can i delete the photos in 'recent'

Hi

There is only one copy of each photo in your library, as shown in your all photos view.

The recent folder is just a list of those images which have been added recently. Just as the imports folder is just a list showing the photos added in each import.

In all cases these are just automatically generated different views of the same files in your library. No additional space is taken up, since they are all only ever showing the file that is in your all photos view. So no, you can't remove them from there without removing them completeley from your library.

Similarly when you add a photo to an album, it doesn't make a copy of that photo. It just adds the name of that photo to a list of images in that albim. When you look at that album, it just shows that list of photos that are held in the library/all photos view. In this case, you can remove the photo from the album (becuase it has been manually created). But all that happens is the name of the photo is removed from the list - no image file is deleted.

Your pictures in total are your library. The recents is just an organization scheme. Just like people, places, imports, etc. You will not be able to remove any pictures from recent or imports or places, etc.

But your smart album should work if you select not in any album -- My smart album shows 1100 pictures and 120 videos not in an album -- It ignores recents, imports, etc. and only considers your albums. If nothing else, delete the smart album and make it again.

Recently deleted appears on the sidebar to the left.

See this thread for the only info that might help wiht panoramas

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8024384

They got in there by being recent. It is an automatically generated view that displays all recent photographs.

Regarding your smart album not in any album, there is a bug in Catalina so that if you delete an album that has pictures in it, Photos still thinks they are in the album, and there is no way to change that. So "not in any" will not detect them.

I think this is resolved now in Big Sur, so you might need to update to fix this issue.

ok, so technically, the 'recent' is a library, not an album.

No, it's not. It's a Smart Album - or in other words, a list or recently accessed items. Terminology is important here because there's a heck of a difference between deleting from a list and deleting from a library.

but I DON'T see any 'recently deleted ' on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 ?

It's only visible if there is something in it.

The Recent album should be showing you as many items as "All Photos", just sorted differently, according to the time you used them last.

Photos is trying to be helpful and presenting you the items in different ways - sorted by the date of import (in the Imports album), sorted by the capture date (in All Photos), sorted by the most recent use (in Recents). The sort order is fixed and specific for each predefined album. You can see the sort order , if you select an album and go to the view menu. You will see the predefined sort order greyed out. Other predefined albums are showing a subset of the items in your library, selected according to some rules. The Panoramic album is showing photos with an extreme aspect ratio, not necessarily photos taken in the panoramic mode.

All photos appear in recent and in the all photos library. Recent just orders by most recent touched (either added or modified).

As already stated, Recents is just a system generated view into the library. The user can not change it. I think the idea is that if you import an image with an exif date of 1,000,000 BC, it will obviously be first in the "Library-all photos" view, but will be at the end of the Recent's view.