Level 3

519 points

How do I force scanning faces in photos

After upgrading to macOS Sierra a couple of weeks ago, the Photos app did rescan my whole photo library for faces.

But it stopped somehow near the end of it because it since then displays this message when I select the Persons/Faces album (translated from my language to English, so it might be slightly different in English):

15,726 Photos scanned

"Photos" continues to scan 1,260 remaining photos when you are not using the app and your Mac is plugged in to a power outlet.

Fortunately there is a button named ""Show album 'Persons'" below that message so that I eventually can get to the person album, but I would like to have all my photos scanned.

Upgrading to the latest macOS version did not fix it although the Photos app did upgrade the library.

Is there a way to force the Photos app to either continue the scan or force it to do a full rescan?

Thanks,

Andreas

P.S.: I am using an iMac (no laptop) and I am running on macOS 10.12.2.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Dec 18, 2016 4:55 AM

21 replies

probe_droid Author

Level 3

519 points

Dec 18, 2016 8:45 AM in response to léonie

Yes, I have 220 videos in the library. And I would think that it does not really make sense to scan them at all and would expect them to be skipped.

But this is now stuck for weeks and not just days.

"photosanalysisd" is still running because it is a demon process, but I do not see any related messages in the Console app.

léonie

Level 10

204,097 points

Dec 18, 2016 9:02 AM in response to probe_droid

And I would think that it does not really make sense to scan them at all and would expect them to be skipped.

All of my videos have been scanned for faces. You can check your videos, if the faces scan has begun by opening one of the videos with close-ups of people. It took a long time.

probe_droid Author

Level 3

519 points

Dec 18, 2016 10:34 AM in response to léonie

You are right, I did not know that also videos are scanned. So thanks that I learned something new today.

As far as I can tell, all my videos had been scanned already, so they are most likely not the reason why the scan is stuck.

léonie

Level 10

204,097 points

Dec 18, 2016 11:00 AM in response to probe_droid

Have you checked, if your Photos Library contains media items that cannot be processed by Photos? These might be holding up the show.

A good indicator for incompatible items is a smart album with the single rule "Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library". If this album is not empty, save the items outside your Photos Library and then remove them from the library.

probe_droid Author

Level 3

519 points

Dec 18, 2016 3:06 PM in response to léonie

While browsing some of my videos it popped up a message that it cannot be processed because if cannot be found. This might be the root cause of the stuck issue, although it was only a handful of items.

The tip with the smart list did unfortunately not work as I do not use iCloud Photo Library, so the album is empty.

léonie

Level 10

204,097 points

Dec 18, 2016 3:49 PM in response to probe_droid

The tip with the smart list did unfortunately not work as I do not use iCloud Photo Library, so the album is empty.

It is not necessary to be using iCloud Photo Library for this test. The smart album will collect photos and videos with problematic formats. iphoto and Aperture allowed to import media types, that Photos cannot process and that need to be removed from the Photos library. So it is good, that the album is empty.

I hope you found the culprit with the missing video.

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How do I force scanning faces in photos