Can't "keep only selection" from some burst photos

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Level 1

36 points

Can't "keep only selection" from some burst photos

Have noticed this "situation" a few times in a few different Photos libraries.

When sifting through burst photos, sometimes when you open a burst photo series to make your selection and click 'Done', it asks "would you like to keep" question and gives you the option to "Keep Only Selection" or "Keep Everything" (which I would call normal behavior).

But sometimes it never asks the question and just assumes you want to "keeps everything". There's no choice to get rid of the ones you don't want.

Any explanation why on some bursts you can't "Keep Only Selection"?

Posted on Jul 30, 2019 12:47 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

joakley Author

Level 1

36 points

Aug 12, 2019 3:32 PM in response to joakley

It turns out it may have been my understanding of how burst editing works.

Experimenting a bit. it appears the trick is you have to de-selective all "burst favorites" you might have clicked previously. Click 'Done'. Then go back into 'Make Selection' and rechoose what you had selected before. When you click 'Done', it resumes the choice to "keep only selection".

What was surprising is that that I always had chosen "keep only selection" with bursts in the past, so I have no idea how I ended up with "favorited bursts" (bursts when I had selected one or more and kept all of them) in the first place. Knowing how I work, I never would selected to "keep all" after I had made my choice of keepers.

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Answer 2

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Jul 31, 2019 7:53 AM in response to joakley

Hello joakley.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

If I'm understanding correctly, the 'Keep only Selected' option doesn't always appear when working with bursts in Photos. I will be glad to assist.

To isolate this, I would see if the issue occurs in safe mode as well:

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

Additionally, test in another user account to further isolate:

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac

Cheers.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,675 points

Aug 1, 2019 12:27 PM in response to joakley

The only thing I noticed about bursts is, that the selection will only work, when I select more than one photo as a keeper. It has been behaving buggy for quite some time. Which version of MacOS X do you have installed?

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Aug 5, 2019 6:01 PM in response to joakley

Then your only out is to make duplicates of the burst for each photo in it and then go though each and make your selection and click on Keep Only Selection.

-- Rich

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Answer 5

Rich839

Level 8

48,156 points

Aug 1, 2019 12:50 PM in response to joakley

I suppose you could, before you make your selection, take screen shots of the pics you want to keep and reimport them back in. Then make your selection from the burst and choose "Keep only selection". You will already have kept all pics that you want from your imported screenshots, albeit they won't be organized in a burst.

-- Rich

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Answer 6

joakley Author

Level 1

36 points

Jul 31, 2019 5:27 PM in response to chris_g1

Unfortunately I've noticed this behavior helping others and won't be able to troubleshoot on their Macs. I was hoping for some explanation on how a burst set of photos might end up "reducible" vs. "not reducible". Was there a certain iOS version that took burst photos differently? Or, if this is a sign the photo library has corruption and needs to be rebuilt?

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Answer 7

joakley Author

Level 1

36 points

Aug 5, 2019 2:31 PM in response to léonie

My experience has been the burst selection works as advertised most of the time. I'm just trying to figure out the rhyme or reason when it doesn't -- and can it be corrected. Is it related to how it was imported? (iCloud, Photostream, direct?) Is it related to a bug in the iOS version at the time? Is it photos that were migrated from an iPhoto Library?

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Answer 8

joakley Author

Level 1

36 points

Aug 5, 2019 2:32 PM in response to Rich839

This person it particular wants to print these photos. Screenshot resolution won't cut it, unfortunately.

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Can't "keep only selection" from some burst photos

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