Do imported photos always stay in the imports folder?

Yes - the imports folder is a list of all imports into your library. Usefull mainly for finding recent imported items, but can also be useful for older imports (eg when did I import those photos from my holiday last year)

It becomes particularly useful when the imported files don't have dates correctly set making them difficult to find in the all photos view. You don't know where to look there, but you know roughly when you imported them.

Note - these automatic folders do not contain copies of the files (no more space taken) they are just different views of your library.

That is why I call them "Views into the Photos Library", hang what Apple calls them.

All albums created automatically by Photos are similar to smart albums. They are based on your complete Photos library, and the photos in them are selected according to rules specific for this album. Additionally,the photos will be sorted also specific for that particular album.

Because the predefined albums are based on all items in the library, we must not delete items from these albums, unless we want to delete them completely from the photos library. There is no way to “remove” items from Recents or any other automatically created album.

@Tony : I find Apple’s use of the term folder in Photos horribly inconsistent and confusing. Since the first introduction of Photos in 2015, a folder has been a container for grouping albums. It could not hold any media items, only subfolders, albums and smart albums. The user defined folders are still limited to holding albums and folders, not media items. Now Apple is calling the predefined albums suddenly folders, and suddenly we are having foldes containing media items, in addition to the regular folders, containing albums. This is a very poor and inconsistent choice if terminology.

Hi

When you delete it from either location, it will go from both locations. IE, you are deleting it completely from the photos app.

Keith Barkley wrote:

That is why I call them "Views into the Photos Library", hang what Apple calls them.

A very good idea, Keith.