'All Photos' Album Sorting Order

I have over 13,000 photos of various sorts.

1. Regular scans.

2. Photos taken with legacy old digital cameras without the usual metadata we see now.

3. Photos taken with Apple devices that have the metadata.

4. Images imported into iPhoto from various sources for wallpapers, album artwork and such.

I notice that older photos have some kind of filename associated with them, but my latest

imports from my iPhone/iPad do not even have a title to them???? So now there are photos

with no name ... and not even a place in the file hierarchy it seems?

I seem to recall it used to be possible to see a photo in the Finder ... but cannot find this

ability in Photos?

In All Photos the only current sort option is by date added - in Photos view the option is by date - let Apple know you would like more sort options (almost everyone does)

LN

Tell Apple what additional sorting options you want in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

My All Photos album has 1931 photos with date range 1934-2015 but the first and last photos are years from the start and end dates. All the photos in Photos and Albums are sorted by date but the photos in the new All Photos album are in random order. The Keep Sorted by Date Added menu is grey and still grey after changing a photos date so unless there is a way of sorting the photos in All Photos the album is useless.

Does anyone have any clues?

If not can I delete this album with loosing all my photos?

This album makes makes not much sense. I use it to view my latest photos from the iOS-devices.

Moments in Photo are the new Events, i.e. groupings of photos sorted by date taken.

When the iPhoto Library was first migrated to Photos there was a folder created in the sidebar titled iPhoto Events and all migrated iPhoto Events (which are now Moments) are represented by an album in that folder. To open the sidebar if it's not already open use the Option+Command+S key combination.

There's a way to simulate events in Photos.

When new photos are imported into the Photos library go to the Last Import smart album, select all the photos and use the File ➙ New Album menu option or use the key combination Command+N. Name it as desired. It will appear just above the iPhoto Events folder where you can drag it into the iPhoto Events folder

When you click on the iPhoto Events folder you'll get a simulated iPhoto Events window.

The downside to the simulation is that the Album/Events can only be sorted automatically by Title. But they can also be sorted manually, either in the sidebar or in the folder's window at the right.

Ask Apple for more sorting options in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.

Many thanks for your detailed response but it did not address my problem with the All Photos album. Is it possible to sort those photos into the proper order or am I stuck with a folder filled with photos in random order? If not, can I delete that folder without deleting all my photos?

You can't change the sort order of All Photos, Photos, or any other application created album. The only album you can change sort order is in albums you create.

And, no, you can't delete the All Photos or any other system album. You can only delete albums your create.

Yes, in my opinion also, All Photos is pretty useless.

Many thanks for your help. Very much appreciated.

Many thanks for your detailed response but it did not address my problem with the All Photosalbum. Is it possible to sort those photos into the proper order or am I stuck with a folder filled with photos in random order? If not, can I delete that folder without deleting all my photos?

The "All Photos" album is the only album that will show you the most recently added albums on top. With all other views you have a lot of scrolling to do to get down to the recent items.

Also, other than the Moments it will show you the hidden photos as well - it is really "all Photos", and convenient when searching using the search field.

léonie wrote:

The "All Photos" album is the only album that will show you the most recently added albums on top. With all other views you have a lot of scrolling to do to get down to the recent items.

On my system at least, All Photos shows the most recent photos at the bottom, not the top. Also, according to the greyed out View menu item, the non-changable sort order is by date added:

While that order does indeed reflect the date & time when I import new photos from my iPhone, with the last imported ones at the bottom of the window, for the photos migrated from my iPhoto library during the initial setup of Photos, the order seems random -- it is definitely not the order those photos were added to iPhoto, nor are they sorted by the date the photo was taken, or by any other date-related criteria I can determine.

On my system at least, All Photos shows the most recent photos at the bottom, not the top.

Sorry, yes, they are also sorted ascending. Must have been wishful thinking on my part. 😊

But at least the most recently imported moments are more or less isolated at one end of the album and can be accessed there without searching for them.

If we only can sort by capture date, we have to know the capture date to find recently imported old photos.

But I just noticed, that Photos seems to remember, how an album has been scrolled. If I close Photos with the Moments scrolled all the way down, it will open them again scrolled to the most recent moment. And I do not have to click the scholar to get there.

While that order does indeed reflect the date & time when I import new photos from my iPhone, with the last imported ones at the bottom of the window, for the photos migrated from my iPhoto library during the initial setup of Photos, the order seems random -- it is definitely not the order those photos were added to iPhoto, nor are they sorted by the date the photo was taken, or by any other date-related criteria I can determine.

This has been the case which other major upgrades of iPhoto or Aperture.

The Masters folder is organized by the date of the Import session, and all older imports to iPhoto and Aperture are now showing the import session 2010, when I upgraded iPhoto to the iLife '11 version. It looks like the Import season date may be discarded, when a library is rebuild for an upgrade or a migration.

I've seen similar with itunes. I like to listen to the music sorted by the date added, the most recent items first, but it happened several times, that all all songs were showing a changed "date added".

That's another reason to contact Apple and request restoring these missing features via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html. We've got to inundate them with requests so they can't ignore them.

Old Toad wrote:

That's another reason to contact Apple and request restoring these missing features via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html. We've got to inundate them with requests so they can't ignore them.

Well, I am doing my part -- I have sent so many different feedback requests I have lost count of how many I've sent.

I must be missing something with both Moments and Collections in Photos.

My Moments are nothing like my previous Events in iPhoto. They have the date only and some show the locations but previous Events are now multiple Moments and some photos with the same date are are in separate moments.

Collections have the date range with some showing the location(s) which are not always correct with multiple photos in a collection covering a wide date range from quite different locations.

Both Moments and Collections have lost the photo titles.

Goodbye Photos and back to iPhoto for me until Apple do a lot more work on Photos.