I created a Smart Album with one matching condition: Description is not empty. This Smart Album matched ALL my photos. If the Info Window for a particular photo shows "Add a Description", then the description for this photo is "empty", true? If true, then how do I fix this?
This photo was INCLUDED in the Smart Album even though its Info Window says "Add a Description".
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
The example photo does not appear in a Smart Album where the one and only matching condition is "Description is empty". In fact, the Smart Album has no photos.
Repair the library according to this Apple document: Repair Your Library and try the smart album again.
Yes, El Capitan Photos, not iPhoto. I ran repairs just now. Did not resolve the problem, which existed with Yosemite Photos, too.
Delete that smart album and create a new one. Is the problem repeated?
Deleted and recreated both. Both fail . . . "not empty" includes 100% while "empty" includes 0%.
As a test, add a new photo to the library, where you are sure, that the description is empty. Take a screenshot or similar.
Does this new photo show in the "Description is empty" album?
A deleted description is not empty. If you delete a description, the description tag will be an empty string with characters you cannot enter into the text field.
Took a photo with my iPhone and imported it into Photos. It correctly shows in "empty" and does NOT show in "not empty". So, is there a way to modify a photo so that its description is truly empty in the eyes of a Smart Album? And, thank you for your help.
thanks to Old Toad, too.
You're welcome.
So, is there a way to modify a photo so that its description is truly empty in the eyes of a Smart Album? And, thank you for your help.
I would write a text into the description that looks empty, but can be found. For example three space characters. Then search for "description is " and enter three blanks as your search string.
I know of no way to reset the description back to really empty other then exporting the original and reimporting.
I exported a single photo out of Photos with the "Title, Keywords, and Description" boxed unchecked. Then, I imported it back into Photos. This fixed the problem for that particular photo. The downside to this fix is, of course, I have to reenter Title and Keywords. I don't have that many photos so I may proceed with this strategy. It would be much less painful if I could batch update photos to "empty" within the Photos app. But, I guess this is not possible.
So, is there a way to modify a photo so that its description is truly empty in the eyes of a Smart Album? And, thank you for your help.
The basic problem here is that deleting a description in Photos sets the description field of the photos database to an empty string ("") rather than an empty field (NULL). I reckon this is a bug in the Photos app. The database can be fixed by resetting all descriptions with empty strings to NULL using an SQL query in the Terminal.
Make sure the Photos app is closed, then go to Terminal and enter the following commands (change path to that of your own Photos Library).
$ sqlite3 ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/database/Library.apdb
SQLite version 3.8.10.2 2015-05-20 18:17:19
Enter ".help" for usage hints.
sqlite> update RKVersion set extendedDescription=null where extendedDescription="";
sqlite> .exit
This procedure should be repeated whenever descriptions have been deleted in Photos.
Keep in mind that modifying the Photos database is potentially dangerous, so you might want to make a backup first.
Great solution! 😎
"Description is not empty" in Smart Album not working?
