Photos: Album names type backwards and cannot be labeled

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cosmic rock Author

Level 1

6 points

Photos: Album names type backwards and cannot be labeled

Photos types Album name backwards, cannot label albums

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

Posted on Jul 25, 2026 1:05 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 7

22,582 points

Jul 26, 2026 7:12 AM in response to cosmic rock

cosmic rock wrote: …Photos types Album name backwards, cannot label albums

That's very weird! The first thing would be to look in System Settings>Accessibility>Keyboard and see if anything looks out of place there. I have seen at least one person for which that was the problem. It never hurts to hunt around in Accessibility for things you don't expect.

If that doesn't work, then to narrow things down, try these steps:

Restart the computer (of course)
Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it. This is a bit harder, because a new user can't access a different user's stuff. You would need to move your Library out of your own user's folder up to the general "Users" folder.
Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon. If you use iCloud Photos, it’s possible that this will cause a re-sync that lasts long enough to make you nervous.

The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.

It might help for you to give us a bit more information:

Do you have more than one Photos Library?
Where does your Mac's Photos Library reside-- in the Pictures folder of your internal drive, or on an external drive? or on a network? on iCloud drive?
Are you using iCloud Photos to synchronize your devices? If so
…Do you have “Optimize Storage” checked in Photos’ Settings
…Do you see all your Mac’s Photos pictures at iCloud.com?
…Have you checked to see if the Apple Account is really really the same on the Mac and at iCloud.com?
…What is your storage at iCloud.com? At System Settings>[name]>icloud>Storage , my Mac says 176 GB of 200 GB used. What does yours say?
What is your storage on this Mac? At System Settings>General> Storage, my Mac says 745 GB of 1TBB used. What does yours say?

Let us know what happens…

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

203,197 points

Jul 27, 2026 11:46 AM in response to cosmic rock

Try this solution by Malaon68: There the culprit has been "Full Keyboard Accesss"

Album name spelling backwards in Photos o… - Apple Community

"So I ran into another crazy issue where numbers was not allowing me to use the equal sign to pull a value from a cell in one worksheet to a cell in a summary worksheet, so I called AppleCare with both issues. It turns out that having "Full Keyboard Access" turned on under Accessibility > Keyboard was causing both issues. I turned it off and everything seems to be working fine now. "

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Answer 3

cosmic rock Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 26, 2026 11:04 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks for you reply and suggestions. I do a lot of photography and so create separate Libraries organized around years or subjects I do use the Pictures directory. I had no problem until with this backwards Album until the other day. I had been working on a new Library and even created one Album that was typed normally.

In searching for the problem and a solution in the community I found this problem has occurred a number of times over several years, in various Mac OS versions and even on an Intel Mac. No one seems to have found a fix, or they haven't reported it. So I won't go through all the steps you suggested since they've been suggested before and apparently won't fix the problem. Apple needs to fix this!!

And I have found a "work-around" using an app I bought a few years ago on the App Store, , called RawPower. It's basically a plugin for Photos that provides more, better RAW conversions and few more processing tools. I opened the Library I was working on in Raw Power and found I could create Albums and name them 'normally', no backwards spelling. But the Key thing was the new correct Album name was then in the Photos same Library, so it got 'carried back' and appears correctly typed. I'm not a code guru so I have no idea why that works but it seems to. The only 'hitch' is that I found Raw Power has now become part of a larger photo processing app called "Nitro" in the app store. which has many more processing tools but also requires either a purchase or subscription. So if Apple won't fix this problem I will likely have to get it or subscribe.

The problem renders Apple Photos pretty useless for anyone doing photography but shooting selfies with an iPhone. But maybe that's what Apple wants. Ever since they abandoned Aperture, iPhotos and now Photos has been hit and miss as a real 'tool' for photographers. I think they're pushing 'real photographers' to Adobe.

Don't get me wrong. If someone has the fix and it's a simple solution I sure hope they post it for sure.

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Answer 4

cosmic rock Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 28, 2026 5:38 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

The simple fact is turning off Keyboard Access is just another work around, NOT A FIX. It's an easy work around for many of us. Unless you're someone that NEEDS that major keyboard accessibility feature turned on.

The FACT that this problem is reoccurring over several years and in various Mac OS versions and at least two major Apple apps hasn't been fixed, says to me that Apple puts a 'lower priority' on giving full accessibility to those that may not be able to use a 'standard keyboard.' And that's not a good thing IMO. Done.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 5

Jul 27, 2026 6:41 AM in response to cosmic rock

I'm glad you have found an app that you like. From it's description, it may not give access to all accessibility features and so, since Photos does uses those, that may indicate the source of your problem. If I were you, I would go through those troubleshooting steps in an attempt to find the cause. A number of people have, in fact, resolved the problem through that process.

While it's not so with everyone, I and my Nikon Z cameras have been perfectly happy with using Photos to organize my pictures. I don't use the Photos editor for RAW processing, though-- I use Lightroom for a RAW editor and Photos for organization, including finding the pictures I want to use RAW processing on. From the blurb I read, I couldn't tell how RawPower stores and organizes images, and I didn't see how it integrates with iCloud Photos. I didn't find Nitro useful for me, but I might take another look. I hate the subscription thing.

You might look at this:

Organizing Photos with Folders & Albums - Apple Community

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Answer 6

cosmic rock Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 27, 2026 10:46 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks again. But like I said if someone has a fix I haven't found it, and they or you should re-post it here. In the meantime I was trying to organize 2K photos from a trip I just did in Alaska. And my typing - keyboard - functions work just fine here , any other texts and in naming Photos Albums in RawPower, so obviously it's not some glitch in settings or anything but in Photos itself. Since Apple abandoned Aperture I use Photos for organizing and also don't like subscriptions either, ever since Adobe rendered worthless my Adobe LightRoom and Photoshop CS 3, and LR5 purchases of hundreds of dollars. But Nitro is 100x cheaper than anything Adobe 'sells' as subscription only now.

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Answer 7

cosmic rock Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 27, 2026 10:53 AM in response to cosmic rock

And I should mention,, that when I first started using Apple Photos to organize my photos, it would not even open a Canon CR.3 format image file for maybe a year or more. That's when I found RawPower which did ope the CR3 raw files. I'm looking forward to see if the new Apple Raw9 converter is as great as they claim. Seems Apple has enough problems with their Photos. I presume Nitro will adopt it but who knows.

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Answer 8

Jul 27, 2026 1:40 PM in response to cosmic rock

cosmic rock wrote: … But like I said if someone has a fix I haven't found it, and they or you should re-post it here.

Oh, give me a break. The thing "that seems to work! " was the very first thing that I suggested,

The first thing would be to look in System Settings>Accessibility>Keyboard

and your response was

I won't go through all the steps you suggested since they've been suggested before and apparently won't fix the problem.

You completely blew off trying anything even after I added

A number of people have, in fact, resolved the problem through that process.

I think that you need to decide if you want a solution, or if you just want to complain.

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Answer 9

cosmic rock Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 27, 2026 1:04 PM in response to léonie

Thanks leonie, that seems to work! why that is switched on suddenly or caused the problem I have no idea. I don't know if it was on before or not, as I have never even looked at that setting.

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