Smart album criteria not working Catalina

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rahuf Author

Level 1

13 points

Smart album criteria not working Catalina

Dear all,

I've set up the following simple smart album:

"Match all of the following conditions:

Photo is favorite

Date Added is in the range X to Y"

There are two problems:

The album has a handful of photos earlier than X
Many of the favorites marked within that time period are missing.

Any ideas what's going on? I've repaired the library and the problem persists, I've created a new library and the problem is there also. I'm running Catalina 10.15.6

My impression is that Photos is generally terrible (face recognition is worse than earlier versions, face recognition lacks learning or re-scanning options, smart albums has lots of known problems, etc.), so I'm also interested in what others are using as replacements for Photos. If I have to end up starting over with all my photos, no way am I going to use Apple's software. It really feels as if their focus on stability, quality and functionality has lapsed.

Thanks,

rahuf

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 6, 2020 8:52 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Sep 6, 2020 9:35 AM in response to rahuf

Do you have the iCloud Library enabled and, if so, also the Optimize Mac Storage?

Are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?

It's working for me so give these tests a go:

1 - as a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some geo tagged photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread)

2 - log into another admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac, and repeat #1 to see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).

3 - boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists in your primary library. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing.

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Answer 2

rahuf Author

Level 1

13 points

Sep 6, 2020 11:23 AM in response to Old Toad

Well, I feel silly. But at least this made me fix the problem!

I needed to use Date Captured rather than Date Added. D'oh!

(And just FYI, had already run the repair).

Still grumpy about people/faces, but it looks as if the repair may be causing it to re-scan, which is interesting. We'll see how that works out.

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Answer 3

rahuf Author

Level 1

13 points

Sep 6, 2020 11:07 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have iCloud library enabled.

Per your number 1 above - looks like it's limited to the current library.

Safe mode boot doesn't help, unfortunately.

I'd love not to loose all the work put into this library - any other suggestions?

It seems like it might be related to how Photos is tagging photos in ways that I can't edit or view, as others have mentioned with the issue of Photo is not any.

Suggestions of alternative software if I do need to start over?

Thanks again.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Sep 6, 2020 11:17 AM in response to rahuf

Have you tried deleting that first smart album and create a new one to see if it will work OK?

If the above is unsuccessful, make sure you have a current and full backup of your library. Then launch the library with the Option+Command keys held down and repair the library. Try the smart album again.

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Smart album criteria not working Catalina

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