How can you change the "year" photo in Photos?

It's a fairly horrible workaround - but try this.

Don't forget to restore the deleted images.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251029088

The problem with the key photos it two-fold, as I see it.

• We want to avoid potentially embarrassing photos as the key photo in the Years, Months, in the Places, in the Memories, or the key photos of albums, or as a featured photo on our iPhone. This can be done by hiding any photos that should not be shown accidentally, but are photos we want to keep in the Photos Library for easy access.
• We want to have key photos for the years and months, that are the most outstanding and typical photos for the year or month, so we can see at a glance, what has been the most important event in that year. The Years view is just showing the key photo and the year, so the photo should be a photo most distinctive for the year, giving as much information as possible. The earlier versions of Photos have been showing at least a list of countries in the header for each year. This is gone now. I would have to hide all photos showing people before I can be sure to get a key photo with a scenic landmark. or at least a photo I have taken myself and not some saved photo someone has sent me. Hiding half the library is not feasible.

Hiding helps to avoid embarrassment, but will not ensure that we get the most distinctive, informative, and outstanding photo as the key photo.

One problem with hiding is, that the photos will only be visible in the Hidden album, in one endless list, and the search does not find them. As I cannot hide half of my library, I have tried something else. I have subtracted 1000 years from the date of the photos, that I do not want to to be mixed with my own current photos. The photos sent to me by family members and friends are now in the years 900 to 1100, and I am now finding my own photos with the original years in the Years view. This has essentially split the library into two libraries, but within one library. So I can search cross both parts and create albums across both parts.

It is fairly hopeless. The work-around referenced by Tony is currently the only way. But it does not hold. If you ever have to upgrade the library to a new version of Photos and Photos is scanning the library again, it will start over with key photos you do not like. If you really do not like the photo chosen by Photos, delete it outright. If you like it little, hide it.

There is unfortunately no way to tell Photos what kind of photos we would like to see as key photos. I would like to see the a picture of Antarctica as the yearly key photo for the year we went to Antactica, for example, but all yearly photos are showing always the same people at family get togethers. Photos seems to prefer photos showing happy people as the key frames. But a photo with a happy smiling face does not tell me which countries I have visited during that year.

Hi - in that scenario - if it is a photo they don't like or don't want to see, is it an option to hide it? In fact I've just checked, and hiding/unhiding works like deleting/undeleting - with the benefit of not losing it if you forget to unhide, and/or you can leave it hidden if you want to.