AppleScript for Photos to set all my albums to Sort By Title/Name

On Catalina it is really tedious. In the older version of Photos you could simply ask the application for a list of all albums, but on Catalina we have to traverse all folders recursively:

The old method (Photos 1 to 4) to return list of all album names:

tell application "Photos"
	set allalbums to the albums
	set theseNames to name of albums
end tell

The new method on Catalina (slow as molasses)

set allfolders to {}

tell application "Photos"
	
	set allalbums to the albums --  collect all albums, get the top level albums
	
	set level to 0 -- nesting level of folders
	
	set nextlevelFolders to the folders -- get the top level folders
	set currentLevelFolders to {}
	
	repeat while (nextlevelFolders is not {})
		set currentLevelFolders to nextlevelFolders
		set nextlevelFolders to {}
		repeat with fi in currentLevelFolders
			tell fi
				set ffolders to its folders
				set falbums to its albums
				set nextlevelFolders to ffolders & nextlevelFolders
				set allalbums to falbums & allalbums
			end tell
		end repeat
		set allfolders to currentLevelFolders & allfolders
		set level to level + 1
	end repeat
	
end tell

• Sample code for Catalina:
  • Photos 5.0 on Catalina: How to get a list of all albums - Apple Community
  • How to find out the albums a photo is in: Jacques Rioux's Script, Catalina Version for Photos 5 - Apple Community
  • Script: Find Photos not in Any Album, for Photos 5 on Catalina
• Sample code for older System versions:
  • How to find out the albums a photo is in: Jacques Rioux's Script, Mojave version 2019

You will find many scripts on this index page for user tips: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000226

The dictionary for Photos in Apple Script does not have a single command to set the sort order for albums.

You would have to use GUI Scripting - write a script that is pushing the buttons in the Photos interface.

I have given up on writing these kind of scripts, because they are usually not very robust and will break after each system upgrade.

You can find some information on GUI scripting in this documentation: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/MacAutomationScriptingGuide/AutomatetheUserInterface.html

You're welcome 😊

You may want to post your finished script here, if you find a way to do what you want. There are quite a few users interested in using Apple Script with Photos.