You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

EXIF data not updating when "Importing: Copy items to the Photos library" is disabled

I just imported over 35k photos which I have on a cloud drive. Since I do not want them copied to the Photos library (iCloud), I unchecked "ImportingCopy items to the Photos library".


This works more or less fine as long as I import only a few thousand pictures at a time (else the Photos app crashes).


I created an intelligent album to find all pictures that are NOT geotagged, and I am using some external tool to tag them.


This is working fine, however the Photos app never rescans the files that are changed on the filesystem, so EXIF Data is never updated. I was hoping that unchecking "ImportingCopy items to the Photos library" would not cause this kind of issues, since the true data is on the FS and NOT in some internal DB of the Photos app.


Is there any way to update/rescan all photos from the library without having to delete everything and reimporting? For 35k files and a Photos app that crashes or takes ages for importing it is just not the way to go...

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 5, 2020 1:29 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 5, 2020 1:36 AM

No. Once you import an image Photos assumes that any changes you make with be either with or via the Photos.app and extension etc. Also, having the images on one volume and the library on another is a recipe for problems. Photos lacks any tools that would allow you to reconnect the images with the library should the path to the files change. You will be repairing the links one by one. Given that the storage you mention is online, I would respectfully suggest that the likelihood of you having an issue is approaching 100%.


I don't think Photos is the app for that usage.

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 5, 2020 1:36 AM in response to mschmiedel

No. Once you import an image Photos assumes that any changes you make with be either with or via the Photos.app and extension etc. Also, having the images on one volume and the library on another is a recipe for problems. Photos lacks any tools that would allow you to reconnect the images with the library should the path to the files change. You will be repairing the links one by one. Given that the storage you mention is online, I would respectfully suggest that the likelihood of you having an issue is approaching 100%.


I don't think Photos is the app for that usage.

Oct 5, 2020 2:21 AM in response to Yer_Man

Yes, I am thinking that will be a problem... However I was expecting to search for "not geotagged" files in the finder. I don't get it, it has fields like "EXIF-GPS-Version" which I could not find on any geotagged image, latitute, longitude, but I cannot search for absense of such fields... But well, will have to look for other options... I also see that Photos has issues with big amounts of data...

EXIF data not updating when "Importing: Copy items to the Photos library" is disabled

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.