one on the iPhone or iPad. Am I missing something here? Thanks!

[@fredgoertzen1299]

I find the Places feature an extremely useful search feature. You can view photos by country, town or even down to a specific house/address. Also very useful in finding the historical date of an event if you have a photo from that event.

[@cherylf2133]

Terrific video. I had NO idea about some of those tools. Thanks, Gary.

[@BenSussmanpro]

Thanks for this demo. Do you know if it uses tags made in Lightroom?

[@macmost]

I don't think so. But I don't use Lightroom. Do a test and see.

[@cecilhudgins6569]

I think the Lightroom keywords come over, but I don’t think the star rating or color rating makes it over to Apple Photos.

[@budgetaudiophilelife-long5461]

THANKS GARY🤗, FOR SHARING THIS WITH US … Some I have used,others I’ll try now and share 💚💚💚

[@desertpatient]

Thanks bunches. I so enjoy your video a bit ago and using the search function..

[@mikerisner]

Coming from Windows before Cloud solutions existed and matured to what they offer today, I was fixated on ensuring I had all my photos (and other media like videos and music) on my primary computer … and then backing up everything. Once I convinced myself that iCloud was worth its cost, life became so much simpler. Now I try to convince everyone to liberate themselves from manual file management misery and use iCloud and Apple’s solutions the integrate with it.

[@Fimaniac]

Hi Gary, thanks for great videos. I have an issue with editing timestamps on my photos. I scan a lot off pictures from my family, but I miss a smart way to change the timestamp batchwise to ensure they are organised chronologically. 💚

[@macmost]

Not sure what you are looking for. You can select multiple photos and Adjust Date and Time for all of them at once.

[@Fimaniac]

Thanks Gary, for answering. My problem is that I cannot give a group of pictures (like picture scans I have made over time) the same date. They will certainly get new timestamps - but they maintain their internal differences. Smart in some cases - but it would be great to be able to give a group of pictures the SAME timestamp. So could you suggest some smart way to organise groups of pictures with 'wrong' timestamps?

[@macmost]

@@Fimaniac I can't think of any solution to that other than maybe a third-party app.

[@I_Mackenzie]

All good tips, thanks. So what if I load 150gb of photos into my Mac, but my iPhone only has 128gb? Will the optimised storage decide what percentage of the devices overall internal memory is dedicated to the photos? How does that work?

[@macmost]

Yes. It loads up your most recently accessed photos and manages it from there.

[@davidgillon6187]

Hi Gary. Thanks for another great informative video. I have a question if you don’t mind… …I have lots of photos stored in Dropbox folders (content not locally stored due to size, only on demand). Can I add these folders to the Photos app in some way too without making local (or iCloud) copies of the files again? I hope that makes sense.

[@macmost]

Not really. You may be able to do something convoluted by changing your import settings in Photos on your Mac, but that would defeat the purpose of iCloud Photos as you wouldn't then see them on your other devices. Why not just move your photos to the Photos app and iCloud? Why use a file management tool for photos when you could use a photos management tool?

[@fabriziocolista]

Perfect and clear info! Thks

[@ervano798]

Hello Gary. As you shown to use external editors i pres image and Edit. Than i can make a choice in that list, and it works wel, even if i sometimes have to choose Other.... But how can i manage that list, to delete or ad somme items. When i like to open a foto from a folder, i cant find the photo app in that list but other fotoapps and even apps that doesn't support photo. Can you give me a sollution? Thanks to you

[@macmost]

You can't manage the list yourself. It is a list of apps that have told macOS that they handle images. If one isn't showing up, you should contact the developer and let them know.

[@LexSijtsma2]

Great video again. Thank you. But note that the sharing through iCloud only works on Apple devices. I got the message that I need to open the invitation in the Mail app, which I do not use. Why is that? Seems like the typical Apple ecosystem problems. Seems quite limited. If you want to share without problems and over multiple platforms (e.g. Windows), you should use another method. For instance Microsoft Onedrive or Google Photo's. Both are much better in that respect.

[@macmost]

Not sure what you experienced there with the Mail app issue, but if you share a gallery of photos online, the other person just views them in a web browser. Maybe you were doing something else?

[@beysan_tasci]

Thank you for all the usefuly videos and Turkish language.👍

[@chabadnaples]

Outstanding video on the Photo App! Thanks, George Rubin

[@artmaltman]

Fascinating. Questions: Can I synchronize folders (or “albums”?) in IOS with Mac Photos and iCloud? Thanks!!!

[@macmost]

Yes, that would happen automatically if you are using iCloud Photos. You are essentially looking at your ONE Photos library on all of your devices. So not syncing, but just the same library everywhere.

[@artmaltman]

@@macmost great news thanks!

[@jimrosserllc]

I tend to be a silent viewer, mostly because I don't have any questions because you are so precise with your directions. Although I use .75 speed, so my slow mind hears all you have to say. My question is can I load up a digital photo regardless of its origin, i.e., my cannon or photos scanned into digital.

[@macmost]

Yes, you can include photos from your camera, scanned photos, mobile phone photos, etc.

[@loisskiathitis8926]

Brilliant, a very useful and informative video tutorial today! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@58Repairables]

Didn't see GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) in your "edit with" external editors list. I use this free, open source cross-platform image editor quite often - especially since I'm relegated to using Windblows at work. What are your thoughts, Gary?

[@macmost]

GIMP is fine. It is free, and powerful. But most people find it difficult to use. I've used it before, but I have Photoshop if I need the power, and Pixelmator Pro is a much easier to use app than either in most cases.

[@58Repairables]

@@macmost thanks Gary!

[@vaniacastillo9600]

Thank you so muchGary for this very informative video 👏🏾. I notice that some of my pictures disappear from the app after a while. Any idea what I’m doing wrong? Thanks!!

[@macmost]

Hard for me to guess where you could be going wrong. Accidentally deleting them? Maybe looking in the wrong place?

[@Rasmus_el_Pescador]

Thanks Gary for all the information given here. I am using the photo app for over 2 years and I find it great. However, now that I have accumulated a large ammount of photos I would like to store to an external disc a part of them. Is there an option to split a library? I can't find a way around of it.

[@macmost]

One option is to export (unmodified originals). Another is to duplicate the library to the external, then switch to the duplicate and delete some, say after a date. Then switch back to the original system library and delete the ones that will be in the archive you just created. Just be careful when doing it so as not to lose any. Another option if you are running out of space is maybe consider exporting and storing the much larger videos as files to your external, and only store photos in your Photos library.

[@Rasmus_el_Pescador]

@@macmost Thanks a lot!

[@RickPaquin]

@@macmost Gary, I seem to be missing a way to export my photo's to either an external drive or network storage. I don't seem to have any export option for external anything. What am I missing? Thanks!

[@macmost]

@@RickPaquin So when you select a photo and go to File, Export, what does it show?

[@devilboii96]

Hi Gary, great tutorial but I find it too complex to follow the photos app on my new Mac. Somehow I don't see any videos about deleting photos/videos from the Photos App on Mac, is there a way? There seem to only have the option of "Delete Shared Items" and everytime i click on it, it's still there with a message "These items will be deleted from Photos, but will still appear in Messages."

[@macmost]

Deleting is just a matter of selecting the photo and pressing the Delete key. It sounds like maybe you have selected a photo that is shared, not a regular one that is in your library.

[@magicmanj32]

new to mac, can you use photos app without using icloud for storage of photos?

[@macmost]

Yes, if you wish. That's the best feature (of possibly the whole Apple ecosystem) but you can certainly just have one or more local Photos libraries and use it that way.

[@andrewchanyan1806]

Hi Gary, how do I get started with Photos? I have a folder on my NAS with lots of subfolders with thousands of pics. I would like to keep the pics on my NAS to save space on my Mac. Can Photos automatically scan all the subfolders for pics/videos and will it leave the files intact or create a single database file with all the pics/videos inside it?

[@macmost]

I don't like using it that way because you then don't get any of the iCloud benefits. But you can change the options in Photos, Settings so that images are not imported into the library. And then your experience will be very different since accessing files over a NAS is much much slower than on an internal drive.

[@JohnnyLeuthard]

One thing I think is a huge missing piece to iPhotos is resizing. Sure you can save your photos out toa. JPG that will be a smaller size then re import and delete the larger one but if you have 1000's of photos that is not a simple task. With how big photos are these days you will be forced to the highest tier of iCloud really quick. I have some in iPhoto but also have some local to my disk. The my Iphoto file is 148 GB right now and many of these files have been puled from my iphone, reduced from 3-8 MB down to a few Kb and that's STIll 148GB used. This also increases really quick when you edit the photo because it keeps multiple copies of that file. So you can undo, or revert back. So edit a file and it will take up a lot more space. This is probably more an issue with the iPhone needing such high resolution in photos. I don't know what we keep getting so big? If you don't print them or do professional editing and really need to zoom in those huge file sizes are a waste of space. What is the 2TB iCloud storage costing now? $10 a month and will go up every year or so. So your looking a pretty big subscription forever? I really want to justify iCloud and iPhoto but I'm having a hard time. If someone knows something I'm missing I'd love to hear it.

[@charlescourtney4412]

I have used Apple Photos ever since the untimely demise of Aperture, and it now has developed a remarkable feature set. The main thing that is still missing is Aperture's robust metadata editing features. Photo's metadata editing simply is anemic by comparison. I have yet to find a metadata editor that is both as convenient as as robust as the editor in Aperture. Any suggestions would be welcome.

[@phrank808]

Lightroom and Capture One are the most professional. Maybe Pixelmator, DxO PhotoLab, Luminar these are more consumer software.

[@fbergmansr]

Gary, when you are talking about iCloud photo storage I would love to see a video where 2 or more persons are sharing an iCloud account. The goal is to share the storage but keeping the libraries separate.

[@macmost]

You should not have two people share an iCloud account! One iCloud account = one person. Use Family Sharing to share storage amounts.

[@60beats44]

I am surprised that you have not reached the 1 million subscribers mark, Gary with you so consistently offering such high quality content. Having moved from Windows to Mac some time ago, I initially also moved all of my images to the Mac ‘Pictures’ folder before discovering the benefits of the ‘Photos’ alternative. Would it be safe now to delete everything in the ‘Pictures’ folder? I am a little annoyed that non-jpeg files (e.g. marathon finishing certificates in PDF format) did not make that transfer, as ‘Photos’ is restricted in that regard. Still in the process of changing dates and adding locations to my photos in the ‘Photos’ folder, I am still struggling what best to type into the ‘Caption’ section to see something meaningful when looking at the content of each album. Date or location? Since both of the infos can also be viewed when clicking the ‘Info’ tab. I hope that most of this makes sense. Thanks again Gary.

[@macmost]

First check to make sure you imported them into the Photos library. (There is a way to add them to the Photos Library and not import them, and if you used that method then deleting the files would mean deleting the photos entirely). Maybe archive all of those files to an external drive first to be sure. Good idea to have more backups of those anyway. You can do what you want with the caption. I don't use it at all. No point adding the date or location if you have that in the metadata or have added it elsewhere. You don't need to use it.

[@60beats44]

@@macmost Thank you so much Gary for your extensive and helpful response. I will carefully experiment with the deletion process before moving thousands of images to the bin. A backup on yet another external drive has already occurred and I am also using a large external SSD and Time Machine for my minute to minute backup. I find the JPEG 'Title' issue quite helpful when looking at many of the photos simultaneously before 'opening' them to reveal dates and locations. And I thought that I should ask someone with extensive experience (you) regarding their (your) own approach since this is such a laborious task once started. Thanks again.

[@japg54]

Thanks Gary for this useful information. By the way, I’m curious about how to make an sticker (to be used in other apps like WhatsApp or Telegram) directly from any photo, using the iOS 16 (also in MacOS, iPadOS) feature of removing background by dragging the main subject away from a photo to paste in Mac Apps (but in big/original size. That could be an interesting tutorial.

[@macmost]

Not sure what you mean exactly, but you can copy the subject from a photo pretty easily in Ventura. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4rGhnuFpceLaqc

[@Larry77777]

You can right click the opened photo in Photos and choose "Copy Subject". When you paste it, the background is gone.

[@kguyur9734]

@@Larry77777 Thank you!! That's SO easy!

[@lenmueller9702]

Yes Gary Mac Photos is excellent but you did not talk about the feature I just started using - iCloud Shared Photo Library. But to get there you have to first upload all of your photos/videos to iCloud. This process took me 7 days, 24 hours per day to upload my photos/videos to iCloud. I ran Amphetamine to keep my Mac awake.

[@akula9713]

I just wish I could move photos out of the big huge library into folders.

[@Kluivertnr1]

Me too. That seems impossible for Apple🤨🤨

[@CY-ZG]

thank you

[@richardsondan]

I can’t add a border to a photo though - I think? Great tips as always.

[@macmost]

Yes you can. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWqrfKSFh5mGkKc

[@evanthomas8320]

Is there a way to add keywords in the photos app on iOS? I can't find that anywhere.

[@macmost]

No. This is still a Mac-only feature.

[@MyweathernetreportsBlogspot]

I seem to have 1 item that is not syncing to iCloud. I have tried to troubleshoot the issue. Not sure if it is a video file that is too short to upload or a large video file. The issue has been showing up for over a week. Any tips on how to fix this?

[@macmost]

Consider duplicating that file and deleting the original, maybe?

[@jamescraig3345]

I use Photos heavy, with many, many libraries. All in spite of one huge drawback - Apple is insanely slow to add RAW compatibility for new cameras. It has.been six months now since I got my Fuji X-t5 - no update for RAW compatibility in all that time. Otherwise, I find it much handier than Lightroom for my filing - mostly "referenced".

[@paulalderson6920]

Can I remove fences, light poles or people etc with this app?

[@macmost]

Sometimes, yes. For more complex changes you may need to get a graphics app like Pixelmator or Affinity Photo and learn to use the tools in it.

[@Teuser737]

When I have pictures organized in folders and decide to import them in Photos, will I have these pictures twice on my MacBook?

[@macmost]

Yes. You'd have your files (importing them doesn't delete them) and then you'd have them in your Photos library. You can just delete the files after you know they are safely part of your Photos library. Or, you can set Photos to not import them but link to them, but that doesn't work with iCloud Photos though.

[@zenoguru]

How do you decouple raw and jpg files. Should be simple yet deleting the raw also seems to delete the jpg?

[@macmost]

Apparently this happens in rare cases with particular cameras that create these pairs. I don't have any to test so I can't experiment to see what solution there is, or even how this appears in the Photos app. Experiment and try things. I guess contact Apple Support if you need to.

[@zenoguru]

@@macmost Sony cameras. Apple Support and discussions have zero suggestions other than one by one. Bit hard with over 10k of them.

[@joeldcanfield_spinhead]

I was one of the folks who refused to use it because it was so horrible 10 years ago. Nowadays it's much better.

[@johnconstable8512]

ty g

[@vasu925]

Facial recognition seems weak and frustrating in Photos (could be user error). You have to click on a face to see if there are additional photos to confirm. Why not a confirm addition photos button that shows all faces with additional photos to confirm? Is this user error or Apple Photo weakness?

[@macmost]

So you want a combined view where you see a mix of faces? That's another way to go, but I think it would get confusing. With one person at a time, you can quickly flip through them giving yes/no responses. It works really well. But whatever way Apple chose to do it, there is someone that would want it the other way.

[@cecilhudgins6569]

I have spent many hours trying to get facial recognition in Lightroom to be more accurate. I have found that Apple photos is much more reliable when selecting faces and names.

[@LFNanny6]

Is there a good app for deleting duplicate photos?

[@macmost]

You can do that right in Photos. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIfaXqGMjLaqgbc

[@alexxander6584]

Hi Gary, there is a feature that I need in iPhoto, that is a quick and easy way to reduce the size of the image file. How can you reduce the image file size in a Photo album? All cropping and editing can always be revert back, so iPhoto is maintaining the original image and size no matter how you crop it. I even use Preview app to reduce the file size and Preview says it is reduced significantly (like one tenth of the size) then I save it. But I don’t see the file image size changes in the Photo app of the image file. This is confusing. How do you effectively reduce the file size in Photo app?

[@macmost]

What's your goal? Just to save some drive space? Usually people want to keep high quality original photos around for the future. You may regret it years from now if you throw away the high quality original. But if you really want to do it, the way would be to edit with an external editor (like Preview) and reduct the dimensions if you like and export as HEIC with lower quality. Then delete the photo in Photos, and import the new HEIC file you created to replace it.

[@alexxander6584]

@@macmost Hi Gary, you are spot on. I do have a requirement to reduce the image size. I am creating an epub ebook from Pages where I inserted lots of images which I took from iPhone print screens. The size of today’s iPhone print screen is 4K, so as a result the epub becomes 250MB. I used Pages on Mac to reduce the Pages file size. In one click from 250MB it becomes 14MB from reducing all the images files. But when I exported the Pages file into epub, the epub file still bloats back into 250MB. I guess because Pages image size reduction doesn’t translate into real image size reduction. So I figure out of really reducing the size of the images using Preview on Mac. I even saved the size reduction but somehow it doesn’t change the image file in the Photo app and as a result the epub file export still becomes 250MB. I guess because Photo app kept the original file size. So how do I kept the lower size image in the Photo app replacing the original image file? This is confusing to me. Do I need to save the reduced file from Preview into other non Photo storage? How do I do this?

[@macmost]

​@@alexxander6584 Wait, so it sounds like you don't want to reduce the size of the original photo INSIDE your photos library (good, you shouldn't). You want to just export a version that is smaller for inclusion in your document. So here's what I would do in that case: select the photo in Photos. Edit, Copy (Command+C). Then open Preview. File, New from Clipboard (Command+N). Then adjust the size (dimensions) in Preview, then export as JPEG and adjust the quality down to something that looks good but is smaller. Then take that exported file and use that in your document.

[@alexxander6584]

@@macmost Ah, noted. So first convert the image into JPEG in Preview, reduce the size then export it into a new folder NOT on Photo app. Then on Pages app replace all the images one by one with the new reduced jpeg images in the folder not on Photo app and then export it to n epub format? I will try to do this and hopefully the epub will become much smaller like 50MB max. Thanks alot Gary! Will do this trick of yours.

[@macmost]

@@alexxander6584 Resize the image in Preview. Export as a JPEG from Preview. Yes, when you export it would be a file, not in the Photos app. Put that small image in your Pages document, not one directly from Photos.

[@michaelwoodbodley8099]

I used >iPhoto< to organize my photos until Apple stuffed it up by creating >Photos

[@sharmanitascos]

I have the photos app buyt t is excruciatingly slow and does not allow me to edit photos accept for sparing occasions which make no sense, I don't want to reinstall my os either what should I do

[@macmost]

It shouldn't be slow. Maybe an issue with your Mac or your drive?

[@KurtPapke]

11: everything you said about photos is true for videos

[@BarneyStreit]

You totally missed why Photos is terrible. On the Mac, you can create a slideshow in a folder, sequenced by file name. But when you copy that folder into Photos on the iPad or iPhone, the sequence is scrambled! Photos didn’t do this originally. Thanks Apple!

[@macmost]

Software isn't perfect. Not sure if they one bug makes it "terrible."

[@macmoll]

1:35 Why does Gary from MacMostVideo look like the comedian Dave Attell in this picture? 😂

[@rst33079]

My problem with the photos app was, Raw files from various cameras, that i used in the past did not show up The amount of photos that i added crashed the app. The photos app is ok for your iphone photos, but not for semipro dslr and mirrorless shooters

[@macmost]

When was the last time you tried it? I have both a DSLR and a Sony mirrorless and occasionally even take RAW photos.

[@rst33079]

@@macmost 2 years ago

[@EBondFrancisco]

Why can’t I sort Photos albums on my iPhone (iOS 18) alphabetically?

[@macmost]

Select Albums in the left sidebar, then View, Sort, By Name.

[@azizmehdi101]

Hi. I’m from India and heavily invested in the Apple system. Your videos are very informative. Regarding the photos app, two questions. 1. Can all the edits be done on the iPad/iPhone also? 2. I shoot raw+jpeg. When I import into the iPad, I get both together. I am unable to separate them to edit the raw photos. On the Mac, I have the “Use Raw as Original option. One more question: Can I open my photo in Lightroom on my iPad?

[@macmost]

1. Yes. Try it and see. 2. I'm thinking that you have your camera/app set to record both the RAW and jpeg image, so you get two images each time you take a picture. Not sure, but experiment with that idea in mind. I don't use Lightroom so I can't help you there.

[@azizmehdi101]

@@macmost Thank you for your prompt response. Appreciate it.

[@naelair]

Doesn't look like anything I have - Mac os Monterey. ?

[@macmost]

You are a few versions behind...

[@cpwhaley]

Try using Photos with a library that's larger than a terabyte. It's not so quick and easy then, and who subscribes to more than a terabyte of iCloud storage? Just sayin' ... it has it's limits and frequent backups of library(s) are a must too! I've had Photos crashes that made ALL photos & videos un-recoverable.

[@bigwoz78]

I have been using photos with faces on my Mac for years but it doesn't seem to update all of the information to my iPhone. ex: if I have 100 identified photos of a face on my Mac I may only get 40 or 50 on my Phone. Why is this?

[@macmost]

Are you using iCloud Photos? It should work. Call Apple Support if you can't seem to get them to show the same things.

[@bigwoz78]

@@macmost yes I am using ICloud, I will have to call Apple. Thanks

[@nicomonkeyboy]

Gary's holiday wear is a grey crew neck...

[@zulu123-x2d]

One big missing option is how to share my library original with family so they can edit also

[@macmost]

There's a feature exactly for that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqG7laqgeN1mjac

[@jd100-x1z]

I'd love to share photos from the Photos app via WhatsApp. But as pictures, not as a link. This doesn't seem to be possible :-(. not even from WhatsApp itself, as photos on my new Mac seem to be orginized in this library, not as files :-(.

[@macmost]

I don't use WhatsApp, but normal sharing in all other messaging apps is to send the picture.

[@ThePeterasd]

I don’t use it as if I have 1gb photos in computer then this app also becomes one gb. Totally 2gb automatically

[@macmost]

If you are keeping the photos both outside of your Photos library and inside of your Photos library, then yes, 1+1=2. But you can just get rid of the outside copy. Or, you can choose in Photos to link to the outside copy so it shows it in your library, but doesn't store it in your library, so there is only one. But then you have to be careful to protect that outside file, and also it won't work with iCloud Photos that way.

[@tulsavol6653]

See how much you can pay apple monthly for the space. And of course once off your phone you don't have control. Of course individual privacy is non existent. In fairness to Apple google,meta, Microsoft, Amazon......and "x" are far worse.

[@macmost]

Your photos are encrypted and Apple doesn't have access to them.

[@jawi499]

Another reason NOT to use the Mac photo app is that the data is sent to apple/government. So much for apple’s false policy on privacy.

[@macmost]

Not true at all. First, if you use the Photos app without iCloud your data is just on your Mac. Second, if you do use iCloud Photos it is encrypted and Apple doesn't have access.

[@Carmine416]

Sooo helpful! Thank You🙏🙏🙏