Photos app not detecting people from images

On my iMac, (intel i7, Sonoma 14.3.1) the Photos app usually detects people in pictures, but I’ve noticed that not all images are used for people detection. I have got a lot of 1000s of photos and only one or two images per person are recognised. Some faces are not recognised at all. I do have my photos moved to SSD drive from where i load my photos. What else can I do to make sure all images are scanned for people?

Any advice is appreciated!



iMac 27″, macOS 14.3

Posted on Aug 27, 2025 12:09 AM

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3 replies

Aug 30, 2025 10:08 AM in response to fazal2cloud

fazal2cloud wrote: … What else can I do to make sure all images are scanned for people?

I think the answer may be to wait until the next OS upgrade and hope that it causes a re-scan. But don't count on it.


Many of us add a person's name to the keyword list and, since keywords don't show in iOS, we add the names to the captions, as well. The advantage is that Keywords and Captions can be exported in the metadata of pictures, so these names will stay with the picture. But face IDs only work in the Photos system.


Of course, having the Face names on the picture is especially important when it's a group of people, and you'll forget who's who later. Like, who's going to remember all these people?


Luckily, on a Mac, we can add the face names manually. I set up a smart album

with "Keyword is" the name, and "Person is not" the name to find the ones to manually add.


Do you manually add names to faces?


Sep 8, 2025 05:46 AM in response to fazal2cloud

fazal2cloud wrote: I was hoping that hard lifting would be done by the Photos app and would spare me that time.

There's little chance that Face recognition will do it all, sorry. And again, Face IDs, manual or recognized, only work within the Photos system, but Keywords and Captions can travel with pictures, if you choose. So if you are ever interested in sharing pictures or viewing them outside of Photos, Keywords and Captions are necessary.

Photos app not detecting people from images

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