Organizing photos

Question

Organizing photos

Hi everyone!

I am trying to organize my iCloud photos on my MacBook. I am able to create new albums and copy photos to the new albums. What I cannot figure out is how to no longer display them in the "library". The reason is so that I know any photos in "library" have not been copied to an album. That way I can work on my photos over time and don't have to remember which ones I've already copied to an album.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Brad

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Jun 18, 2022 12:32 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

195,571 points

Jun 19, 2022 2:54 AM in response to CantFindAGoodUsername

Which system version do you have installed? On macOS Catalina or Big Sur, there has been an unfortunate bug with the rule Album is not Any, see: Photos 5: Problems with the Smart Album R… - Apple Community

This bug could cause Photos to show photos as being in an album, where the album they have been in has been deleted.

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Answer 2

Jun 19, 2022 1:31 PM in response to CantFindAGoodUsername

Hello everyone,

I did some more digging and just "trying things" and figured out that most of my images somehow got placed in an album. Obviously I must have done it, but I don't know what I did. Anyway I was able to create the SmartFolder and it is working as expected. Thanks to everyone for you suggestions!!

Brad

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Answer 3

Jun 18, 2022 11:45 PM in response to CantFindAGoodUsername

Your smart album needs the condition:

album - is not - any.

That will find all photos that are not in a standard album.

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Answer 4

Jun 18, 2022 12:51 PM in response to CantFindAGoodUsername

You cannot remove images from the library. You can create a smart album that show all the images not in albums.

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Answer 5

Jun 18, 2022 7:36 PM in response to Keith Barkley

Thanks for the suggestion! I tried that but it looks like only newly taken photos are in that library when I know for sure others are not in any album. Any ideas?

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Answer 6

Jun 19, 2022 1:16 PM in response to CantFindAGoodUsername

I am using macOS Monterey 12.4. I tried deleting the SmartFolder and re-creating it with the parameters Album-->is not-->any.

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Organizing photos

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