How can I tell which albums a photo is in?

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Level 1

132 points

How can I tell which albums a photo is in?

I'm importing old photos from a negative scanner into Photos for Mac. After importing, I inspect them on the screen of my Mac. Some I then transfer to one or more albums I've created and others I realise I don't need. It isn't easy to remember which of the imports hasn't been added to any album, but I need to identify these so as to delete them. Clearly Photos must tag each photo with quite a bunch of information, including the edits it's had and the albums it's been included in, so theoretically this info is available.

Looking at older questions like this going back to iPhoto, I have not found an answer. Does anyone know how to access this information? I am sure the answer lies in the Photos Library but I don't have the expertise to find it myself.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Mar 8, 2022 7:31 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,995 points

Mar 8, 2022 9:08 AM in response to Living Fossil

You could search systematically for photos not in any album with a smart album.

File > New smart album
Set the rule to "Album is not any".

This will show your ll photos that are not in any album.

Photos has no tool to show you, which album a photo is in. You would have to add the album name as a keyword to the photo, for example by selecting all photos in an album together with ⌘A, then opening he iNfo with ⌘I and typing the album name into the keyword section of the Info.

Or run an Apple Script to show the albums.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

207,631 points

Mar 8, 2022 9:06 AM in response to Living Fossil

There is no built in method to tell what albums a photo is in. However, there is a user contributed AppleScript that will do that: How to find out the albums a photo is in: Jacques Rioux's Script, Catalina Version for Photos 5 - Apple Community

It works with the newest version of Photos and Monterey. It and other scripts are from Thematic Index to Photos for Mac related User Tips

The script compiled as an application can be downloaded from this tutorial site: P01 - Applescripts from Photos’ User Tips Compiled as Applications

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Answer 3

Living Fossil Author

Level 1

132 points

Mar 9, 2022 7:45 AM in response to léonie

Léonie - this is fabulous! It works, and is very fast. I was shocked to find that my Photos database has over 2000 photos that are not in any album! Thanks so much. The fact is that I have never explored Smart Albums, and didn't really understand what they were for. Anyway I can now tidy up not only my current project, but can consider how to deal with all those other orphans.

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Answer 4

Living Fossil Author

Level 1

132 points

Mar 9, 2022 7:47 AM in response to Old Toad

This is all good stuff which I had no idea about. Thanks a lot. I should say in passing that Léonie's reply did solve my immediate problem of finding out which photos aren't in any album - but the links you have given lead to some very interesting stuff.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,995 points

Mar 9, 2022 8:02 AM in response to Living Fossil

Good Luck! 😊

Smart albums are fun and very powerful. I am using them a lot for all kinds of problems. They update automatically and it is much quicker than dragging photos to albums.

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How can I tell which albums a photo is in?

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