How to organize photos in albums without showing in recent on iPhone?

Is there any way to add my photos to albums and not have them showing in recent ? To only have them in the individual albums??


also how is everyone organising their photos ?


[Re-Titled By Moderator]

iPhone 13, iOS 18

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 7:13 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 8, 2025 12:39 AM

To only have them in the individual albums??


Short answer: No.


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.


Recents is a list of images you've recently interacted with.Adding them to albums is interacting...


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.)


also how is everyone organising their photos ?


Some folks use what the app does automatically - Faces, Places, Date, Time, people. Some folks develop quite elaborate systems using a combination of these plus things like keywords. Basically, the app provides a variety of tools. You can use some of them or all of them, depending on your needs.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 8, 2025 12:39 AM in response to Userrrnz

To only have them in the individual albums??


Short answer: No.


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.


Recents is a list of images you've recently interacted with.Adding them to albums is interacting...


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.)


also how is everyone organising their photos ?


Some folks use what the app does automatically - Faces, Places, Date, Time, people. Some folks develop quite elaborate systems using a combination of these plus things like keywords. Basically, the app provides a variety of tools. You can use some of them or all of them, depending on your needs.


Mar 8, 2025 1:44 AM in response to Userrrnz

Are you using iCloud Photos? Then you can use the Shared iCloud Photos Library to split your library in a shared library and your personal library. Just move your photos in the albums to the Shared library and you will still see them in the albums, when you switch to the Shared Library, but you will no longer see these photos, when you switch to your personal Library. This is very convenient to keep the photos that still need organizing separate, but will only work, when you do not need the shared iCloud Photos Library for sharing, but is very useful, when sharing the photos online with yourself. Using the Shared iCloud Photos Library to have two separate libraries on all devices - Apple Community



Mar 9, 2025 12:14 AM in response to Yer_Man

I have been trying out HashPhotos for a few weeks. It is promising and looking like a great add-on to have on iOS devices, just like PowerPhotos on the Mac, particularly for my iCloud Photos Library

  • It is great to have a sidebar with the albums for easy navigation.
  • In the sidebar I can access the photos by thy the keywords I assigned in Photos for Mac.
  • I can create smart albums and add keywords, manage the albums, create folders..


But there are still a few caveats to consider.

  • HashPhotos is working with two libraries. We can use it as a browser for our System Photos Library and can see derails, Photos is hiding from us, like the keywords and profit from the sidebar. But this is read-only.
  • The smart albums, added keywords, folders will not sync back to the system photos library and iCloud. All work we invest into structuring the Photos Library will only apply to the local Hash Photos Library. Photos we import to Hash Photos will not appear in our System Photos Library.
  • The Hash Photos Library will be lost, when we uninstall the app. We need to be sure to make regular backups of our work we are investing into Hash Photos.



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How to organize photos in albums without showing in recent on iPhone?

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