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See only photos NOT in an album

This has been driving me mad for years. And I've provided Apple with feedback on it many times...


When I open the Photos app, I'd like to see only photos which are not already filed in albums.


Think of it this way - I tidy away may holiday photos in albums - I tidy away family photos in family albums - like putting them in a filing cabinet.


But when I click on "Library" I still see them all, as if the filing cabinet had been emptied on the floor.


I've made a "Not in album" smart album, see below, but I just don't see Apple's logic in not having it as an option either in the main sidebar, or in "Filter By".


So... does anybody have a better solution for only seeing unfiled/unsorted photos only? It's very possible I'm missing something!


✌️






Posted on Apr 26, 2022 5:02 AM

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Posted on Apr 28, 2022 8:26 AM

The simple answer seems to be here: https://www.macworld.com/article/229895/how-to-find-all-the-media-not-in-an-album-in-apple-photos.html


Maybe I misunderstood from the first answer. Here is all there is to it:


Choose File > New Smart Album. Give it a name like "Not in Any Album"

Select from criteria Album, Is Not, Any.

Name and click OK.


That seems to be all there is to the process.

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Apr 28, 2022 8:26 AM in response to wizard_chef

The simple answer seems to be here: https://www.macworld.com/article/229895/how-to-find-all-the-media-not-in-an-album-in-apple-photos.html


Maybe I misunderstood from the first answer. Here is all there is to it:


Choose File > New Smart Album. Give it a name like "Not in Any Album"

Select from criteria Album, Is Not, Any.

Name and click OK.


That seems to be all there is to the process.

Apr 27, 2022 3:40 PM in response to Jagmurcredrea

This is a really maddening problem. I have about a year's worth of photos now and some have been added to albums and some have not. I take it that the answer to this important question is, "There is no easy way in Apple Photos to find orphaned photos that have not been assigned to at least one album." I am pretty sure several years ago in one of the earlier incarnations of Photos one could create a smart folder that solved this problem easily. This is a really frustrating problem to have.

Apr 26, 2022 5:34 AM in response to Jagmurcredrea

Use your smart album, it is the only solution.

if you select all photos in your smart album with (cmd)A, and then add a keyword, for example NotInAlbum, and add the keyword to the Quick Group, you can use the filter to find the photos not in an album, as any keyword from your QuickGroup can be used as a filter. Just remove the keyword again, when you add a photo to an album.

Apr 26, 2022 6:26 AM in response to léonie

Thanks, understanding it a bit better I think.


So, I made a keyword "Wine" and searched Photos for images which it recognised contained "wine'. I then added the keyword to the results. That worked.



My next question then is, do I end up with a massive long list in "Filter By" like I do when I make my own albums... here are just a few of them?



One final question - how do I find my test filter "Wine" on my iPhone? I'm not seeing it anywhere.


Thanks again!



Apr 26, 2022 6:07 AM in response to Jagmurcredrea

The benefit would be, that you can filter for photos not in an album, in any view and any smart album. For example, if you are viewing a smart album with photos from a certain year, set the filter to the keyword for photos not in an album and you can focus on the photos from this year. You an additionally filter for videos or other favorites, etc. once set up it will be more flexible.

I like how the filter can add a different layer of rules to albums and smart albums and are using the filters a lot. I am using smart albums based on keywords more than albums. Instead of dragging photos to albums I prefer to add a keyword with the album name to the photo. This is just one key stroke. And I can see in the Info for a photo by the keywords, which album it it in. To remove it from the album, I do not have to open the album but just delete the keyword.


Apr 28, 2022 8:13 AM in response to Jagmurcredrea

You can only filter for keywords and create smart albums on your Mac, not on the iPhone. But on the iPhone you can search for the keywords, as iCloud Photos is syncing them to the iPhone. The photos with the keyword you are searching for will appear below the heading Keywords in the search result. And when you select this result, you can add further filters.


Apr 28, 2022 8:25 AM in response to wizard_chef

Use your smart album, if you really need to know, which photos are in albums or are not.

It will work on your Mac, but not on an iPhone.


Why do you want to know which photos are in albums? Perhaps you can achieve what you want to do without partitioning the photos into disjoint albums. On the iPhone is no easy, feasible way.


It is not necessary to have each and every photo in an album, and it does not matter, if a photo is in many albums. I am only creating albums when I need to select photos for some project. Or to group related photos according to categories. Many photos are belonging to several categories, so they are in many albums. And many of my photos are in no album at all, because there are better photos of the same event and will sooner or later be deleted anyway.




See only photos NOT in an album

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