I have made several Albums from pictures in my Library on my I Pad. All the photos still remain in the
library. Is there a way to decipher which photos have or have not been delegated to an album? if you say to open a file, I read an old answer saying. That’s first thing to do to create a Smart Album. have no idea how or where file is located. Thanks for any assistance you can give me.
carole644
iPad Air, iPadOS 17
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.
On a Mac:
If you're trying to organise your Library and want to find images not 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.
On iPad or iPhone, which do not currently support Smart Albums:
Check out HashPhotos
https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/hashphotos/id685784609
It integrates with Photos on your iOS device and adds a Smart Album feature. Using this app a search
!#inalbum
Will find images not in an album
(Hat tip to User ukSamo for the recommending this app.)
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.
On a Mac:
If you're trying to organise your Library and want to find images not 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.
On iPad or iPhone, which do not currently support Smart Albums:
Check out HashPhotos
https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/hashphotos/id685784609
It integrates with Photos on your iOS device and adds a Smart Album feature. Using this app a search
!#inalbum
Will find images not in an album
(Hat tip to User ukSamo for the recommending this app.)
Smart Albums are not available in Photos on an iPad, only on a Mac. If you are having a Mac as well and are using iCloud Photos, you could create the smart album on your Mac, then add the photos from the Smart Album to a standard album and sync it to your iPad.
Or use the Favorite heart to mark the photos you have added to albums. Then you can see at a glance, if a photo is already in an album. I am adding only favorites to albums to keep the albums focussed on important photos.
Are you using iCloud Photos? Then I recommend to set up the Shared iCloud Photos Library and use it to move the photos you have added to albums to your Shared iCloud Photos Library. This will work very well, if you do not need the Shared iCloud Photos Library for sharing photos with others.
The Shared iCloud Photos Library is currently the only way to split the Library photos into two separate groups - the Shared Library and the personal Library. You can view the Shared Library and the Personal library separately or combined, depending on the toggle Switch. And when you move photos between the two libraries, you will still be seeing them in the albums. See: Using the Shared iCloud Photos Library to have two separate libraries on all devices - Apple Community
I am also using the Shared iCloud Photos Library to hold the photos I have already organized - my showcase, and the personal library as the workspace for the photos that still need organizing and editing.
Organization of photos in albums and library.
