Photos app: Faces and Pets identification

Hi tucsonbil,

Re: "Photos app: Faces and Pets identification

Does the Photos app identify "Faces and Pets" as it does in a photograph?"

We don't know which MacOS version is installed on your Mac in order to help.

(If needed click Apple Menu > About this Mac to see the MacOS version currently in use).

The linked article below has all the "how to" info. etc, yet for accurate info. please choose whichever MacOS version is installed on your Mac at the top of the article.

Wondering whether Apple Support's online article can help you get familiar with what your Mac can and can't do:

For MacOS 26: See: Find and name photos of people and pets on Mac - Apple Support

Eg: says:

"The Photos app sorts photos and videos of people, dogs and cats in the People & Pets collection (or the People collection if no pets appear). You can name a person, dog or cat directly from a photo or video in your photo library, or in People & Pets."

All the best :-)

Thank you for your thoughtful reply, and added info. (Am still using an earlier Mac OS, so am relying on Apple's up-to-date documentation for MacOS 26 details.)

Re: "Any suggestions?"

Guess you would have already got things underway by first naming at least a couple of photos or videos of each person or pet ?

Have noticed that Photos app often keeps likely face-matches un-named until we go through them and identify the correct, and the incorrect. This can be simply done by looking through the collected batch of photos etc.

Eg: On my Mac: In Photo's app: Click "People" in the sidebar, and scroll down to the menu:

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Re:" it hasn't located a single Face or Pet in over a week"

Perhaps Photos sees the videos on the external drive as a separate library. In the past that has been so for me. I've had to choose which of the libraries I want Photos to use, when engaging in certain tasks. Eg: If you don't already: You may need to name and / or "switch" to that external library, so Photos app can act.

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For MacOS 26:

See: Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

Eg says:

"You can create additional photo libraries to organise your photos, albums and projects, and then switch between the libraries." (Much detail, options etc. in article.)

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Re: "... I know that Photos processes Faces and Pets in the background ... "

Also: Am guessing many of your videos would contain more than one person or pet.

Apple Support's article for MacOS 26:

Find group photos and videos on Mac - Apple Support

Eg: says:

"The Photos app groups people and pets who often appear together in photos and videos, and sorts them into group collections. For example, if you have many pictures of your family or group of friends, Photos uses on-device technology to create a collection for each of those groups."

"Find group photos and videos

1. Go to the Photos app  on your Mac.
2. Click Collections in the sidebar, then click People & Pets (or People).
3. Double-click a group to see your photos of that group.
4. When you open a group, you see a summary of the best photos. To see all the photos in that group, click All in the toolbar.

To share the photos in the group, click  in the toolbar, then choose a share option."

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Above Linked article has other tips too: ie: create, edit, delete, change order, options

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Resource for MacOS Tahoe 26: Photos User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Have you checked "Review More?"

Does naming a face manually put it into the right People Album?

There will certainly be faces and pets that Photos doesn't recognize as people or pets. Sometimes what's obvious to us isn't so clear to the computer. It's amazing it can do it at all! I have lots of faces that I have had to manually identify. Some were later recognized by Photos after an update-- I figure they beefed up the program.

I can't find what you have said about using iCloud Photo. Only if you are not using iCloud Photos, you should try changing the System Library designation from your other Library to the Video Library, and see if that affects the scanning. The System Library is controlled at Photos's Settings>General

The setting is grayed out if it is already the System Library. The System Library is the one that can be used by other apps like Safari and iCloud.

My other Libraries do face recognition just fine, even when not the System Library. But changing it might jog something…