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I am a new Mac user. I was told that after I name a few people, Photos on a Mac automatically adds people's names to other pictures that include the same People. However, this does not seem to happen on my Mac. OS: Big Sur 11.2.1. Is there a setting that enables automatic labeling of People?
The automatic face detection is working on my Mac with Big Sur.
But you have to help Photos a bit to get a sufficiently large training set to learn what a person looks like. Photos can only use faces to learn what a person looks like, that it has recognised automatically as a face. Have you already enabled the overlay of circles around detected faces? If not, turn it on in the menu "View > Show face names". Now you will see circles around each and every face detected by Photos, when you enlarge a photo. Are circles missing, where you would have expected Photos to recognise as a face? Util Photos has learned what a person looks like, continue to enter names into the name fields below the automatically detected faces. The manually added circles do not help for the automatic face recognition.
Photos will not always immediately label the recognised faces with names, but wait for your confirmation, that the name is correct. To see, which names have already been assigned tentatively, but are waiting for a confirmation, open each of your named people album in turn and use the command "Confirm additional faces" at the bottom of the album. If Photos is showing a message about "Updating" below the album of a person, it is waiting for more photos of this person, where it can detect the face.
What is the image format of your images? Are it JPEGs or another image format?
Where is your Photos Library stored? On an external volume or on the system volume? Photos may not be able to analyse the photos, if the Photos Library is on an unsupported volume, see: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
The automatic face detection is working on my Mac with Big Sur.
But you have to help Photos a bit to get a sufficiently large training set to learn what a person looks like. Photos can only use faces to learn what a person looks like, that it has recognised automatically as a face. Have you already enabled the overlay of circles around detected faces? If not, turn it on in the menu "View > Show face names". Now you will see circles around each and every face detected by Photos, when you enlarge a photo. Are circles missing, where you would have expected Photos to recognise as a face? Util Photos has learned what a person looks like, continue to enter names into the name fields below the automatically detected faces. The manually added circles do not help for the automatic face recognition.
Photos will not always immediately label the recognised faces with names, but wait for your confirmation, that the name is correct. To see, which names have already been assigned tentatively, but are waiting for a confirmation, open each of your named people album in turn and use the command "Confirm additional faces" at the bottom of the album. If Photos is showing a message about "Updating" below the album of a person, it is waiting for more photos of this person, where it can detect the face.
What is the image format of your images? Are it JPEGs or another image format?
Where is your Photos Library stored? On an external volume or on the system volume? Photos may not be able to analyse the photos, if the Photos Library is on an unsupported volume, see: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support
AppleYVR wrote:
All my photos are jpegs. They are all stored in the \Shared\Pictures folder and not in the Photos database. The Photos library itself is stored on my Mac's hard drive.
Are you running a "referenced" library rather than the default "managed" library?
If you are you should read this user tip by léonie: Disadvantages of a Referenced Library in Photos - Updated for macOS 10.15 Catalina
Hello AppleYVR,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you're having trouble with people not being recognized in Photos. We are happy to share information that may help.
First, take a look at the information here to ensure you're using the correct steps to identify people: Find and identify photos of people using Photos on Mac.
Have you had a chance to restart your Mac: Log out, sleep, restart, or shut down your Mac.
Also, if you have other devices, check to see if people are being added there as expected.
Take care/
Thanks for your response, Leonie. All my photos are jpegs. They are all stored in the \Shared\Pictures folder and not in the Photos database. The Photos library itself is stored on my Mac's hard drive.
The overlay of circles around faces must be enabled as these circles do pop up and I have been labeling people. However, even after labeling the same person about 25 times in 25 different pictures, Photos still does not seem to recognize that person in the next unlabeled picture.
It used to work in earlier macOS . But in Big Sur there seems to be a bug where automatic face recognition does not start.
Thanks for your suggestions; a few weeks later Photos has started labeling faces automatically.
Can Photos on a Mac automatically label People?
