Photos Application Not Indexing All Photo Locations?

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Level 1

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Photos Application Not Indexing All Photo Locations?

Hello!

I just started using the Photos application in Monterey after many years without using a photo managing app. I have a USB hard drive with thousands of photos - all of them taken with some version of the iPhone. These photos are all in a single Photos folder on the USB hard drive, but within the main Photos folder there are some sub folders that I've made over the years to sub-organize my pictures. So I made the main Photos folder on this external hard drive my "library" in the Photos app. This seems to have basically worked, as all my thousands of pictures are now viewable in the Photos app. However, if I click the "places" option in Photos, only the first 3 pictures - which I imported first and separately from the rest - have a location on the map. In other words, except for those first 3 photos, all of the other "imported" photos do not show their locations in "Places". However, the pictures will show their location if opened individually in Photos, so they all have their GPS metadata included in the import. It seems that something happened with the import of the second, much larger batch of photos. Does anyone know if there's a way to fix this without a very time consuming re-importing of everything? Also, is there a "best practices for Photos app" way to import or perhaps arrange so many photos when they are stored on an external drive? I do have backups of my photos BTW. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Apr 8, 2022 9:18 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,613 points

Apr 8, 2022 9:14 PM in response to Lake-Time

As a test:

Create a new smart album just for testing:

File > New Smart album
Photo > is > Referenced

If this new smart album is not empty, check, if the photos from this album are the ones, that are not shown on the map. If they are the problematic items, see, if consolidating one of them will make it visible on the Map. Select the photo, then go to the File menu and use the command "File > Consolidate".

The problem with referenced photos not being shown on the Places Map has been around since macOS 15 Catalina. I second Tony's advice. Referencing the photos outside the Photos Library is very risky, as there are no tools to relocate referenced files, if we need to replace the drive with the referenced files or to restore a library from a backup to a different volume. It is a disaster waiting to happen. And Apple has not fixed some bugs related to referenced files for a long time.

If your photos library is referenced, keep it on your external volume, but use "File > Consolidate" to copy all referenced image files into the library.

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Answer 2

Apr 9, 2022 12:11 AM in response to léonie

Also please check your preferences in photos. Is the Importing: copy items to Photos library selected as shown below:

And how large is the photos library (select the photoslibrary file and hit CMD-i). Also how much space is taken on the external drive (select the drive in the sidebar of finder and again CMD-i)

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Answer 3

Apr 8, 2022 3:30 PM in response to Lake-Time

Hi

If I understand it you are using the photos app, but not importing the images into the library, instead keeping them on an external USB drive. (The so called "referenced file" model)

This is a bad idea. The photos app (though it offers the feature) doesn't have the necessary functionality to properly manage those external files. If they ever become unlinked from the library it becomes almost impossible to relink them unless you do it one file at a time - clearly unworkable for all except tiny libraries. Thus you would lose any work you put into organising you library.

Much better to store the complete library on the external drive (as long as the drive is formatted APFS or MacOS extened) and then import the images into the library.

Or if you are wedded to the idea of a referenced lirbary, then use an app that has the necessary tools for that.

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Answer 4

Lake-Time Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 8, 2022 4:48 PM in response to Lake-Time

Hi Tony,

Thank you for your time and expertise!

I'm not sure if I'm using the "referenced file" model you mention, but here's what i can tell you: The file ending with ".photoslibrary" and which was created by the Photos app is located in the same folder as all my pictures, which is say it's on the external hard drive. This "photoslibrary" file was created by the Photos app when I "imported" my photos into the Photos app, but I think I may have selected the "save to" location of that file during the import process - I don't remember for sure.

If I'm understanding your message correctly, you may be saying it's better to have the "photoslibrary" file on my internal hard drive, with the picture files on the external drive? That would be fine with me as long as the "photoslibrary" file is relatively small after the import. What I don't want to do is import over 200GB of picture files onto my limited internal hard drive, and that's what I thought would happen with the import process.

Looking forward to any additional information you may have on this situation.

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Answer 5

Lake-Time Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 8, 2022 5:40 PM in response to Lake-Time

One other bit of information I left out of my previous message: The external hard drive with the photos and the photos library folder is formatted APFS.

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Photos Application Not Indexing All Photo Locations?

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