Creating Custom Memories in Photos

If you enjoy the Memories feature of the Mac Photo app you don't need to wait for Memories to be automatically created, you can make your own. With either your custom Memory or an automatic one, you can also export the video to share or use in projects.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how to create your own custom memories in the Photos App and even export it as a video. 
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Now the Memories feature of the Photos App is really neat. It automatically creates these memories from a trip or an event and they popup every once in a while in the app. But I often get the question, how can you create your own custom one? In other words force it to have a memory based on a set of photos. It doesn't seem like you can do this. But, there is a way. 
First thing you need to do is in Photos you need to create an Album. So you can create a memory from an album but not just from a group of photos. So, for instance, here I'm going to select a bunch of photos and I'm going to then go and create a new album from that selection by using File, and then New Album with Selection, and create the new album there, and I'm going to name it. Now that I have an album I can create a memory from it. But I want to make sure of a couple of things.
First, I want to make sure I only have the photos that I want included in that memory and that they are in a good order. Because you can't really change the order or remove photos when you create a memory. So, I've got everything setup now. With this album selected here on the left I'm viewing it and notice this button here, that doesn't appear in the menus anywhere, the Context menus. It is just here at the top. Play Memory Video. When you do that it will bring up a memory. Now I'll pause it here. It looks just like a regular memory. It's got all the same controls and things at the bottom and all of that. But what it has actually done is it has created this memory. So if I go back here now and I look in Memories you could see it actually created it there. So it Saves it. I can go back in it and I could go now and view it. I can look at all the photos that are in it. I have controls here where I could change the look of the memory. So I'll change it to something like that. I can also go and change the music and there is a ton of different options. This is the kind of simple interface for creating this memory slideshow. 
It is not always what everyone is looking for because you don't have too much control over Memory. The idea is that it is simple. Just a bunch of photos. It is going to show it as a nice slideshow with music and that's it. If you want to create something more complex I'll show you how to do that in a minute. 
So while I've got this memory here I can click the three dots at the top and actually edit the title if I want. Title and subtitle. I can make a photo the key photo for that memory. So, for instance, if I'd rather have, say, I don't know, this one here as the key photo, I'll make it key photo and now when I go back you can see I've got it right there. When I'm looking at all my memories I can Control Click it and delete the memory if I want. I can delete memories that were automatically created as well. 
Now how about exporting memory. While obviously if you're looking at exporting the photos you already have this album here. That's where you should actually export the photos from. But if it is the video that you want to get exported you can do that. You would go into the Memory, pause it, and then if you go to File, and then Export you'll get Export Memory Video. So you only see this, this is only active when you're actually in the memory. It doesn't work if you just have the memory selected. So you select the Export function there. You get to select an Orientation, an Aspect Ratio, and where to Save it. I'm going to save it here to the Desktop and I can export it, and there it is. It's a fairly compact movie. There's only 54 MB there. If I double click it it will open it up in Quick Time Player. It looks good. It has all those transitions. It's got the filter that I wanted and everything. So a really quick slideshow. Now, of course, I can actually bring that into something else. Like I could bring it into iMovie, for instance, and maybe add it onto a movie I'm already creating there. 
Now what if you want more customization. You really want to be able to put the slide in it anywhere you want, remove slides, add slides, change transition, add text, and all of that. Well, you can do that in the Photos App but you just use the regular slideshow creating tool. So you don't even need to create the Album first. I can go back here to my All Photos List and I have these selected. I can go to File, and then Create, and then Slideshow and choose Photos as the app to create the slideshow. I can create a slideshow with any name I want. You can see it is under Projects. Now the slideshow interface allows you to select Music, Timing, you can swap photos, you can remove photos, you can add titles and text to the different photos that are here. You can do all sorts of things. You have a lot more control. It's just going to take a lot more time to actually build it. Of course, you can also build great slideshows in Keynote and iMovie. It is just a matter of how much work you want to put into it. The idea behind Memories here is that you can create these really quick slideshows, export them as videos, and share them, say, online very fast without taking up too much time and having to micromanage all the different aspects of it.
Of course, it is useful just to have memories around here in Memories and you'll see these across all of your devices if you're using iCloud Photos. So then you can gather together your best pictures from a trip or event and any time you feel like reminiscing you can just go to the Memory and play that memory video in the Photos App rather than clicking through the photos. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 6 Responses to “Creating Custom Memories in Photos”

Kathy

1 year ago

Hi Gary, thank you for your wonderful videos & tips. I was looking through some memories in Photos that the photos app created, and notice there are several pictures in many memories that do not belong to the memory at all. I have them titled in Info. I wonder is there a way to remove these from the memory? I notice there is a way to hide the photo but it will hide it throughout the photos program. Thanks in advance. K

Gary Rosenzweig

Kathy: Go to the grid view of the photos in the Memory. Click the + button at the end of the grid. Then remove the photo from the selection there.

Hi Gary, thank you! One other question, where do I turn on or show memories on the iPad or iPhone? K

Hi Gary, sorry, I found it in ‘For you’. Thank you so very much. K

Sharandeep

11 months ago

Hi Gary, I’m unable to add music to the memories I’ve created on my MacBook Air. I can’t see the music sign on it like I can on iPhone. How do I resolve this?
Thanks

Sharandeep: Not sure what the issue could be. The button is just missing? Maybe you aren't signed into Apple Music on your Mac?

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Creating Custom Memories in Photos

Comments: 6 Responses to “Creating Custom Memories in Photos”

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