Can't name faces on MAC photo

Rebuild Photos. It'll fix the problem

"Repair Library" solved the problem. Unfortunately, Richard Taylor's explanation of how to do this was well hidden upthread, but I found it eventually. Thank you, Richard!

The problem is that the computer forgets that you're naming, and instead it thinks you want to move the whole picture.

To restore the focus to the naming, just give a random spot on the picture a quick click first, and then grab the circle. I usually just give a little click inside the circle, then click and drag it where I need it. Sometimes I click in the name field, type the name, and then move the circle. But that doesn't always work.

It's weird that this happens some of the time, and not others.

Great old picture, by the way. I'm also working on old family Photos.

Just finished setting up a 4TB library and had this same problem. I tried everything and the problem remained. I logged into a new user and the same thing happened. I made a new library and same thing happened. At this point I realized it's not the photo library or the pictures it has to be the app. Unfortunately I'm running my user folder off an external drive and didn't set up time machine to back up the internal drive, so no way to restore a previous version of the app. My next step was going to be a reinstall of the OS, but first I decided to do recovery mode and run disk utility. I ran the first aid and it found some inconsistencies so I rebooted and then checked the photos app again and sure enough it now works as intended!! I would give this a try first and if that doesn't work I'd reinstall the OS next.

UPDATE:

Back to not working, I'm rebuilding right now and next step will be reinstall if the issue remains.

•••••RESOLVED•••••

WOW. . . .they keep finding new ways to prevent you from doing what used to be easy. I installed Sonoma on another drive and put a few test pictures in and the issue was resolved. When I went to copy the photos app on to my hard drive it wouldn't allow me to do it, all you can do is make an alias, won't even let you copy via terminal either. That being said I had to reinstall the OS on my main drive. Make sure you have a back up before you do this in the event there are issues during the install.

The install completed and I the issue was resolved, I was able to move the face circles around again and name poeple. I left the computer on and the photos app open overnight and when I came in this morning the people/pets section had populated quite a bit more photos for all the people I had in there. So it appears to be working as expected until the next time.

Hope this helps anyone experiencing similar issues.

Hi Nansaf,

The steps for identifying photos can be found here: Find and identify photos of people and pets in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

If that process is not working for you, we'd recommend reaching out to Apple for further help: Get Support

Cheers.

Figleaf2012 wrote: No idea what you mean by "Rebuild Photos".

Close Photos. Then option-command-cllick the Photos app. You should find a dialog that offers to "Repair Library."

For me, when I do this, the dialog window opens behind other app windows-- it was quite confusing the first time. So if you don't see the window, click on Photos again to bring it to the front.

I'm having the same problem. The bubble to show face will not open, instead the whole photo moves. I did not make any changes to my Mac so the problem is APPLE. ...

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Selecting the photo does not help. No idea what you mean by "Rebuild Photos". Would appreciate some attention to this issue, all the more as a number of people have it.

I've found a workaround. Fill in the name wherever the bubble shows up. Once it's named, you can drag the bubble on top of the person's face. It's dumb but it's worked for me repeatedly.

Just dealt with this, see the fix below.