No memories even after a scan (18k photos)

Question

Level 1

7 points

No memories even after a scan (18k photos)

After updating to Sierra I tried the "memories" in Photos. It went on to a lenghty scan that took all night, and in the morning I found an empty page with the words "NO MEMORIES - Memories will appear here when more photos and videos are added to your library".

I tried to have it scan again, now it takes less than a minute (the progress bar comes up almost all done, like if I was resuming a process) and then it comes back with the same page.

I have 18K+ photos, they all show up without problems (for all I can see). Why isn't it doing any memory out of them?

Mac Pro, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 22, 2016 6:17 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,633 points

Sep 23, 2016 2:56 PM in response to iConnekt

It will take some time for memories to appear.

Photos is creating the memories automatically, when it discovers new items. When you name people, more memories may appear, or on special days. There should be regularly new memories for "On this Day" for example.

Have you already enabled the preference "Photos > Preferences > General: Show Holiday Events"? That should produce more memories. Memories also use the locations of your photos and are looking for soecial places. Have your photos locations assigned?

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Answer 2

Phronk

Level 1

4 points

Sep 23, 2016 4:34 AM in response to iConnekt

I'm seeing exactly the same behaviour, with about the same number of photos (just over 18,000).

A few extra pieces of info: my photos are still uploading to iCloud. However, in iOS 10, I do see memories based on the same photo library. Strange.

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Answer 3

iConnekt Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 23, 2016 3:01 PM in response to iConnekt

Yes, I have enabled the "Show Holiday Events". I'm not sure what you mean with "location assigned", some of them (the ones coming from the phones) will have the location in the exif, the others won't because to spare some battery on the reflex I'm usually not running the gps. However, now that I read the comment from Phronk, the same also here, memories appears in iOS no problems, it's just the Mac that doesn't seem to work...

I will let it go for a while, I hope it's as you say and they will eventually come up. I'll comment back if it happens.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,633 points

Sep 23, 2016 3:42 PM in response to iConnekt

. I'm not sure what you mean with "location assigned", some of them (the ones coming from the phones) will have the location in the exif, the others won't because to spare some battery on the reflex I'm usually not running the gps.

Yes, I meant that the places will also be used to create memories. Most of my photos in my library have GPS tags. Or assigned the locations manually in Photos by typing the the place into the info panel.

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Answer 5

Nov 10, 2016 6:22 AM in response to iConnekt

I am having the exact same issue. I too have over 18,000 photos/videos. I recently upgraded to Sierra. I have a 17" MacBook pro from 2011. It is an older machine with perhaps less processing power?

I tried to rebuild the Photo database but still have the same problem. How can I tell if the computer is actually doing something? The progress bar doesn't really move and it's been running overnight and it shows zero progress.

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

200,633 points

Nov 10, 2016 6:40 AM in response to iConnekt

Have you named people and assigned locations to your photos?

Photos on my Mac is creating about three new memories per day, but it is using the named faces and the locations. The first memories appeared after a few days at certain dates.

For example, on the first of October I saw a Memory album "on this day" with selected photos taken on the first of October in the previous years.

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