can I no longer batch edit photo meta data?!

You're right. Tell Apple what additional features you want in Photos via both http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html and http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html since they don't have a feedback page for Photos as yet.

You can select several photos at once and add keywords, but not the same title to several photos at once.

You can copy the adjustments from one photo to all selected photos.

You can adjust the time of several selected photos at once.

But that's it 😟

It is one more reason to keep iPhoto ready to prepare photos before importing to photos.

I had some problems batch changing dates. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. As long as all the selected files were originally in the Photos view in the same date-time group, using the Image > Adjust Date & Time menu item worked fine. But if they were from different date-time groups, only the first (oldest) item was changed.

I am horrified by this new app. I need batch edit, too. But I also can't see how I can edit in Photoshop Elements directly from the new app and save back to iPhoto. This is even more terrible. I have only begun to find missing features I'm afraid. I thought I could just go back to my iPhoto (9.5.1) and use it, but I am told it is incompatible with Yosemite and I need a newer version of iPhoto, which I can get free in App Store. When I try, I am told it is unavailable in the U.S. This silly app is obviously geared toward people who take selfies and photograph their food in order to let "friends" know what they had for dinner last night. Is there a way I can get back to iPhoto until I can transfer everything to an actual photographer's application and learn how to use it?

I thought I could just go back to my iPhoto (9.5.1) and use it, but I am told it is incompatible with Yosemite and I need a newer version of iPhoto, which I can get free in App Store.

Apple does not sell iPhoto any more at the App Store.

But you should be able to reinstall from the Purchased tab of the AppStore, if iPhoto is showing among your purchases. You may need to unhide your purchases.

See this post by Tom Perkins:

Re: how do i sort albums by date in the new photos app?

I just went through the situation of not finding iPhoto 9.6.1 in the App Store. Working with Applecare, the solution was to (a) delete the iPhoto app, (b) restart my iMac, (c) go to the App store and click on Purchases, and (d) reinstall iPhoto. In my case, for some reason, iPhoto was hidden from my purchases. Go to Store > View My Account, and go to Manage for Hidden Purchases, where you can unhide iPhoto. Once I did that, things seemed to work okay.

I did look in Applications, and iPhoto is still there, but it now has a bar through the name and is unusable. I think this related to a Yosemite update that I installed last night. It worked under the first iteration of Yosemite, i.e., as of yesterday daytime. When I try to open the old iPhoto app, I am told it is incompatible with the new Yosemite, but the newer iiPhoto is not available in the App store (even though Apple says it is)! I'm not sure why I don't have the latest version of iPhoto because I update software pretty much whenever I am told to. I have 9.5.1, but apparently there is a 9.6.1. If Apple is going to take away the functionality of an app, they should certainly continue to make the compatible version of the old app available for some period of time after. This is outrageous, and I have never been so disappointed in Apple. This is the continued dumbing down of the product.

Marion Dobbs wrote:

I'm not sure why I don't have the latest version of iPhoto because I update software pretty much whenever I am told to. I have 9.5.1, but apparently there is a 9.6.1.

For what very little it is worth, iPhoto version 9.6.1 was installed on my iMac via Software Update & the Mac App Store's Update tab on March 20th, which I think was within a day or two of its initial release. Version 9.5 was released back in October of 2013 & version 9.6 replaced it on October 17th, 2014, according to Wikipedia.

I think the 9.6.1 update was available through the App Store until just a few days ago, but when Yosemite 10.10.3 was released Apple removed it. If there are enough users who missed getting it while it was still available & they complain to Apple about that, it is possible they will make it available again, but frankly I don't think that is very likely to happen. 😟

Thank you so much, léonie! I have followed your instructions, and it seems to have worked, although, for some reason, the application was installed on an attached external hard drive rather than on my laptop, but I can copy it over. I have only tried it on a small test library, afraid to try it on one of my "real" ones just yet, and I do see that my keyword file has disappeared, which is a real bummer. Still I am, at least for the moment, breathing a sigh of relief. Now I need to start migrating to some other software. I think that would be the smart thing to do.

Thanks again. I'm always amazed at how helpful this community is and how quickly people respond.

There is a way to use iPhoto 9.5.1 and later versions with 10.10.3.

1 - open the iPhoto 9.5.1 package by Control (right) - clicking on it and selecting Show Package Contents.

2 - navigate to the iPhoto.app/Contents/Mac OS X folder.

3 - make an alias of the iPhoto file and put it on the Desktop.

4 - launch iPhoto 9.5.1 by double clicking on the alias file.

I've tested this method with iPhoto 9.51 and iPhoto 9.6. Thanks to user Todd Dixon for this tip.

The Terminal window opens and must remain open while you're using iPhoto. It can be hidden, however.

When I use 'A Better Finder Attributes' to do the date change things work fine.

A Better Finder Attributes only changes the file's date and not the image's EXIF capture date that Photos uses and can change. Download and use EXIF Viewer for Mac OS X to view the EXIF metadata on the files you've exported out of Photo for use with other apps. It will show the EXIF Capture Date, not the file created date. They will be the same unless you exported the original file and not the corrected file. To get the corrected file out of iPhoto just drag the thumbnails to the Desktop or export via the File ➙ Export X Photos menu option.

This screenshot compares the Info window in Photos on the right with the corrected date with what EXIF Viewer displays on the left. You'll see that they are both the same. The file created date in not the same.

Its a shame photos won't manage this process itself reliably

As I pointed out in my previous post Photos can change the EXIF date and it will export with the file as long as it's not the unmodified original.