categorie search in fotos isn't working

I had to wait for a week, until the category search worked again. Photos needed to scan the library again. The first few days nearly no objects were recognized, but now it is back to normal.

An example - directly after the upgrade a search for "bear" found no photos at all, but now, I can find more than previously:

Same images are not categorized in my main library, after almost 3 weeks of the MacBook Pro constantly running.

Then your main library seems to be badly damaged, if even the repair failed.

Has your library been restored from a Time Machine backup? Or did you run any cleaning applications, like CleanMyMac? That can result in a damaged library, that cannot be repaired.

You could try to repair the permissions by ctrl-clickeing the Photos Library, then select "Show package contents".

For each subfolder of the library, you will see in the package, select the folder, open the Info panel with the key combination ⌘I, then set the permissions for this folder to read and write for yourself. Click the button "Apply to enclosed items", to ensure, that the permissions will be changed for all subfolders. You will have to click the little padlock icon in the Sharing&Permissions section, to be able to modify the permissions.

As to moving the photos to a new library - to save the names of the recognized people, I am taking the precaution to add each name that I assign to a photo also as a keyword. The keywords can be exported with any photo that I export, so it will transfer to a new library.

You may want to create a small, new library for testing. Import just a few photos of objects, that should be recognized by Photos and see, if Photos can recognize the objects.

If yes, I would repair the main library, see this link: Repair the library

Patience is a virtue - Give it time - the categories are not immediate as Photos has to scan the entire library for objects and faces - it may take weeks to complete - you shuld see it getting more infor daily but not all will be done for a while

LN

Thanks all for the helpful insight.

My MBP is set to never go to sleep, has been set like this for 1+ week now. Very occasionally I can see the photoanalysisd and sometimes even the photolibraryd deamons come to life, but that's always only for a short while.

If I understand correctly, macOS decided on its own to delete all this data from the photos database for no obvious reason in the first place.

Now photos.app decides on its own if and when and how quickly to restore it, and there is apparently no way to tell if it is doing so, how quickly it is doing so, if it has done anything at all yet, how much is done, how much remains to be done, or how long this will or maybe will not take.

Brilliant. A+ work, Apple.

If I understand correctly, macOS decided on its own to delete all this data from the photos database for no obvious reason in the first place.

I ave no idea what you are thinking or why but Photos does not ever "decide" to delete anything - upgrades *** new features and capabilities and sometimes require rescanning the photos - not due to anything being deleted but due to needing new and additional information for new features

LN

LarryHN wrote:

Photos does not ever "decide" to delete anything

Well, I have to admit it does feel a lot like Photos or macOS did decide to delete stuff.

I've just checked: my MBP has been running non-stop on power (not battery) for 2 1/2 weeks now, and Photos still does not have one single automatically-generated category anywhere, as far as I can see. Zilch, zero, nada.

So how do I know if Photos actually "requires rescanning" "due to needing new and additional information for new features", or is simply broken?

-P

When in doubt, if the processes are running correctly, I restart the Mac, relaunch Photos to kick off the background processes, then quit Photos and wait for results.

When you look at the Activity Viewer (in Applications > Utilities, oder (Programme > Dienstprogramme auf einem deutschen Mac) , do you see the photosanalysisd running?

Is your Photos Library always available - is it on the System Drive and not an optimized iCloud Photo Library?

Well, I've restarted this Mac quite a few times in the last 2 1/2 weeks.

photoanalysisd has, as far as I can tell, been continually running in the background, and racked up 1:46:18.29 CPU time with Launch Time: 2017-12-12 13:25:53.136; photolibraryd has 3:01:27.98 CPU time with Launch Time: 2017-12-12 13:26:11.660 since the last restart.

However, they don't seem to be doing much, at least regarding automatically categorizing images in the library.

Oh, and yes, the library is on my main system drive, so it's always available, and iCloud Photo Library is off.

léonie wrote:

If yes, I would repair the main library

Already tried repairing, it makes no difference whatsoever.

I'll test "import some images to a new library and see if Photos recognizes anything" later today, though – that's a good idea, thanks. I just don't know what to do if this approach works, to be honest.

It's like I feared: importing a handful of images from the original library to a new library = instant image recognition with the correct categories. Same images are not categorized in my main library, after almost 3 weeks of the MacBook Pro constantly running.

So, how do I migrate ~ 60'000 images and movies from one library to a new library without losing thousands of "persons", where I had to help face recognition manually for hours and hours? Or is there a hidden way to restart the image recognition process (without deleting the persons)?

Thanks a lot for your help!

I've changed permissions for all directories inside my photos library, but to be honest I don't have much hope this will do much.

I've looked through the errors reported in the console, and have not found any related to permissions for Photos.app or its daemons. (Also keep in mind that the persons recognition algo works without a problem, it's the automatic categorizing that fails.)

What I do miss from Photos.app is any indication at all if/when something is amiss, and an option to at least try and fix it. The way this works now is typical: as if it was completely impossible for anything Apple to ever go wrong/not work.

What I do miss from Photos.app is any indication at all if/when something is amiss, and an option to at least try and fix it.

Exactly. I really miss the Activity window from Aperture, where we could see, which images are currently been processed.

And both applications, iPhoto and Aperture had more elaborate repair tools to fix the library.

(Also keep in mind that the persons recognition algo works without a problem, it's the automatic categorizing that fails.)

As a further test - export again a photo with a missing classification (export as original with XMP sidecar file). Delete the photo from the library, empty Recently Deleted, then reimport the photo. Cannot be classified, if you reimport it to your main library?