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Two identical name suggestions for People in Photos

I have a MacBook Pro running Monterey 12.3.

In Photos when in People and naming an unnamed person, there is one person that has 3 suggestions come up. The first is the same name I use that is not associated with my contacts and there are two identical suggestions with the exact same names and email addresses.

For example:

(1) John Smith

(2) John Smith

jsmith@ichoud.com

(3) John Smith

jsmith@ichoud.com


How do I find the photos named with the contact name? How do I combine the three?


This person is also not being found and named with "Confirm Additional Photos" in their "People".


(I don't use my contacts for the People names as I want to protect their privacy. I add each name individually not associated with my contacts.)


I hope this makes sense.

Thank you for any help!

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Mar 28, 2022 3:00 PM

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5 replies

Mar 29, 2022 9:12 AM in response to David Strait

Thank you for your reply. I have done this with many of the “People”. And I looked for this particular person (it’s actually myself making it all the more frustrating) and there are no other “People” with those names.


It started being a problem when I copied over with Migration from old MacBook to new. Everyone else is fine (with only occasional hiccups) but me in the photos are not automatically named like the rest. Maybe it has to do with my iCloud account since I’m the administrator and owner?


Somewhere in the system it is confused. I thought if I could find the photos with the other names I could do the merge. But, alas, they are not to be found.

Mar 29, 2022 9:44 AM in response to deege

I see what you mean now... I often get those "contact" suggestions.

It appears you never selected the contact name to identify the person in the photo, since the two identical names don't appear in your people album. It simply offers the suggestion since it is the same name as in your contacts (it's not a bug... it's a feature!).


It is annoying and easy to select the wrong name, which creates a 2nd person with the same name. Unfortunately, Photos often creates a 2nd person with the same name even when their name is NOT in the contacts (but that is a different issue).


You can try to make the contact name slightly different (e.g. use a nickname, or even add a middle initial). I haven't tried that , but it may work.





Mar 29, 2022 10:35 AM in response to deege

I found that photos is creating frequently a second or third person with the same name, when I do not click a name from the list of suggested names, but type a name into the name field below the face.


It helps to make the key photos in the People album very distinctive, so I can recognise the correct name by the icon in the list of names and click onto one of the the suggested names.


Mar 29, 2022 10:46 AM in response to léonie

Photos also creates a new person with the same name when you add a name before the suggestions appear (like when you paste a name from the clipboard). I paste names routinely and I constantly have to merge the duplicates, which can be a hassle since the you can no longer sort people in the "People" album alphabetically. I have 2000 "people" so they can be hard to find!

Two identical name suggestions for People in Photos

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