Solamanzi

Q: "On This Day" Feature for mac Photos, does it exist?

Hello,

 

I love the Facebook feature "On this Day" but would love to have it on my mac rather than upload my entire photo collection to FB for this to work year on year etc. Does anybody know how to replicate this through scripting, 3rd party app etc?

Posted on Mar 6, 2016 1:44 PM

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Q: "On This Day" Feature for mac Photos, does it exist?

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Mar 6, 2016 1:46 PM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (84,150 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 6, 2016 1:46 PM in response to Solamanzi

    There is no such feature in Photos

     

    You could do it using a smart album

     

    LN

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Mar 6, 2016 2:05 PM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 6, 2016 2:05 PM in response to Solamanzi

    In the Photos/Moments window photos are sorted and grouped by date taken. 

    Photos001.jpg

    OTsig.png

  • by Solamanzi,

    Solamanzi Solamanzi Mar 6, 2016 10:55 PM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2016 10:55 PM in response to Solamanzi

    Thanks for the responses. Have either of you used the Facebook feature "On This Day" Could smart Albums sort this out?

    http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/03/introducing-on-this-day-a-new-way-to-look-ba ck-at-photos-and-memories-on-facebook/

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Mar 7, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (84,150 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 7, 2016 7:36 AM in response to Solamanzi

    Only as to photos - yes - make a smart album for date is [desired date] and the photos for that date will be in it - edit the date to see a different date

     

    LN

  • by Solamanzi,

    Solamanzi Solamanzi Mar 7, 2016 7:39 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2016 7:39 AM in response to LarryHN

    I have managed to create a list of dates back to the early 70's but essentially I am looking to make it smart, that way I would not have to change 40+ single date entries each day.

     

    Perhaps Automater could help me here... anybody have any Automater experience?

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Mar 7, 2016 8:51 AM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 7, 2016 8:51 AM in response to Solamanzi

    Create one smart album and set the date.  Duplicate that album and edit the date setting.  Duplicate again and edit again.  That would be much quicker than trying to figure out how to do it with automator or Applescript.

  • by Solamanzi,

    Solamanzi Solamanzi Mar 7, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Old Toad

    I have implemented your suggestion but it will take me ages to work thorough it each day...Screen Shot 2016-03-07 at 18.20.20.pngScreen Shot 2016-03-07 at 18.20.05.png

  • by Solamanzi,

    Solamanzi Solamanzi Mar 7, 2016 10:23 AM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2016 10:23 AM in response to Solamanzi

    As above, each day i now need to change the day, every day and the month/year when relevant etc...

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Mar 7, 2016 10:31 AM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (140,898 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Mar 7, 2016 10:31 AM in response to Solamanzi

    My bad.  I didn't realize you wanted a smart album for the same day in all years.  That is a bit more daunting.  Someone who is proficient in Applescripting might be able to find all images with a specific day only.  I'll ask one user who's good at that to drop in and see if she can help.

  • by Solamanzi,

    Solamanzi Solamanzi Mar 7, 2016 3:06 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2016 3:06 PM in response to Old Toad

    Ok thanks. I have started writing some test scripts etc but I was hoping somebody already had this covered. I really enjoy the feature on Facebook but would prefer to keep the pics on my mac and perhaps even set the screen saver as this smart album... that would be cool hey?

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Mar 8, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (105,599 points)
    iLife
    Mar 8, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Solamanzi

    Try this script: But try it on a test library, I have not done much testing:  The current version will find all photos taken on the same month and day as the current date.  Today it will show all photos taken on an 8th of March.

     

    -- find all photos taken on a certain day, for example the day and month of the current date.

    -- the resulting photos will be added to a toplevel album named "On day month".

     

    set thisday to the day of (the (current date) as date) --change this to the day you want, for example "25"

    set thismonth to the month of (the (current date) as date) --change this to the month you want, for example "december"

     

    set thisDayAlbum to "On " & thismonth & " " & thisday as string

     

    tell application "Photos"

      try

     

      if exists container thisDayAlbum then

     

      set thePhotosBuffer to container thisDayAlbum

      else

      make album named thisDayAlbum

     

      end if

      on error errTexttwo number errNumtwo

      display dialog "Cannot open album: " & thisDayAlbum & " " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo

      return

      end try

     

      set onthisdayFound to {}

      set onthisdaySkipped to {}

     

     

      set allTheItems to every media item -- get a list of all photos and videos, may take a while

      -- add all photos taken this day to the album

     

      repeat with i from 1 to the count of allTheItems

      -- check the dates of all photos and videos

      set thisMediaItem to item i of allTheItems

      try

      set date_i to the date of thisMediaItem

      set day_i to the day of (date_i as date)

      set month_i to the month of (date_i as date)

      if ((day_i = thisday) and (month_i = thismonth)) then

      set end of onthisdayFound to thisMediaItem

      add {thisMediaItem} to container thisDayAlbum

      end if

      on error errTexttwo number errNumtwo

      set end of onthisdaySkipped to thisMediaItem

      end try

      end repeat

    end tell

     

    set theresultmessage to "Found " & (the count of onthisdayFound) & " items and added them to the album " & thisDayAlbum & ".

      Skipped " & (the count of onthisdaySkipped) & " items without date"

     

    display dialog theresultmessage

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Mar 8, 2016 3:39 AM in response to léonie
    Level 10 (105,599 points)
    iLife
    Mar 8, 2016 3:39 AM in response to léonie

    To find all photos taken on some arbitrary  day, for example Christmas Eve,  change the first two line to

     

    set thisday to 24--change this to the day you want, for example "24"

    set thismonth to 12 --change this to the month you want, for example 12 for December

  • by Solamanzi,

    Solamanzi Solamanzi Mar 8, 2016 6:52 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 6:52 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks Léonie

     

    I tried your script and had the following results:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 14.47.41.pngScreen Shot 2016-03-08 at 14.48.28.png

    I have pics the fit the scripts criteria but no results are found. Any ideas?

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Mar 8, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Solamanzi
    Level 10 (105,599 points)
    iLife
    Mar 8, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Solamanzi

    Does the unmodified version of the script with (the (current date) as date)  work?

     

    Which date is shown in the Info panel of the three photos you found in the smart album?

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