Identifying duplicate photos in Photos Library

When I look in the photos Library and want to add a photo to an album, how do I know if I have already added it to the album? (Without actually going to the album and looking).


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iPad mini 6, iPadOS 18

Posted on Oct 14, 2024 5:01 PM

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2 replies

Oct 15, 2024 8:07 AM in response to Knowmost

It doesn't matter. If the picture is already there, then there won't be two of them.


On a Mac, you see the picture bounce back when you try to add it where it already is listed. But I don't see that on an iPad-- it looks the same either way.


Keep in mind that in Photos, pictures aren't exactly "in" an album. When you "put a picture into an album," its name is added to a list of pictures to display together when the album is clicked, kind of like a music playlist, but for pictures. And two albums can both have the same picture name in their lists (like two playlists with the same song,)  and that picture will show up when you click either album, but there's only one picture file-- it's just on multiple lists. And when you remove a picture from an album, its name remains in the lists of other albums, and the file still remains in your Library. You don't get fewer pictures in your Library because you remove one from an album; you just get fewer names in the album list. And you don't get more files taking up space by listing a picture


So albums give a specific view of your pictures. The picture of "Aunt Ethel at the Grand Canyon" can be in the "Aunt Ethel" album with other pictures of Aunt Ethel, and it can also be in the "Grand Canyon"  album with pictures of other people at the Grand Canyon. And it can also be in a the "September 2015" album with other things that happened then. Each album is pointing to a single file stored in the Photos Library, so having pictures in multiple albums takes up no more storage space. As you can imagine, this is very powerful in organizing pictures.

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Identifying duplicate photos in Photos Library

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