MOVE picture from recent to album - not copy

I want to move pictures from recent to my selected albums.... not copy. The problem is I can't remember if I put picture in album already or not. I use my photos for work. I usually take pictures during the week and try to put in albums on the weekend but sometimes it's a month or more before I'm able to get to it. It would make my life so much easier and I would spend way less time searching for a picture if I was just able to move it!!!!!!!

surely by now apple can figure this out. I know I'm not the only one with this issue.

iPhone 14 Pro Max

Posted on Mar 24, 2025 9:29 AM

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Mar 24, 2025 10:06 AM in response to L-A-R-A

Photos, (like iPhoto, Aperture, Music, iTunes) is a database. This means it can be very flexible and powerful, if sometimes a little confusing. The library is the core of the app. Every image is in the library. Albums are virtual, and are just subsets of the library. In fact, Albums are not places, they are lists - instructions to the app to 'display this group of images together'. So images do not get "moved" to Albums, they get added to that particular list. This means that an image can be in more than one album but use no extra disk space. Similarly in the Music app, all the tracks are in the Library and can be added to any number of playlists.


In a Mac:


If you're trying to organise your Library and want to find images not in albums, then a simple Smart Album


File -> New Smart Album


Album -> Is Not -> Any


will find these images. As you add them to albums they will disappear from the Smart Album.


On iPad or iPhone, which do not currently support Smart Albums:


Check out HashPhotos


https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/hashphotos/id685784609


It integrates with Photos on your iOS device and adds a Smart Album feature. Using this app a search


!#inalbum


Will find images not in an album


(Hat tip to User ukSamo for the recommending this app.)


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MOVE picture from recent to album - not copy

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