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Q: Photos has not imported any of my smart albums. The folders are all there, but they are empty.

Photos has not imported any of my smart albums. The folders are all there that the smart albums are in, but they are empty. I have opened iPhoto and tried to drag and drop, but that didn't help.

MacBookPro, iPad

Posted on May 8, 2015 4:09 AM

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Q: Photos has not imported any of my smart albums. The folders are all there, but they are empty.

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 8, 2015 4:15 AM in response to RJHack
    Level 10 (108,935 points)
    iCloud
    May 8, 2015 4:15 AM in response to RJHack
    Photos has not imported any of my smart albums. The folders are all there that the smart albums are in, but they are empty. I have opened iPhoto and tried to drag and drop, but that didn't help.

    Photos cannot recreate the smart albums correctly, if the smart rules are based on the event names, because Photos does not have events. Which were the constraints that you used in your smart albums?

    Are the missing photos visible in the "All Photos" view?

     

    See this support document:   https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204478

  • by RJHack,

    RJHack RJHack May 8, 2015 4:46 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2015 4:46 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for your help. Yes, the photos are there in "Photos".

    The smart albums are based on event names as that is how I had my pics organised in iPhoto. But I tried changing one of the events in iPhoto, adding keywords and editing the smart album to be based on that keyword and it still does not work. Will Photo update keywords that I now enter in iPhoto? It is just not possible to sort though thousands of photos in Photo to apply keywords. Very frustrating....

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad May 8, 2015 10:13 AM in response to RJHack
    Level 10 (141,721 points)
    Photos for Mac
    May 8, 2015 10:13 AM in response to RJHack
    The smart albums are based on event names as that is how I had my pics organised in iPhoto

     

    The existing Events in iPhoto were converted to albums in Photos.  So change the smart album criteria to Album is XXXXX and see if you can get it working like it did in iPhoto.

     

    Moments in Photos 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 Albums/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.

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