Where are photo file names?

e2photo wrote:

2. So a question I would ask is why not take the filename and make it the title? What is the downside to such an approach? One reason I am asking is there is an AppleScript that does exactly that. Is it a bad idea to use that script?

There is no downside of that I am aware of, other than the need to be aware that the filename could change when the file is stored somewhere else.

3. I am not asking them to change the data structures or obscure anything. I am asking for the ability to display the filename as an option.

That seems a reasonable request to me, as long as it is made clear in the app that it isn't the title.

5. Sort of an implication of your note as I understand it: Once I import my Aperture libraries into Photos, address the title issue in some way, that the probability of locating those files in the future is improved. Is that a correct understanding?

Yes, because the title is a part of the file & less likely to be changed by anything other than intentional user action.

I have your exact same problem. Very frustrating. Perhaps the Apple software engineers could have foreseen this problem. Overall, Photos 1.0 is disappointing in many respects.

I am trying to figure out how to display Keywords under the thumbnails as you can do with Aperture. Still no success.

Fortunately, Aperture is working perfectly.

Not persuaded there is much value to two things describing the file.

Depends on your professions. The International Press Telecommunications Council has established 86 fields for information: Guide To Photo Metadata Fields. Not all apps use all of them but many users need to precisely identify the image.

Those fields can be use to answer the familiar "where, what and who".

I am trying to figure out how to display Keywords under the thumbnails as you can do with Aperture. Still no success.

You have to write the keywords as text into the title, since the title is the only thing displayed below the thumbnail.

That is one of the areas where Photos is really lacking - the comprehensive display of information for set of images.

Keep writing feedback.

Question:

If you can get titles to show beneath the thumbnails in Photos, are all the titles visible

at the same time, or do you have to hover over an image to get the title to appear?

(I don't have a Mac myself to test this; I'm trying to help a client who uses Macs.)

jremde wrote:

Question:

If you can get titles to show beneath the thumbnails in Photos, are all the titles visible

at the same time, or do you have to hover over an image to get the title to appear?

They are all visible, assuming View > Metadata > Titles is checked. (That can also be toggled on & off with command+shift+T.)

"I think learning Applescript without a Mac would be extremely difficult. Perhaps it is time to break down & buy a Mac to see why so many people like them? 👿"

I know that Macs are great in many ways, but still too pricy for me.

However I do have access to one of my client's MacBook Airs (she has 3 Macs) on occasion for limited use.

I recently updated her OS's from Mavericks and Lion to Yosemite mainly to allow easy syncing of all her photos across various devices.

But she was very disappointed when the names that used to show up in iPhoto didn't appear in Photos.

(The Info window that comes up with Command-I doesn't do it for her.)

I said I'd look for another solution and I'm glad I found this discussion, which is very relevant.

So I'm looking over some of the scripts listed here and will try them out when I get a chance.

Appreciate all the contributions.

- J

If she has entered titles in iPhoto they should show up in Photos below the thumbnails. If they don't, go to View > Metadata and add a check mark by Titles. If the "Name" is the file name, there is a script earlier in this thread to make the title equal to the filename.

Jay

Here's a use case for why filenames to titles are important.

It may also shed light on why Apple's current version did not implement it. For context, Photoshop released around 1990, iPhoto was available in 2002, USB 2.0 scanners in 2002-2004, the first digital SLR (under $1000) in 2003, Aperture in 2005, the first iPhone (including camera) in 2007. [I owned Macs from 1985 to 1993. PCs from 1993 to 2006. Macs from 2006 to present. When I moved back to Macs in 2006, the photos came over as files, mostly TIF.]

So therefore, the photos in my Photos library are of two main kinds: (1) scanned photos from prints or negatives in the era before digital photography. (2) Photos taken with digital cameras.

The scanned photos came from a flatbed digital scanner. They were scanned one by one. And the consumer level scanning software of the day did not allow entry of EXIF or IPTC data. The metadata was the file name and the file date. And the file date was fragile. File operation like copying or restoring from backup often changed it. So one carefully labeled the name of each file.

When I moved to the Mac, they were loaded into iPhoto and the file names showed up and they were useful because I had named each of the scanned photos carefully by hand. It’s this information that I’d like to automatically copy as the initial value of titles. These names are absolutely valuable. And being able to quickly copy them to titles would be wonderful. Applescript seems possible but quirky. I’m hoping Apple addresses this more directly

I agree with Apple that the file names associated with digital photography are much less useful. And also realize than many of their customers have few photos that came from scans. In fact all of this generation photos may be coming only for iPhones. But….....

It is still useful to do this, and I am keeping it up with my digital photos taken with the cameras. I always batch change the filenames on import in aperture to amore descriptive filename.

I agree with Apple that the file names associated with digital photography are much less useful.

It depends on how you are using your photos. The filename with a number is at least a reference to identify the file. A common use of the filenames might be to show the recent Photos in the moments and have the family, friends, or customers pick the ones they want copies from. Now the moments do not even show "IMG 111" or similar below the thumbnails, so that it can be referenced in a list. We have to directly create albums while the photos are selected. I would not want my friends to drag photos to albums while selecting photos from my library. I prefer them to say "Please send me photo 100, 200, 250" and "please delete number 50 immediately".

I have had some interesting discussion on the subject of picture Title and filename. I have a wonderful filename system that has served me well over the years. The pictures are easy to find and when someone wants me to do something on a particular picture all they need to do is give me the number.

BUT, that filename is not embedded in the picture file itself. However, the Title is embedded into the picture file and has a formal space in the IPTC world. The structure of the filename or what is allowed to be the structure of the filename may be different across different operating systems and may also change over time even within one operating system. Given this, the long term stability of a filename may not be as good as one would desire; however, the embedded IPTC Title 'should be more stable long term.'

Since it seems Photos is heavily focused on the iPhone, iPad with integration with the Mac and their different operating systems through the cloud, I can readily understand why Apple is pushing for the use/focus on picture titles.

To facilitate this process, I believe Apple should provide for a tool that takes the filename and inserts it into the IPTC Title field. There are a couple of Applescripts, one of which I can get to work and the other I can not get it to work.

This issue is #1 for me, and I have another thread started until I found this one. I have 22,000+ scanned images, all organized by filename, which iPhoto used. Apple then degraded iPhoto into Photos, without notice, and all my several years' work is negated. I desperately need to sort by, organize and view filenames -- I don't care and don't use the "date and time the photo was taken", it doesn't exist. Maybe moving the filename, or preferably the part to the left of the (.jpg) into the title, and then sorting by title is a good workaround to this bug.

Apple has never responded to any of the posts that I've followed over the years. I don't know what they pay attention to and what they don't. But, if Apple is reading this -- please, please, do not degrade capabilities for your software, especially with no notice. I spent a lot of time getting iPhoto to do my job, now anything I do on iPhoto is not transferred to Photos, and the sorting and the organizing capability in Photos is non-existent. This problem really needs help. I really do not understand how such a degradation can happen.

To those who wrote scripts, I will review them, and contribute to the solution of this important problem. Let's see if we can build a workaround together.

Thank you all!!! - Andy

Thanks for your answer.

No, I don't use iCloud Photo Library.

As I have difficulties to understand all of the explanations you wrote in your latest answer (no experience in script editing and language barrier...), could you just tell me what would be the correct (simpliest) applescript to use in this case?

Thanks

If you are continually getting error messages with the script you are using, either try if it will work better if you only select the photos in the "All Photos" album.

Or try the second version I posted above. It will change the titles of all photos that are in an album named "PhotoDropBox".

This album needs to be a regular album, not a smart album, and at the top level of the library, not inside a folder.

Copy and paste the complete text below into a Script Editor window, save the script, and press the run button, after you created your album in Photos.

set ReadFromAlbum to true

-- set this to true, if you want to pass the photos in a toplevel album

set theAlbumName to "PhotoDropBox" -- change this to the name of the album you will use

set imageSel to {}

tell application "Photos"

activate

if (ReadFromAlbum) then -- the photos will be passed in a toplevel album named "PhotoDropBox"

try

if existscontainertheAlbumName then

set thePhotosBuffer to containertheAlbumName

set imageSel to every media item of thePhotosBuffer

else

error "Album " & theAlbumName & "does not exist"

end if

on error errTexttwonumbererrNumtwo

display dialog "Cannot open album: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo

end try

else -- process the selected photos from the All Photos album

try

set imageSel to (get selection)

on error errTexttwonumbererrNumtwo

display dialog "Cannot get the selection: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo

end try

end if

-- check, if the album or the selected photos do contain images

if imageSel is {} then

error "Please select some images."

else

repeat with im in imageSel

try

tell im

set its name to its filename

end tell

on error errText number errNum

display dialog "Error: " & errNum & return & errText & "Trying again"

try

delay 2

tell im

set its name to its filename

end tell

on error errTexttwonumbererrNumtwo

display dialog "Skipping image due to repeated error: " & errNumtwo & return & errTexttwo

end try

end try

end repeat

end if

end tell

-- display dialog "Done"

return "Done"

Thank you very much; the second script worked perfectly (for thousands of pics)!

Now that it's done, do you know if there is a mean in an album, to have pics sorted by title (alphabetical order)?

(I only see by import date or manually)