Problem in Photos 5.0: Referenced Photos do not show in the Places Album

by: léonie

Last modified: Dec 23, 2019 5:54 AM

3 1164 Last modified Dec 23, 2019 5:54 AM

Since the upgrade to Photos 5.0 on macOS 10.5 Catalina the Places album does not show any referenced photos on the map, even if the original photos have been tagged with GPS coordinates or the GPS coordinated have been added manually in Photos, and the tiny map in the Info for the photo is correctly showing a location pin.

The Info panel for the photo will be hanging with the message "Looking up location Info" and the Places album will not be showing the photo thumbnail.

You are having two options to fix this:

Consolidate the referenced photos: Select the photos and use "File > Consolidate" to copy the referenced originals into the Photos Library, if the space permits this. Then Photos will be able to look up the locations. This will have the added bonus, that you can use the photos with iCloud Library.
Use the Maps.app: Or you could create an automator service to show selected photos in Apple's Maps.app. This way you will see them as pins on the maps and can use the better maps of the Maps.app: See this user tip on how to create the service: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000301

In Catalina we can create the service as a quick action, select the photos in Photos, then launch the Quick Action from the Finder or the Touch Bar, if the Mac has a Touch Bar.