Seems like Apple has gotten rid of the "batch change" feature from iPhoto when moving to Photos. I liked using the "batch change" feature to change the "description" for several photos at once. Does anyone know how this can be accomplished in the new Photos app (which doesn't include pasting a sentence 200 times)...
Thanks for your response!
I tried this but I just get an error
and no service shows up in the Photos service menu.
(This is the first animator script that I've tried to do)
Did you select the photos in Photos before you ran the Workflow? Try to select the photos only in one moment or album, and not too many at once. It may be a timing problem.
If the service does not show - did you use the Service template when you created the workflow? Is it in stalled in ~/Library/Services and did you enable it in the System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts ?
1) Yes, a couple of photos are selected.
2) Upon a system restart, the service showed up in the Photos\ Services menu
3) I still get the same error.
4) The work flow was created using the Service button on the File/ New action in Automator
(I couldn't fine the template that you referenced.)
5) the "Photos- Description" service does show up and is enabled in keyboard shortcuts/ Service
Sorry, I may be a little slow at this. I've programmed various types of computers for 40 some years, but this is the first time I've tried to use Apple Script.
Thanks.
it seems like it is saying there is a syntax error at the line:
set the description to inputset the set Set the description to input
set the description to inpu
The line you posted looks like it had too many words.
on run {input, parameters}
-- batch change the description to the input
tell application "Photos"
activate
set imageSel to (get selection)
if imageSel is {} then
error "Please select some images."
else
repeat with im in imageSel
tell im
set the description to input
end tell
end repeat
end if
end tell
return input
end run
It should read:
set the description to input
all in lower case letters
that the way the code read, but it still doesn't work. If you don't select anything, you do get the error message, so the first part of the script works. It just gets the event handler error when you select a couple of photos, it's like it's really not able to update the image desriptions.
When you look at the info panel for the photos, did some of the descriptions change or none at all?
nothing changed.
I saw in another tread that they had said to create the automator script as an application instead of a service. I tried that with the same code, and it gets an error that way to, but it is a very general error with no specific problems listed.
Another user (Ghostborg) suggested that the event handler error was related to Photos library size, and sure enough, the script service works on a smaller library, at least partially. It assigned the descriptor to the first 6 or 8 selected photos, so I submitted a bug report to the Photos for Mac feedback site. (at Apple Feedback pages.)
and sure enough, the script service works on a smaller library, at least partially. It assigned the descriptor to the first 6 or 8 selected photos, so I submitted a bug report to the Photos for Mac feedback site. (at Apple Feedback pages.)
That suggests a timing error. The timing will depend on the library size.
I hope, the bug report will help and Apple fixes this soon.
How large is the library, that did not work?
We need batch changing particularly for large libraries; scripting is pretty useless, if it will not work on reasonably sized libraries 😟
My main library is about 30,000 photos. The smaller one is a little over 8,000.
My thoughts exactly, if I didn't have a large library, I wouldn't need scripting!
Just a note to say thanks to Leonie, this has helped me no end.
I also wanted to help others, so here is my slightly modified version. The changes I've made are to append an index number to the title (Title - 1, Title - 2, Title - 3, etc..) and to set title, name and description to the 'New' title.
on run {input, parameters}
-- batch change the description to the input
set IndexNo to 1
set NewTitle to input
tell application "Photos"
activate
with timeout of 3000 seconds
set imageSel to (get selection)
if imageSel is {} then
error "Please select some images."
else
repeat with im in imageSel
tell im
set NewTitle to input & " - " & IndexNo as string
set the description to NewTitle
set Title to NewTitle
set the name of im to NewTitle
set IndexNo to IndexNo + 1
end tell
end repeat
end if
end timeout
end tell
return input
end run
Once again all thanks to Leonie.
Oh, and if Photos stays focussed during the renaming operation, it seems to help reduce the scripting errors???
It works for me with a small test library, but not with my normal library which has about 15,000 images. I did repair the library (hold Command + Option keys when starting Photos), but the error persists. I tried adding a "delay 1" just prior to "set the description to input", but that made no difference.
Has anyone found a way to make this work on large Photos libraries?
I did repair the library (hold Command + Option keys when starting Photos), but the error persists. I tried adding a "delay 1"
The scripting errors are less, when the photos are selected in the "AllPhotos" album, and not in Moments or smart albums - unfortunately.
One problem with all the scripts is, that the line "set imageSel to (get selection)" in the Apple Scripts does not work reliably in Photos. It will give random timeouts and works best in the "All Photos" album. Apple needs to fix this to make scripting more reliable. The errors are more frequently with iCloud Photo Library enabled. When I first posted the scripts I did not use iCloud Photo Library.
There is a work-around proposed by NicFletcher: Don't ask for the current selection, but add the photos you want to process to an album with a fixed name.
Here is a sample Apple Script by NicFletcher that uses this method:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6999613?answerId=28087786022#28087786022
Thanks léonie for your quick and very helpful response. I tried modifying your batch change script to use a fixed album, along the lines of NicFletcher's recommendation, but I still get errors. I am not an AppleScript expert, so I may have mucked something up. Then I tried your script, but from All Photos, and it worked.
Danke sehr!
Batch change in Photos?
