Why is Photos now removing last name from identified faces?

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Level 1

11 points

Why is Photos now removing last name from identified faces?

Since upgrade to Big Sur a few days ago, Photos has removed the last name from people in the Peoples section of my photo library. I can reassign the last name, but it does not "stick" for more than a few minutes. There are no other duplicate sets of photos for the same person that need to be "merged" into one person's people file.

I have 393 people identified, including 10 "Favorites". The problem only appears to be happening to my "Favorites", but it has happened to 5 of them.

iMac 27″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 19, 2020 8:31 AM

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Answer 1

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jvspringrose Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 23, 2020 8:41 PM in response to jvspringrose

I have found a solution, at least for the time being it seems to work: I renamed the people whose last names had been deleted with a new and different last name (in this case I used "Adams"). This name "Stuck". Then I deleted these last names and reentered the correct last names. These correct last names now appear to "Stick" also.

I don't know what caused the problem or why this seems to work, but for now things are back to normal.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,279 points

Nov 19, 2020 9:03 AM in response to jvspringrose

The handling of the names seems to be determined by the preferences you have set in the Contacts.

Try the following:

Open the Contacts
Open the Preferences > General tab
Disable "Prefer Nicknames"
Set the "Short Name Format" to "Full Name".

Photos seems now to be respecting the Short Name Format set in Contacts, just like the iPhone version.

Photos has been removing the last name all along, but only for people, where we have been using the name suggestion from the Contacts, and where it could recognise the first name. Previously I have prefixed the name with some key, like "Family:" to make it impossible for Photos to recognise the first name and prevent it from shortening the name to the first name. This is now no longer necessary.

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Answer 3

jvspringrose Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 19, 2020 3:18 PM in response to léonie

Sorry - good thought, but that wasn't it. My Preferences in Contacts was already set as you have suggested (see attached screen shot) and the problem occurred anyway. This is not the answer. (BTW, Contact Preferences also allowed for " Show Siri Suggestions", but I unchecked that box and again it made no difference.

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Why is Photos now removing last name from identified faces?

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