Find Photos Not In Albums

If you need to find all of the photos in your Mac Photos Library that have not yet been assigned to an album, you can't do it with a search, but you can do it with a Smart Album.

Comments: 24 Responses to “Find Photos Not In Albums”

    Eugenia
    1 month ago

    WOW! I've never tried to use Smart Album but I also can get behind in assigning images to albums. I do use keywords but still find albums the easiest for me. Thanks.

    Jack
    1 month ago

    Gary, in the video you show how to search the location by the text that is entered. Much like your smart album of no album so you can assign them, how can I create a smart album with no location? I used to be able to do this by searching location "untitled".
    Thanks

    1 month ago

    Jack: Photo, Is Not, Tagged With GPS

    Jack
    1 month ago

    Gary, that worked perfectly! Thank you

    Jim Terrinoni
    1 month ago

    Interesting solutions to some vexing problems, thank you!

    Art Busbey
    1 month ago

    This is a little off topic, but how can I use Smart Albums to find pictures where Photos has identified a face but I haven't give a name to the face yet? Thanks.

    1 month ago

    Art: You can't use Smart Albums for that. But you don't need to. Click on People & Pets in the left sidebar. Then for people you already have there, go into each one and scroll to the bottom. Select Review More Photos. For people not yet there, go back to the top level of People & Pets, and click the Add People button at the bottom of that.

    Mike Russell
    1 month ago

    This is the closest work around to the “issue” of photos remaining in your Library even after being moved into a Folder or Album. Does anyone else wish Apple would allow this? A neat, empty library with all photos sorted? Like a clean email inbox?

    Art Busbey
    1 month ago

    Gary, thanks for the comment. I didn't realize that the Add People button would show you all the people that Photos could not recognize.

    1 month ago

    Mike: That's not how it works though. Every photo is in your library. If it wasn't in your library, then it wouldn't be there at all. Think of it like "Songs" in the iTunes/Music app. Every song is there.
    But you can create albums, which are like playlists. The photos aren't IN the album, they are all in your library. But they can be referenced in an album the same way songs are referenced in playlist.
    I did a video on this: https://macmost.com/understanding-how-your-photos-are-stored-in-your-mac-photos-app.html

    Shirley Putschoegl
    1 month ago

    Does this work for videos also? I make videos of trips and etc.

    Clinton Hayes
    1 month ago

    Hi Gary,

    Thanks for that. Never used Smart Albums before but can see the myriad of ways I may be able to utilise them. I had photos stored on the PC and then in iCloud; in the old photos app and then the newer one and somehow (probably my fault), I now seem to have lost some photos.
    However, strangely as I didn't think I used it much, Google Photos seems to have my entire collection. Maybe importing all and then using Smart Albums might resolve my issue?

    1 month ago

    Clinton: Sounds like you installed Google Photos and gave it permission to grab all of your images. I'd look into that and get it sorted. I don't see how Smart Albums will help with that in any way.

    1 month ago

    Shirley: Yes. Try it and see.

    pw
    1 month ago

    ...what is a method to create a 'title' or 'keyword' for images the were just added to Photos in order to create smart album searches more accurately?? btw–great videos!

    1 month ago

    pw: Not sure what you mean. What are you looking to create, exactly?

    Carolyn Johnson
    1 month ago

    Thank you! I've spent two extremely cold snowed in winter days sorting photos into albums, and creating some new albums. This is extremely helpful and not difficult to do!! You are my 'go to' when I have a Mac question. In this, you solved an issue I didn't know I had!!

    Pat
    1 month ago

    'Any' is not an option on my MacBook. iOS 15.3.1

    1 month ago

    Pat: Are you sure you have the first two selected correctly: Album first, then Is Not second?

    Eric
    1 month ago

    To tie into Photos and organization—under People & Pets, aside from the “Find More” option within each identified person, is there a way to manually trigger a full review of the existing photo library? It seems that updates happen sporadically, often remain incomplete, and require selecting individuals for re-checking. It would be helpful to have an option to force a comprehensive re-scan periodically. Would it be possible to achieve this using an Automator script?

    1 month ago

    Eric: There's no way to force a re-scan and you shouldn't need to. In addition to "Find More" you can go to the bottom of the main list of people and there is an "Add People" button that may be what you are looking for. You can also go to any individual photo you want and add people with Window, Info and there is an Add Faces button. Once you use this, it should trigger a rescan in the background looking for more instances of that person.

    Sheldon
    1 month ago

    Thanks bunches

    pw
    4 weeks ago

    Gary, what I look to create is a way to get a 'keyword' or 'title' or 'caption' or 'location' pre-set before I use the iphone in order to take a bunch of photos (NOT at the same time, event or location) that are, by default then, keyworded or titled reducing the need/time to sit at the computer and make an album and drag random but related photos due the fact that a simple search will find the title or keyword in the Photos menu item 'window'->Info.

    4 weeks ago

    pw: So you want to tell your iPhone that all photos taken from now until you change something will be tagged "A" or something? But what is the difference if you just select those photos after you take them and do it? They would all be together since they were taken at the same time. Easy to select and organize.

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