remove wrong names from faces dropdown in photos app

ZeoS wrote:

If you open your photo library as a container (right click > Show Package Content), go to "databases" folder and locate "Person.db" file.

All names stored in that database in the table called "RKPerson"

I've used SQLite Studio (free app) and tried to delete certain raws, but always received this error:

"Error while deleting row from table RKPerson: no such function: RKPerson_notifyRidIndexDelete"

No idea how to properly delete this lines, I'm not a DB master 🙂

You can't delete the line because it's linked to another table. Instead just rename the entry to something unusual like _error01, _error02, etc. Don't forget to take a backup of Person.db before editing!

I also experienced this for a long time until today it dawned on me to try the following.

Pick an unnamed face, and name it as the wrong name that I wanted to get rid of. After that, I correct the wrong name to the right name of that unnamed face. Then the old wrong name seems to be gone.

Double click the incorrect name and type in the correct name.

I have exact the same Problem as "mezzo22".

If all faces of a specific name are deleted in Apple Foto, the name is still in the suggestion-dropdown for new faces.

For me this is really laborious because every time i type in a name, wrong names are suggested because i'm not able to delete the in Apple Foto.

The same Problem occurs when i rename a face. In the Background the face isn't renamed.

The old one still exists and a new one is created. This leads also to the situation, that old unused names are listet in the suggestion-dropdown.

It was very helpful and nice for the user experience in general if this behavior of Apple Foto would be customized.

I get this remembered old names behaviour too.

It is doubly confusing because I have tried to rename "Richie (Sue)" to just "Richie" in Photos as per his name in my Contacts, yet when I do this and try to set his Contact photo from the Faces section, it does not find his face. If I then rename the Photos name to the previous "Richie (Sue)' name which is not in my contacts, I can then link the Richie contact card to the "Richie (Sue)" Face from Photos.

Something weird going on with Photos App remembering names that no longer exist and then also remembering links between names that have been deleted.

Is there a cache somewhere where this is perhaps being remembered that needs to be cleared?

Yep same issue here.

Running El Capitan and can't delete old "suggested" names in Photos App drop down.

Running El Capitan and can't delete old "suggested" names in Photos App drop down.

The old names in the drop-down menu are stored somewhere in the Photos library. If you create a new Photos Library, the drop down list of suggested faces names will be empty. But I could find no way to remove the database entries for the drop-down list from the library. The only safe way to get rid of them seems to be to start over with a new library.

Don't suppose anyone has an answer they could share?! Merry Christmas!

Oh oh oh, I've got the answer to your problem 😉

It happened to me because of a problem with Photos Sync, so I deleted my whole library, then I created a new one, and let Photos download my 22Gb of images/videos. I was happy my faces was still there while doing a search (but they weren't there as before in Photos Faces).

I tried many things in order to recreate it, or even delete faces that was previously wrong. During the night an idea came to me.

Let's say on one image you have "Peter" that appears in the search, but you want to delete that face on this image. Simply re-add the exact same name "Peter" to that image, then do cmd+i to see you have the face. Then delete the face you just created. Now doing the Peter search the image that was previously shown as Peter is gone.

Hope it helps 😉

While naming faces in the photos app, i accidentally created a few wrong name entries like "an" instead of "anna".

How do i remove this wrong names from the dropdown list in faces?

It's a new year and the problem persists. Not a killer but still annoying.

The only solution requires a lot of work. The wrong suggestions like "an" instead of "anna" are stored in the Photos Library. Create a new library and start over. If you are using iCloud Photo Library you can download the photos again from iCloud, but you will have to name all faces thumbnails again, very cumbersome.

Thanks for quick reply. It does not make sense for me to create a new Library. The simple accidental mistakes will never cease, so I will at a later date once again have to create a new Library to get rid of previous mistakes. It will never end. So I filed a Bug Report report and will muddle along until Apple does us a favor and provides an easy way to delete the unwanted suggestions.

Thanks for quick reply. It does not make sense for me to create a new Library.

It does not make sense to me either,😁 but currently it is the only way to remove the wrong items from the list of suggested names. Testing with a new library proves, that these suggestions are stored with the library.

I hope, that we will see soon a bug fix.

If you open your photo library as a container (right click > Show Package Content), go to "databases" folder and locate "Person.db" file.

All names stored in that database in the table called "RKPerson"

I've used SQLite Studio (free app) and tried to delete certain raws, but always received this error:

"Error while deleting row from table RKPerson: no such function: RKPerson_notifyRidIndexDelete"

No idea how to properly delete this lines, I'm not a DB master 🙂