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How to Organize Photos on Mac: A Guide on Photo Organization

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Did you know people took at least 1.2 trillion photos in 2017 alone?

With all the focus on keeping and taking photos, it’s very important to store them on your Mac properly. Nothing is worst than losing all the great memories you’ve recorded over the years.

You don’t want to lose your photos in a mess of unlabeled folders. You need to learn how to organize photos on Mac.

If you want to ensure that your pictures are safe for years to come, read on. Here are some easy ways to organize photos while you walk through memory lane.

Make Use Of Your Cloud

The easy answer if you want to learn how to organize photos on Mac is a pre-installed photo software. Referred to as iCloud Photos, and it organizes your photos by date, month, and year. There is also a For You section included where you can see shared albums and the events which previously occurred on the same day.

It lessens your struggle organizing photos with the ability to manage, create, and share albums. You can also turn your photos into keepsakes with the easy-to-use project extensions. Using the cloud, you can create websites, collages, photo albums, wall decor, and so much more.

Create Photo Libraries

With your photos closed, hold the option key, double-click on the photo app, and click on Create New button, then choose Library. There you can place a whole new group of photos, videos, and albums.

You can merge libraries if you feel that you have too many by selecting on a library and clicking on File, then Export. You can choose to have an unmodified original library or to only export a specific number of photos.

Pick where these are going and repeat the steps for other libraries to merge. Click on File and choose Import or drag the exported photos into a library.

Create Smart Albums

A smart album can immediately update based on the pre-selected criteria. Click on File and click on the New Smart Album. Under the album Name, you will find Match the Following Condition, where you can choose specific people within the photos.

You can also restrict an album from getting the photos from anywhere else except a specific album. Find the drop-down option and narrow your criteria down using Favorites, Photos, Videos, and even keywords.

Change the Order of Albums

The albums that you created should appear in the order of when you created them. You can change how these appear by right-clicking on My Albums and choosing Sort. You can arrange it to appear by name, oldest first, or newest first.

You can also click the album name in the side-bar on the left, then you drag the album anywhere you want. Unfortunately, you will not have the same arrangement on your Mac shared with other Apple devices.

Add Photos to Your Favorites

The simplest way of organizing photos is to always designate your favorite photos and people. This allows you to choose a view which only shows your favorite photos. Select an image and click on the heart icon in the bar at the top of the window.

You can also hover over the image thumbnail until a heart icon appears at the bottom-left corner of the image. To add your favorite people, Cmd+click or drag these into the favorite section. You can find the Favorites album in the sidebar on the left.

Delete Some Photos

Be selective in choosing the best photos in your album by removing blurry or duplicated images. This is important when organizing your photos since it helps free space. It also makes your libraries much more manageable.

You can delete photos and videos by switching to the Moments view. To get there, click on Photos at the bottommost menu and go to the Collections view; click on any photo to get Moments view. You can click on a single photo or delete in bulk with the Select feature.

If you regret deleting a photo, don’t worry. Here is a guide to teach you how to recover deleted photos.

Use the People Feature

You may not know it, but Apple has a People folder which compiles all similar faces together. To see this, click on the People album listed in the left sidebar under albums. There you will see a grid of faces identified by the app.

Double-click on a face to see the photos sorted under it. To add a name to the face, hover over it and click on Add Name. Clicking on Add People allows you to select many people at once with Cmd+clicking.

If you have a lot of versions of the same person, you can Cmd+click then right-click on one image and select Merge X People. X represents the number of faces you have selected.

Search Your Particular Photos

If you want to avoid creating too many albums, Apple has a feature that recognizes objects in photos. If you want to search for a particular thing in a picture, all you have to do is type it in the Search field.

So if you input dog or cake in the search field, photos with cakes and dogs will appear. It also works if you search for people that are in your People album.

Try A Photo Organizing Software

Adobe Lightroom is a great photo organizing software, but it isn’t the easiest to use. However, once you know how to use it, the catalog system can take on any photograph archive. Not only does it have an automatic photo organization, but it also has thousands of filters and editing tools.

Another software is Luminar which allows you to look at multiple thumbnails at once. You can add folders of photographs and it automatically creates albums with shortcuts. Some other free software is the Mylio X and the Digikam Open Source.

Now You Know How to Organize Photos On Mac

Nothing is better than having a perfect photo organization routine! Since you’ll be adding new photos every day, you’ll soon be a whiz at this. Remember to stay consistent in naming, creating, and deleting.

Thanks for reading! Did you enjoy learning how to organize photos on Mac? Do you want to discover more Mac advice?

If you do, don’t hesitate to explore more of our content. We cover tons of important tech topics so feel free to pick up new tips and tricks today!

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