photo v3.0 on iMac - System 10:13:6

This came up recently. Imports is just another way of organizing and viewing your images. Photos does it automagically, and you can't change it. Think of it as a Smart Album. You are free to ignore it.

You could create your own "My Recent Imports" smart album. For example, if you want an album, that is only showing recently imported photos that you did not yet sort into any album, create a new smart album with the rules:

From there I move them into the different albums I have created such as Birthday, Vacation etc.... I'm I doing it wrong?

That is perfectly fine. The Imports view is showing you the imported photos, sorted by the date of the import, so you will alway see all recently imported photos at the bottom of this album for quick access. Only, you cannot "move" photos from there. Imports and "Photos" are meant for browsing.

You may want to have a look at this page in the User Guide. It explains how to use the different views and the predefined albums: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/browse-and-view-photos-pht56eafa987 /mac

waditz wrote:

[...] From there I move them into the different albums I have created such as Birthday, Vacation etc.... I'm I doing it wrong?

Albums are not storage locations, just lists of items stored elsewhere in the library. Adding an item to an album is more a "copy" than a "move."

Exactly, bt I'd avoid the word "copy", Mark, because it suggests, that the photos get duplicated. But the albums do just reference the photos in the library and do not duplicate them.

I like to see the albums as an index card, that will give us quick access to subsets of photos that are related according to common properties. Albums are different views of the same photos.

I do most of my work in the photos view. I have never felt the need to use the imports view. Why do you use it?

You can use the "photos" view. That gives you 4 options, photos, moments, collections and years. Each will organize in a different way.