Q: Changing Description of multiple photos
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Sep 27, 2016 2:15 AMby léonie,The way you are changing the descriptions is exactly how it should be done. Select the photos in the browser, open the Info panel with ⌘I, then enter a new description.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)
Is your profile signature OS X El Capitan still valid?
I had a similar problem while still running El Capitan. Occasionally Photos would change the description field of all photos in the album I had been viewing and not just the description of the selected photos. And for the title fields it would change one more title than I had selected.
On Sierra I noticed that the browser is sometimes losing the focus for the cursor. when I am using the Trackpad and not the mouse. If the info panel is open for a few selected photos, one careless trackpad gesture can move the focus to another album in the sidebar and the Info panel changes to that album, and then typing in another title or description will bring up the warning about changing thousands of photos.
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Sep 27, 2016 2:32 AMby Jerry Dammers,Sorry, the signature was out of date - I'm on Sierra
I'm using the mouse and being very careful not to select the wrong photos.
I've worked out that if I click to close the Info pane every time I make a change then it works correctly and, also, if I press cancel when I get asked to change all the descriptions, then only the correct photos get amended. So partial solutions but time consuming and not how it should work.
Generally, it seems to be very temperamental, which is frustrating when investing time to tidy up the library - it's now changing random Descriptions in photos aswell.
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Sep 27, 2016 2:47 AMby léonie,At least we are now getting a warning on Sierra, if we are about to change the metadata for many photos at once. On El Capitan the batch change would happen silently in the background and we would discover the lost descriptions only month later when it was to late to restore from the backup.
But I had this problem never when using the mouse, only with the trackpad. When you get this warning again, try to scroll up or down and check, if somehow more photos have been selected that are hidden by the upper or lower part of the window. I once saw, that the four photos I had selected were highlighted, but when I scrolled up I saw hundreds of photos highlighted as well in the album that I was viewing.
It looks like a bug, so we have to be careful, when batch changing and check the total number of selected photos in the Info panel before applying the change.
The first line is showing the number of selected photos.
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Sep 27, 2016 3:12 AMby Jerry Dammers,When I followed the same Description batch change but using Apple's default Photos album (the first one at the top in the side bar), I didn't get a message asking if I wanted to change all the photos.
I wonder if it is actually doing this deliberately? As I was using a smart album, it might be thinking I want to change all the descriptions (which I don't, as I have many smart albums and this one is for a full year)
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Sep 27, 2016 4:24 AMby Jerry Dammers,Seems to work better for me from the master "Photos" view (no message about applying to all photos) but I'm still seemingly getting an issue that when I finish a batch change, the next photo that I click on also receives the Description of the previous batch change
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Sep 27, 2016 8:17 AMby Jerry Dammers,I'm still struggling! In a manual album, all descriptions if one photo description is changed and within smart albums, if a batch is changed the next photo I access gets automatically changed to the previous description.
The only album that is working consistently for batch changing descriptions is the top left (first) album in the sidebar entitled "Photos" - how does this differ from the "All Photos" album under "Albums"?
Also, when in that first "Photos" album in the top left, how can I search by date other than via the scroll bar? As I'm now only using that view, it's difficult to search 30,000 photos via the search bar (just entering a written date in the search box doesn't seem to work)
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Sep 28, 2016 1:40 AMby léonie,HelpfulThe only album that is working consistently for batch changing descriptions is the top left (first) album in the sidebar entitled "Photos" - how does this differ from the "All Photos" album under "Albums"?
The top "Photos" view is the basic view of the library - every photo and all its versions are shown only once in one moment. Photos may be hidden from "Photos". The All Photos album is also an album where photos are only shown once, but sorted differently (by date of import), and it will show the hidden photos as well.
None of this explains the problem with the wrong selection when btch changing.
If it is getting worse, I#d restart the Mac and test with a different Photos Library.
Right now I cannot reproduce the problem, but I recently restarted the Mac.
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Sep 28, 2016 1:41 AMby Jerry Dammers,Thanks Leonie, do you know of an alternative method to find specific dates within the master "Photos" album, other than scrolling?
That album remains the most robust source for changing descriptions (with the exception that after changing a description, the next photo I access also takes the description I've just added). It's very difficult to only scroll via the bar on the right, as that scroll bar doesn't even offer the dates as I scroll through so I'm just guessing where to stop.
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Sep 28, 2016 3:55 AMby léonie,Sometimes the search for a date is working. Try to use exactly the formats set in System Preferences > Language & Regions, Advanced, Date. The Photos will open n the Photos view:
Or brute force: Search the photos from a smart album, but then select one of them and go directly to the Photos view with ctrl-clicking and "Show in Moment".
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Sep 28, 2016 6:26 AMby Jerry Dammers,I've now getting better search results by date (and the "show in moment" tip helps too) but unfortunately any such search seems to fall foul of the issue that any change to an individual description of a photo is applied across all the photos within that (date) search.
The only method of changing descriptions which is working anywhere near normally for me is via the "Photos" album (with no search applied). It means, for example, I can't correct descriptions via any manual or smart album.
This really is hugely frustrating! Changing descriptions isn't an obscure procedure - it's a straight forward and common task and Apple should be getting this simple stuff right.
