Script: How to Find Photos Without any Keywords, 2019 version

Photos (version 1.0 to 4.0) has no option to search for photos that have not yet have any keywords assigned, like we could in Aperture or iPhoto. There is no search rule "Keyword is none" for the smart albums.

The Apple Script below can be used to look at selected photos in Photos and to add all photos to an album, that do not have any keywords.

See OT's post below for a download link.

(* Find All Photos Without Keywords   © Léonie
  --------------------------------
  
This script will scan the photos passed to it for keywords and add  all photos without keywords to a standard album called missingKeywordsAlbum  

To use this script, select a some photos in Photos to check for missing keyword.
Then press the "Run" button.


The photos can be passed to the script in two ways:
1. Either select photos while viewing the  "All Photos" album; this works better than Moments or smart albums
2. Or collect the Photos in a top level defined album with a fixed name. This is safer when your Photos Library is an iCloud Photo Library. 

If you want to select the photos without collecting them in an album, set the variable "ReadFromAlbum" to false
If you want to pass the photos in a toplevel album, set ReadFromAlbum to true and change the variable "theAlbumName" to the name of the album you are using.

 *)

set ReadFromAlbum to false

-- set this to true, if you want to pass the photos in a toplevel album
set theAlbumName to "PhotoDropBox" -- change this to the name of the album you will use


set imageSel to {}
set saved_delimiter to AppleScript's text item delimiters --save the delimiter
set missingalbumname to "missingKeywordsAlbum"

tell application "Photos"
	activate
	if (ReadFromAlbum) then -- the photos will be passed in a toplevel album named "PhotoDropBox"
		
		try
			
			if exists container theAlbumName then
				
				set thePhotosBuffer to container theAlbumName
				set imageSel to every media item of thePhotosBuffer
			else
				error "Album " & theAlbumName & "does not exist"
			end if
			
		on error errTexttwo number errNumtwo
			display dialog "Cannot open album: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
		end try
		
	else -- process the selected photos from the All Photos album
		try
			set imageSel to (get selection)
		on error errTexttwo number errNumtwo
			display dialog "Cannot get the selection: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
		end try
		
	end if
	
	--	check, if the album or the selected photos do contain images
	if imageSel is {} then
		error "Please select some images."
	else -- create an album for the photos without keywords
		try
			
			if exists container missingalbumname then
				
				set kwa to container missingalbumname
			else
				set kwa to (make new album named missingalbumname)
				
			end if
			
		on error errTexttwo number errNumtwo
			display dialog "Cannot open album missingKeywordsAlbum: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
		end try
		
		repeat with im in imageSel
			
			try
				
				tell im
					--set the text item delimiter
					set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {", "} --use a comma and space as the delimiter 
					-- retrieve the keywords
					
					set kws to its keywords as string
					if (not (exists kws) or (kws is "missing value")) then
						add {im} to kwa
					end if
					
				end tell
			on error errText number errNum
				display dialog "Error: " & errNum & return & errText & "Trying again"
				try
					delay 2 -- wait and try again
					tell im
						--set the text item delimiter
						set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {", "} --use a comma and space as the delimiter 
						-- retrieve the keywords
						
						set kws to its keywords as string
						if (not (exists kws) or (kws is "missing value")) then
							add {im} to kwa
						end if
						
					end tell
				on error errTexttwo number errNumtwo
					display dialog "Skipping image due to repeated error: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo
				end try
			end try
		end repeat
	end if
end tell
-- display dialog "Done"
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to saved_delimiter --restore  the delimiter

return "Done"

The script compiled as an application can be downloaded from Old Toad's tutorial site: P01 - Applescripts from Photos’ User Tips Compiled as Applications