How To Use Mac Photos Without Spending Any Time Organizing Anything

[@larryborses8670]

Great lesson...I'm and 85 year old hobbyist. I have been looking for an easier way to organize my images...Not so much the actual editing, (I have tried almost all the software out there (been looking for 3 years). This video works for me, really well. My brain is a little antiquainted... having a written copy to follow along with would be outstanding.. Thanks for making things easier to understand.

[@Johnthetripper]

I've gone from Lightroom, spending ages putting everything into albums to now using Apple Photos and just letting it take care of everything. Much less time stress and soooo much easier.

[@DaleSteadman]

As a professional photographer that uses both Photos and Lightroom, Photos does a really good job of organizing much better than Lightroom. And Photos is getting better and better with each update to the software.

[@tayloriginals999]

That 'show in photos' is great! I used to have an app on my phone that would track my gps and then when I went on a photo shoot doing landscapes or whatever I could track where I was and then when I got home I would import that track into my mac and attach that to photos from my DSLR camera, which doesn't have gps. It got really cumbersome and was a drag. When I switched to Photos after Aperture was discontinued I stopped doing that and now I just take one photo with my phone and then the rest are in the same timeline, so it's easy to tell where they were taken. Great video!

[@mat3ck]

Thank you! This saved me.

[@rogerwprice]

Great advice - indeed switching back and forth with All Photos is a handy tip...

[@tomtd]

Idea for a video for you. Using an EOS M50 you lose the geolocation, you can pair with your phone but it's a bit of a faff (faff is British english for a pain to do) I have pictures with no location and was trying to find a way to use Maps to add - A video on this by you might help others. I have discovered if I drop a pin on the location in maps and copy the link (left click use drop down) and paste into the location get info on the picture the location is very accurate.

[@MarsorryIckuatuna]

Very true - great video. After the new Photos app and features were released, I slowly stopped creating albums and tagging things - the learning curve is fast and the subtle suggestions make it quite clear you don’t have to do anything.

[@visitslovenija]

Brilliant. I might finally start to like using Photos from now on! Thanks a lot.

[@KingdomFTX]

Ralph Musto Why weren’t you before?

[@MartinHannett_]

That was nice to see you’ve visited Scotland Gary, big fan of yours here on Glasgow 😀

[@macmost]

It was so beautiful there! (Scenery and people). Hope to go back again.

[@Stubchain]

Being an old geezer we have photos from 70 years ago. We scanned every single photo we own in binge sessions. Photos just lumps these in on the same day but in fact we taken years apart, not very helpful.

[@SPR8364-0]

You can edit the dates on the photos. You can also batch edit dates to make it go faster. I created albums based on approximate dates and placed all the relevant photos in that album. Then select all the photos in the album. Go to Menu Image->Adjust Date and Time.... Then change the date here. You don't need to be specific. If it is autumn on 1950, Just put Oct 1, 1950. Unfortunately, Photos date editing in Mojave behaves badly sometimes. If you change the date on a photo and want to change it again, you need to Quit Photos and then open it back up again. Otherwise I found that the date will just become a random date and I had to export the photos and import them back in again to get them to work. It takes time to do this, but was worth it for me. Just do a small amount at a time. I also did the same thing with locations. So, now all my photos are at least approximately at the right location and approximately the right date.

[@marke2401]

SPR8364 I’m doing the same thing with my dads old photos. I’m geotagging them as well if I know where they where taken. Face recognition is coming in handy too

[@lightloveandawake3114]

💗😊💕Dude! You are my HERO!!!!!💕😊💗

[@hannahyun0]

Thank you for your email. I basically doing the same thing or nothing but I have process and workflow questions: 1) Are those photos are all taken by iPhone or also with cameras? if you import photos from cameras, will have double size or locations in your Mac? I used to use lightroom to organise my photos but hate their biz model and I cut off from them completely. 2) what is your setup between iPhone, Mac and iCloud in settings? I found if I turn on all three, it duplicate everything and again take up so much space and time to go through become tedious especially when I am on the road travelling with or without wifi. 3) Do you import photos from cameras directly to photos on Mac? I assume the imports will have meta datas right ? Thank you in advance!

[@macmost]

I don't understand your first question. Why would photos imported from a camera have double the size? I use iCloud so that everything stays in sync all the time and I have access to all of my photos everywhere. Yes, if I am using a camera, I import from the camera (SD card actually) to my Mac. That includes the metadata.

[@hannahyun0]

@@macmost thank you for your fast response. Sorry the confusion of my first question: I used to import photos from SD card using lightroom and I would have a hard copy in folders in MacBook. If I import them to the Photos, that would create another copy of the same photos which would take double spaces. Now, I want to used Photos to import direct from SD but I am worried about that I cannot access to images directly from Finder unless use PHOTOS. 2) you sync photos in iCloud, Mac and iPhone, but if you delete photos in one device it will be deleted in others as well. How do you keep one hard original copy in a hard drive or iCloud but only keep selected ones in iPhone or Mac without creating albums? 3) if you take photos using iPhone it will be automatically uploaded to Photos in all devices which will also be mixed with photos from SD under same dates, locations etc?

[@macmost]

@@hannahyun0 Import directly into Photos. If you ever want a copy as a file, you can export it. You can set Photos to access external files, but not if you are using iCloud. Why do you need to have them as files outside of the library? If I knew that, maybe I could suggest something. If you use cloud services, then the files are accessed everywhere from the same virtual place. If you delete the file or photo, no matter which device you are using, it removes it. Just don't delete something you want to keep. Is there some reason you would want to keep a photo by not have it visible on one device or another? Yes, if you use iCloud and take a photo, the photo will appear in the library with all of your others. It doesn't matter where the photo came from. My Photos library includes photos from dozens of past cameras and phones from the last 20+ years.

[@ernestkooistra1559]

Fantastic! TY!!

[@TanyllynNurseries]

Really helpful, thank you very much.

[@artmaltman]

My iPhone Photos has 50k photos. Never used Mac Photos. If I load the iPhone Photos into Mac Photos, will the “albums” copy over as well? Will the “albums” synchronize between iPhone Photo and Mac Photos? If I delete on one will it delete on the other? Thanks so much!!!

[@MrSpidey1970]

Great straight forward vid

[@bonnieschwenke2256]

Great suggestions for sorting similar photos for GPS marking, adding dates in the title or keywords. Thanks

[@beingninazee]

THANK YOU, Gary

[@jspoosener6729]

Awesome thanks Gary. I just found your channel and you have already helped me so much. Much gratitude.

[@mat3ck]

The photos are sorted by capture time (in exif)? Or by date when the photo was created (on mac) or edited? What if there's no data of capture time in exif? If i edit capture time in photo, will this be write to exif or only to library file? What if i add the capture time in finder? Thank you.

[@macmost]

Capture time. If there is no capture time, like it is an image you created in an app or maybe something you scanned, you can set it with Image, Adjust Date and Time. The EXIF time is never changed. Any changes you make the to date are part of the library. You can't change the EXIF metadata in the Finder.

[@justsendit8506]

Thank’s Gary. However, I find that searches don’t really work all that well.

[@MarsorryIckuatuna]

justsendit Yeah, searches have been hit or miss for me too, especially object types.

[@MarsorryIckuatuna]

justsendit Yeah, searches have been hit or miss for me too, especially object types.

[@KingdomFTX]

I confirm this as well. If Apple adopted the search function Google Photos has, you can find anything.

[@josephman624]

Any chance you know how to merge two separate photos libraries into one ?

[@cristinalattuada5322]

Very handy, thank you. I don’t have months but I have Collection, Moments, Collections and Year. Can I do the same?

[@zarintasnimpromi2672]

Great video. thanks so much. I have a question. if I move my photos from Android to my mac, any chance the original date will change? I'm thinking of moving all my photos to my macOS. thanks again!

[@roxanneloyst3733]

Hello Your tutorials are very helpful. I am not getting the at the top like you mentioned Years, Months, Days and All Photos. I am trying everything. As I am trying to follow along with your instructions I hope you can help me. Thanks

[@macmost]

First, are you using the current version of Photos? Second, do you have the window size set too small? Try stretching the window to fill most of the screen.

[@mdh.3421]

I tried to make a copy of a photo library and it said it already existed and stopped. When I went to check the size of the copied gallery it says created “Tuesday January 24 1984 at 12:00am” the day the Macintosh was launched

[@JohnnyLeuthard]

Another issue/bug with this method i am trying to work around is... By default you can search for things like Flowers, Dogs, plane, etc. And the AI that is indexing all this and sending it to aple for AI improvement gets screwed up. So if you search for flowers and you have a keyword flowers it appears as though it mixes them.

[@macmost]

Nothing is sent to Apple. The indexing is done on your Mac. If you look at the search results page, Categories will just be the objects found, Keywords will be the ones you have tagged. So you can look at the results for either.

[@DirectorWD40]

Hi Gary... is there a way to have iCloud features on a library that is not a System Photo Library? Seems like Photos wont update the Photo Stream Album at less the library is placed in the startup disk and not on an external. This is an issue when needing to have the library on an external disk. Thank you.

[@dennisvanmierlo]

Hi Gary, Thank you for making this video. As always, I did learn a few new tricks 👌. I do have a Question. Can you make a video on the easiest way to tag people not recognized by Photos. Also hoe to remove those unwanted unknown tagged people! I did not find any option to remove unwanted tagged people. Lot’s of greetings, Dennis 🇳🇱

[@macmost]

When viewing a Photo, turn on View, Show Face Names. Then Control+click (right click, 2-finger click) on the face and you'll have the option. You'll also see faces that are "unnamed" and can click them and enter their names.

[@mehmd1913]

The biggest problem in photos is that not all the features in Photos is available on iOS and iCloud. Very frustrating. Probably the biggest detractor compared to Googles offering. However, I’d rather stay with Apple. I miss Aperture. Such a fantastic program. Fortunately, Photos is much better than it was 5 years ago.

[@John.John.Johnny.John.]

Great vid. I have noticed I have a lot of duplicates in my photo library and was wondering, is there is an easy way of removing the duplicates quickly and efficiently without having to do it manually?

[@macmost]

First, are you sure they are duplicates? I ask because a lot of people think because a photo is visible in All Photos and also in an album that it is there twice. If you really have duplicates, first figure out why and make sure you don't do that again so the problem doesn't continue (like if you are syncing both manually and via iCloud or something). Then go through them manually as you don't want to have an automatic process delete your photos, they are too valuable for that.

[@John.John.Johnny.John.]

@@macmost thanks for the reply. Appreciate your suggestions. Cheers

[@The_Free_NBraveJourney]

@@macmost I think that is easier said than done for a luddite. I dont ev en begin to know if I have inadvertently done a wierd sync to cause my problem. I see the photos as I scroll down and I see more batches of them as I scroll. If no automatic process going through 18k photo's may end me. lol

[@SoNowWhat]

I'm not a big fan of the Years/Months/Days view because Apple "curates" the selections. As you point out, in any of those views, you're not necessarily seeing all of the photos from that time frame unless you continue to drill down. If I took a picture of something that's totally unrelated to the other pictures in that time frame, it may not be displayed. Instead, I use the All Photos view, which shows everything, but still shows the dates and locations as well. I still like Albums so that you can selectively decide what to include and exclude. It's handy to show friends just the best pictures of that great trip to London for example. Also, I still enjoy the Memories generated slide shows, and the best way to do that is to start with your own user created Album.

[@macmost]

Sounds like the best option for you then is to organize by creating Albums. It is great that Photos includes many different ways to do it to accommodate peoples' preferences. It doesn't get enough credit for that.

[@SPR8364-0]

Can I presume that the Year, Months, Days buttons are a Catalina feature? My toolbar says Photos, Moments Collections, and Years. I couldn't seem to adjust them in Mojave.

[@macmost]

Yes. Catalina. I always do my tutorials using the latest versions of software. Catalina and this version of Photos came out back in October 2019.

[@wendalls53]

scanned photos dont have the meta data of when the photo was taken eg old black and white from say 1930

[@JeanHayward]

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro and os is Sierra.. is it able to da the same as this tutorial? Also what about scanned photos that have zero info other than date scanned?

[@Sherukka]

Just add the right day to those photos in the Photos Application?

[@virgilioabellon1922]

I export my Mac photo library in to my external drive. When done I have to choose replace boom my old library is gone. Is there a way to recover. is it in iCloud.How to open icloud.please help.thank you.

[@macmost]

Not sure what you are doing so it is hard to advise you, sorry. Exporting photos to an external drive shouldn't affect your library at all.

[@Greg-fg1rd]

What is the trigger so the photo registrars in "Places"?

[@SLow-fb3qm]

Greg GPS coordinates in the image EXIF. I use an excellent companion app called HashPhotos to mass add photos without in-image GPS data.

[@iLLSinceProductions]

I still miss iPhoto

[@0g.Ghost.7373]

Is there a way to find images that are duplicates?

[@macmost]

See macmost.com/forum/how-do-i-delete-duplicate-photos-in-catalina.html

[@DianaHarveyClark]

The only problem I have with the mac is viewing my photos at 100%, I think the preview app really sucks! I wish someone could write a program to be able to let me click through a folder of photos & let me choose the ones I want to bring into photoshop to edit! I do CD covers for music groups & it takes so much time to find the right front cover from a folder full of photos. I need to see them & 100% to see if they're in tack sharp or do I need to move on. Thank you for hearing my grip.

[@macmost]

Are these photos as files in folders in the Finder, or photos in albums in the Photos app? The wording in your comment makes me think you are talking about files, not in the Photos app. Simply select all of the photos in the folder (Command+a) and then spacebar to bring up Quick Look. Then click the full screen button near the top left corner. Then you get those images full screen and can use the arrow keys to flip through them. Other suggestions here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmfVkqKwZpaNkNE

[@DianaHarveyClark]

@@macmost I am talking about RAW images (.CR2). No I don't like to put them in albums or photos. When I am on a photoshoot & take my card out of my camera & stick it into my MacBook pro I would like to view what I just took to see if I can use any photos or if I need to take more..The windows view app was perfect but then I switched to mac.

[@macmost]

@@DianaHarveyClark Did you try what I suggested? CR2 RAW photos show up fine in Quick Look, though they take a few seconds to render since the files are huge. Gallery view, the preview sidebar and other ideas work too. See @

[@DianaHarveyClark]

@@macmost I will when I get time,we don't have power now, I want to thank you so much for trying to help me. Another thing I wanted to tell you that I watch you all the time because I had 1 brother that passed away back in 2010, He was a computer programmer worked for the State on Ky & you & he would pass for twins. Thank you again. I will let you know how I get along with the photos.

[@DianaHarveyClark]

@@macmost Yes! The quick Look WORKS great thank you so much!!

[@timrockman7]

I have more than 43,000 photos divided into 250 tagged 'Events' arranged by alphabetical order. Most of the events are added too and changed at different times over the years. That is, in my old MacBook Pro in iPhotos. Now I have a new MBP 11.2.3 with Photos and I HATE the stupid way everything gets piled one on top of another. iPhoto worked fine with a few unaddressed bugs that never got fixed. I think the guys who wrote the code for Photos were raised on Facebook and see the whole damn universe as just another Facebook page with 500 miles of date and time stacked entries requiring endless scrolling. Face Book is designed to waste as much of your day as possible and now Apple is mimicking FB. I don't think Apple consulted with any artists or photographers when designing Photos and now MBP should be called MacBook Amateur. Any suggestions for alternatives that make sense?

[@macmost]

iPhoto forced you to use Events. Photos lets you use Albums (or not) as you want. You can use them exactly like Events if you like. Or, use them some other way. Or, use tags. You have more control now with Photos than you had with iPhoto.

[@timrockman7]

@@macmost Thanks....I'll adapt.

[@williamhosford5284]

Teamviewer is it safe and what to do

[@macmost]

Not sure what you are asking. TeamViewer is remote access software. If your company/school uses it, then you'd need it for that. If some stranger tells you to use it, then absolutely don't. What is your situation?

[@roxanneloyst3733]

A little stuck on this one :(

[@onnyt60]

And then suddenly Apple decides to change the UI and everything goes to shit. I don't know the version of Photos in the video but mine doesn't look anything like this. Top row in my version I have Years, Collections, Moments, Photos. Also Years is just a wall of tiny thumbnails for each image.

[@macmost]

If you see that at the top, then you are using a much older version of Photos (and macOS).

[@onnyt60]

Yeah I’m on Mojave

[@copisetic1104]

Naw, I’d rather have folders with specific names.

[@mbiriviri]

Ridiculous--you want patreon support for showing how to use dates? No, people “organize’ because dates aren’t enough. What if you have pics of soccer games over many years and you want to see all your soccer pics. Silly, frivolous…

[@macmost]

I do 5 videos per week. If this one isn't for you, maybe one of my other ones is. Or maybe not.