I want to have Photos sort from most recent at the top and then in descending order.
Is this possible to change the sort?
They are now sorted by oldest photo date first. I have to scroll way down to see the photos I just entered. In many functions when you hit the column head the sort order will reverse or toggle back and forth.
MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)
Some views have predetermined sort orders:
Photos - by date oldest first
Memories - by date oldest first and grouped by location.
Favorites - by date oldest first
Places - by date oldest first
Imports - by date oldest first
User created albums and smart albums -
So create your own smart album
and select Keep Sorted By Newest First.
Some views have predetermined sort orders:
Photos - by date oldest first
Memories - by date oldest first and grouped by location.
Favorites - by date oldest first
Places - by date oldest first
Imports - by date oldest first
User created albums and smart albums -
So create your own smart album
and select Keep Sorted By Newest First.
There is no keep sorted by newest first. I'm using High Sierra.
Instead I used smart album and date added in last 21 days. Which gives a much smaller number to scroll to bottom.
Yes, thanks OT, the option is there if you create specific smart folders but I think the point is it is yet another work-around required for something that should be a basic, top-level feature.
As I have said before, I simply cannot understand why 'they' would not think that it is an important and, let's be honest here, most basic of basic options.
One can only assume that 'they' have made decisions about how users use their libraries... 'Well, everyone will be using cloud not local storage & they're only going to use Memories & smart albums blah, blah, blah...' so basic features are neglected.
Form over function. And too many assumptions about how people use the software & what people actually need apparently without actually talking with people who already use the platform.
As I have said before, I simply cannot understand why 'they' would not think that it is an important and, let's be honest here, most basic of basic options.
It is a design principle of Photos to avoid controls and options that clutter up the view. Photos offers plenty of predefined albums instead, so we should not need sorting options. Instead of one "All Photos" albums that can be sorted in various ways, we get several albums that are sorted differently. Instead of sorting one album we switch between albums to see the photos sorted differently. It is faster, because the albums can remain sorted in a fixed way.
Like you, I would prefer an orthogonal design, where all albums - predefined or custom - can be sorted and rearranged in the same way. And I would prefer to have more sorting options than just date and title. I would like to be to sort by the file size, the pixel size, the rating. Appel could easily offer these options on a mac.
There may be another reason why Apple is avoiding too many user interface controls, and that is iCloud Photo Library. One declared design goal for the Photos.app is to make the user interface experience similar on all devices - so Photos on a Mac should not be too different from Photos on the iPhone. But on the iPhone display is not much space for additional controls, if we want to be able to see the photos at all. So currently the design of Photos for Mac seems to be influenced by design decisions for Photos on iOS devices. See this comment in the user guide: https://www.apple.com/lae/macos/photos/
(emphasize added by me):
iCloud Photo Library gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photo Library as well — so it appears on your Mac, your iOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC. Even the photos and videos imported from your DSLR, GoPro, or drone to your Mac appear on all your iCloud Photo Library–enabled devices. And since your collection is organized the same way across your Apple devices, navigating your library always feels familiar.
Not being able to sort by date, not being able to show file names underneath images, not being able to get reliable search results, having to display every single image rather than stack them behind a key photo. Simple stuff like this shows how out-of-touch Apple is becoming.
I expect the iPad Pro users are hoping for an iPad that is becoming as flexible and versatile as a powerful desktop computer, and not the other way round, limiting the powerful devices to what is possible on an iPhone. 😁
I am using PowerPhotos as a companion to Photos, so I can browse the photos in a list view with the metadata in columns, and sort them by the size or the filename. And I am practising to write Apple Scripts to allow me to do things that are not suported by the user interface.
Tell Apple what missing features you'd like restored or new features added in Photos via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.
They are now sorted by oldest photo date first. I have to scroll way down to see the photos I just entered.
Many predefined smart albums in Photos are sorted by date, ascending. with fifty thousand photos in my Library it takes a lot of scrolling to get there. So I prefer to jump to the bottom of the album inter by clicking at the end of the scrollbar. I have set the system preferences to always to display the scroll bars. This way I can always see at a glance, if a pane or panel is supposed to be scrolled, if options are missing, and I can get easily to the last items in an album or a slideshow.
You enable the scroll bars to show in
Yes, I'm totally at a loss to understand why anyone would think that oldest images should be first or that an option to change the sort order isn't needed.
Absurd.
Just the same as the fact that you can't hide the images from one 'roll' behind a key or index image.
It gets really boring looking for a roll when you have 10's or even hundreds of images in each roll & you have to scroll through them all.
léonie wrote:
I am using PowerPhotos as a companion to Photos, so I can browse the photos in a list view with the metadata in columns, and sort them by the size or the filename. And I am practising to write Apple Scripts to allow me to do things that are not suported by the user interface.
Yes... using a third party app & effectively having to write code yourself to accomplish simple actions that a) - should exist and b) - did exist in previous apps.
Says it all really.
Thanks léonie.
Ah yes... Apple's grand fantasy about how they've decided everyone uses their image library. They have decided so it must be so.
Reality?
My photo library is 1.22Tb. My DSLR has a 128Gb memory card, half of which I can fill on an average weekend.
My internet connection is ADSL1 (the only option available to me) with an average upload speed of 3.93Mbps.
My mobile devices have to stay switched to 3G-only as 4G is too unreliable & even then 3G data is pretty flaky.
Even if I did want to use iCloud & I was happy to pay for the extra storage it would be all but unusable.
I get that Apple want consistency of experience across devices and platforms but it's this thing of making their desktops (like my new $12k+ iMac Pro) operate like giant iPads that I find frustrating &, frankly, insulting.
There is no reason why they cannot have concealed drop-downs or right-click options available that would still keep their precious interface neat & tidy.
Not being able to sort by date, not being able to show file names underneath images, not being able to get reliable search results, having to display every single image rather than stack them behind a key photo. Simple stuff like this shows how out-of-touch Apple is becoming.
I've owned Macs since 1994 with my first LC475 running System 7. I've seen enormous amounts of change in that time & yes, I love & embrace change, but this stuff is just losing so much of what made Apple great - you could make your Mac work the way you wanted or needed it too. Every thing was 'organic' in the way you could work with it. Flexibility and customisation were the hallmarks of the OS.
Now? Everything is becoming increasingly linear, rigid, featureless & sterile.
Rather than raising the iOS up to a more sophisticated level they've chosen instead to lower the OS to a portable standard.
You must be doing something wrong if you don't have this option in a Smart Album:
Changing the sort order in Photos
