Mac OS Photos 11 Scrambling Slideshow Order

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Level 3

896 points

Mac OS Photos 11 Scrambling Slideshow Order

I am trying to create a slideshow project with Photos 3.0 in High Sierra with a large album of 232 photos. The problem is that the slides for the project end up in random order, and manual reordering will be real pain. I managed to keep my album ordering in a slideshow project when there were only 192 photos, a subset of the 232. I thought that there might be an issue with the first photo of the 232, which is cropped to an odd size. If I take only the first 11 photos for a slideshow, including the oddly cropped one, I still get randomization. That cropping theory was busted, however, when I tried to create a slideshow without the first photo; the remaining 231 photos were still randomized. Any suggestions?

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Nov 2, 2017 8:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Ultima2876

Level 1

9 points

Dec 30, 2017 11:38 PM in response to mahippos

I had this same problem too. In the end, the only solution I found was to create the slideshow by doing the following:

Create the album
In the sidebar on the left of Photos, right click on the album name
Create > Slideshow from there

Every other solution or method ended up scrambling the photos. Hope that helps!

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Answer 2

mahippos Author

Level 3

896 points

Dec 8, 2017 10:57 AM in response to angostura

What works for me is to add many photos at once with ⊕ in a Photos slideshow project. When I see all my photos in one window, I click on the first one I want to put a blue checkmark on it. Then I scroll to the last one I want, and do a shift-click on it. This will put a blue checkmark on every photo from first to last. Then click the "add" button at the top of the selection window. The Photos software is really flaky, but this seems to work every time for me. All bets are off if you add photos a few at a time. Make sure your theme is Classic or Ken Burns.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

217,334 points

Nov 2, 2017 9:45 AM in response to mahippos

What theme are you using? The only themes that do not mess with the image order are Classic and Ken Burns. The other themes have different orientation layouts and rearrange the slides to fit.

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Answer 4

mahippos Author

Level 3

896 points

Dec 5, 2017 11:48 PM in response to léonie

Don't drag your photos into project. Instead, go to the right end of the thumbnail strip of your slideshow project; click on the ⊕ and select "add photo." You will see a window with everything in your Photos library. Select from here and then click the Add button at the top left of the window. This seems to work for me.

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Answer 5

Feb 14, 2018 7:33 AM in response to Ultima2876

THANK YOU SO MUCH !

I had the same craziness because I just went to the command 'create slideshow' - dragging in photos leading to a random nightmare.

Once I used the 'New album' first method SANITY WAS RESTORED !

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Answer 6

guanoguy

Level 1

8 points

Feb 14, 2018 4:47 PM in response to léonie

I was able to create a "project" in the order I wanted by first doing it in "My Albums." Then control click on the album name, then Create - slide show. I was able to delete images from the project. I am afraid to change the order of the images.

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

202,005 points

Feb 15, 2018 11:40 PM in response to guanoguy

no designated "Theme"

Every slideshow has a theme, even if you do not select one. Could you please check, which theme is selected for your slideshow?

You will see the selected theme, when you click the Theme picker button to the right of the slideshow window. The current theme will have a blue check mark.

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Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

202,005 points

Nov 2, 2017 10:26 AM in response to Old Toad

And now it even no longer possible with the Classic and Ken Burns theme, OT. At least, since I updated to macOS 10.13.1 I am having the same problem with all themes.

Even when I start with an empty slideshow and drag the photos into the film strip one after another, Photos does no longer add the added photos at the end of the film strip but at a random position. In especially, the videos will not stay put but be distributed all over the place.

For the time being, I am making several short slideshows instead of one long slideshow. This way it is less dragging in the film strip to rearrange the photos and videos.

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Answer 9

léonie

Level 10

202,005 points

Dec 31, 2017 3:47 AM in response to Ultima2876

This seems now to be working since Photos 3.0 on macOS 10.13.2 High Sierra, if the album is sorted chronologically or by title - using one of the sort options for the album. But when I try this for an album that has a manual sorting, the resulting slideshow will be sorted by date, ascending.

Are you seeing the same, Ultima2876?

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Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

202,005 points

Dec 5, 2017 11:12 PM in response to mahippos

When dragging photos to an empty slideshow they also get rearranged, unless I am adding them one-by-one, at least in Photos 3.0 on High Sierra. It used to work well in Photos 1.0 on Yosemite.

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Answer 11

léonie

Level 10

202,005 points

Feb 16, 2018 11:25 AM in response to guanoguy

Am use the default "Classic" theme.

That should make it easier to keep the manual sort order.

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Answer 12

léonie

Level 10

202,005 points

Nov 2, 2017 10:55 AM in response to mahippos

I have not selected any theme yet. There is no point in doing so with the degree of initial scrambling in the creation of a big slideshow project.

If you change the theme, the photos may be rearranged again, at least slightly. I usually pick the theme as early as possible before I start to arrange the photos.

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Answer 13

mahippos Author

Level 3

896 points

Dec 5, 2017 4:39 PM in response to mahippos

Try creating an empty project. Then add all your vacation slides in one fell swoop. Then delete the ones you do not want. This should preserve the order in which your photos were imported.

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Answer 14

guanoguy

Level 1

8 points

Feb 15, 2018 12:07 PM in response to léonie

I am using Mac OS 13.3.3, version 3 of Photos, no designated "Theme" and able to create a slide show in the order I want using the control click on album name.

I agree, this is crazy that we can't do it manually. It undermines this product.

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Answer 15

guanoguy

Level 1

8 points

Feb 16, 2018 11:20 AM in response to léonie

Am use the default "Classic" theme.

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