Photos Library Randomization

The iPhoto and Photos libraries were not intended for users to browse around inside the library's package. The images are available thru the app.

If you're running Photos V 4;0 you can create a smart album with the following criteria:

that will display all of the photos in the library. There you can sort the photos by any of these methods:

You can rename your library to any name you'd like. It's now called iPhoto Library because that was the name of the library that was migrated to Photos.

The new master file names are to facilitate improved efficiency in syncing with the iCloud Library online. With similar file names there was too much perusing of the actual files for names and the uploading time was becoming much too long. However, the original file names are maintained in a database and are displayed under the thumbnails (V5.0). If you export the photos out of the library and choose to use the File name as the new name the original file names will be used.

Again, the library is not designed for users to browse around inside the package.

This is a factor of iCloud synchronisation, as far as we know.

No you can't revert the library back to the way it used to work.

If you export the images (File -> Export) they export with their original filenames. Yes, other devices will read the library the same way.

Just to be clear though, copying the photos library folder is still an appropriate way to back my photos up, correct?

Appropriate? Just about the only way if you want to preserve your photos, editing, organisation, and all the metadata you've added.

Just to be clear though, copying the photos library folder is still an appropriate way to back my photos up, correct? Thanks for explaining the purpose of the new file names, OT.

It is a very good way to backup your Photos Library, as long as you do not use iCloud Photos and "Optimize mac Storage". If you are now using iCloud Photos the original image files may not all be included in the copy of your Photos Library, because the optimized originals are only stored in iCloud and not on your mac.

Andthe second problem is, you need to be able to run Photos to be able to get access to your photos. If the library should be corrupted and Photos cannot open it, you will not be able to recognize the photos in the library package by their filename.

I would keep a copy of the original image files, exported as described by OT, as a separate backup of the original image files. Then you will at least have access to your original image files, if you cannot run Photos for some reason. i am also keeping two backups of my photos, a Time Machine backup of the Photos Library, the exported originals, and also the original iPhoto Libraries and Aperture Libraries.

as long as you do not use iCloud Photos and "Optimize mac Storage". If you are now using iCloud Photos the original image files may not all be included in the copy of your Photos Library, because the optimized originals are only stored in iCloud and not on your mac.

Andthe second problem is, you need to be able to run Photos to be able to get access to your photos. If the library should be corrupted and Photos cannot open it, you will not be able to recognize the photos in the library package by their filename.

Good grief, is there any value in this app at all? Rather than making things easier it seems to make everything more complicated.

Thanks for the guidance, OT. However, the only option that appears in the "sort" menu, regardless of what album, media type, or library I'm looking at, is "Keep sorted by oldest first" or "Keep sorted by oldest date added"... and even that choice is grayed out. I would like to order the images by title. I'm not using iCloud, but I do have a few shared albums. I'm in Photos 5.0 on macOS 10.15.3, on a new 16" MacBook Pro. Any advice?

Good grief, is there any value in this app at all? Rather than making things easier it seems to make everything more complicated.

iCloud Photos is fine, as long as we are not trying to save storage and fall for the "optimise" option. As soon as we get trapped by an optimised library, it effectively is making it very hard to get any kind of backup of our photos library. Neither cloning, copying, Time Machine, or even PowerPhotos will give us a copy of the library that will include the originals. Even, if we are not using "Optimize" we can never be sure, that all photos have been downloaded from iCloud. Photos has no status indicator or smart album rule, that allows us to search for photos that still need downloading. The status line "updated just now" is only telling us, that all changes have been synced, but not, that all originals have been downloaded. I am regularly exporting all originals to an external volume. This is forcing the download from iCloud.

The same goes for iOS devices. The iOS iCloud backup will not include the photos at all, if iCloud Photos is enabled. And with "Optimize" the iTunes backup will also not include all originals, as you probably know. The worst is, that many users are thinking, that iCloud Photos is a backup and think their photos are safe, and discover too late, that iCloud Photos is making the usual backups incomplete.

I was an Aperture user and I waited to see what Photos would be like on launch, and even accepting that first drafts are there to be improved on, it was clear that the app was never going to be a replacement for Aperture. But gracious, when you find yourself having to regularly export all the originals, just to maintain a basic back up, I have to wonder when you get to the point that the app is just not worth the trouble.

I have to wonder when you get to the point that the app is just not worth the trouble.

The Photos.app has been getting much better with each upgrade from Photos 1 to Photos 4. Photos 5 has been an unpleasant shock. I'll wait and see if the successor to Catalina will correct this ill-considered and problematic design.

i am glad that my older three Macs are still running Mojave with Photos 4, which has been acceptable to me and suffices for my needs. I started to use Macs because I liked the powerful software, that could not be run on other systems, so I invested in a Mac. Aperture, Final Cut, GarageBand, Logic Pro, iWeb and iDVD kept me buying Macs, not the elegant hardware design. Several of these reasons to buy a Mac do no longer exists. If I have to buy third-party software anyway instead of getting outstanding, advanced and trend-setting Apple Software with a new mac and have to live with a mixture of thirt-party applications, that can break with each system upgrade, a can as well go back to a Linux PC and the rich treasure of open source software, like DigiKam and GIMP.

But gracious, when you find yourself having to regularly export all the originals, just to maintain a basic back up

Exporting from Photos will be too late. We have to archive the originals, before Photos is renaming them and destroying the original EXIF tags. So save them, before they enter the Photos library. Aperture had a nice tool to archive the originals automatically on import. I started to backup the originals already as an Aperture user. It saved my bacon a few times when I encountered JPEG corruption of the originals.

Until now I have had only Shared Albums. I just created a test album under "My Albums", and the sort options are now Title, Oldest, or Newest. So I guess that if I want to sort them thusly, I have to dump all the images into an album under "My Albums" rather than use "Photos" as my starting point. (Or rather, the references to the images, which are on my laptop.) Good to know.

That shouldn't happen. You should be able to choose one of several sort options in regular and smart albums. Have you tried sorting in regular albums you've created or smart albums?

You can also sort smart albums by the date or title, like standard albums.

Yes, that's how it works. The only views that can be sorted by the user are albums and smart albums. Shared albums are sorted or listed in the order of when the photo was added to the album.