I want to move photos from my Library to an Album. I can do this but they still show up in my Library. If I delete them from the Library, they delete from the Album. Is there a way to delete them from my Library and keep them in the Album?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.2
Photos, (like iPhoto,Aperture, Music, iTunes) is a database. This means it can be very flexible and powerful, if sometimes a little confusing. The library is the core of the app. Every image is in the library. Albums are virtual, and are just subsets of the library. In fact, Albums are not places, they are lists - instructions to the app to 'display this group of images together'. So images do not get "moved" to Albums, they get added to that particular list. This means that an image can be in more than one album but use no extra disk space. Similarly in the Music app, all the tracks are in the Library and can be added to any number of playlists.
If you're trying to organise your Library and want to find images not already in albums, then a simple Smart Album
File -> New Smart Album
Album -> Is Not -> Any
will find these images. As you add them to albums they will disappear from the Smart Album.
Photos, (like iPhoto,Aperture, Music, iTunes) is a database. This means it can be very flexible and powerful, if sometimes a little confusing. The library is the core of the app. Every image is in the library. Albums are virtual, and are just subsets of the library. In fact, Albums are not places, they are lists - instructions to the app to 'display this group of images together'. So images do not get "moved" to Albums, they get added to that particular list. This means that an image can be in more than one album but use no extra disk space. Similarly in the Music app, all the tracks are in the Library and can be added to any number of playlists.
If you're trying to organise your Library and want to find images not already in albums, then a simple Smart Album
File -> New Smart Album
Album -> Is Not -> Any
will find these images. As you add them to albums they will disappear from the Smart Album.
No. An Album is just a list of photos existing elsewhere (in the Library).
An alternative would be hiding the photos from the library.
This used to work well in the early system versions. Hiding made the photos visible in the library, but kept them visible in the albums, just what you want to do.
Only, apple has changed the "Hide" tool to a toll to keep confidential photos secret, so we can no longer see in the albums.
On your Mac you can make the hidden photos in an album visible with a smart album. Any smart album with a rule "Photo is Hidden" will show you the hidden photos that are matching the rules for the smart album.
For example, if you have an album named "My Great Album" and you have hidden the photos inside this album from the library, create a smart album with the following rules:
This companion will be showing you the hidden photos from "My Great Album".
Excellent. Thank you.
You're welcome, kathyfromokanagan falls 😊
Photos from Library to Album
