Apple Photos: Breaking down all the elements on your iPhone

If you are an iPhone or Mac user, you should be using Apple Photos! As an iPhone user, iCloud is one of the best backup/sync options for your precious phone photos. If you are an Android and PC owner, there is nothing more for you here unless you are considering making the switch to an iPhone. 

One thing to get straight from the start: iCloud is not a true backup option for your phone. iCloud allows your phone to sync with the cloud and your other Apple devices. This means if you drop your phone in the lake or drive over it with your vehicle and your phone has recently synced, all your photos are safe. If you delete photos off your phone to make more room, you also delete those photos from iCloud. If you need more room on your phone, change your photos setting to Optimize iPhone Storage. I encourage you to pay for the storage you need now, as you can downgrade when you have time to decide what photos are important to you.  

Breaking down the four tabs at the bottom of the screen:

Library 

This is where you can see everything! This includes photos & videos you have taken or those that have been shared with you or imported from other devices. I prefer to keep this in the All Photos view because I like that I can change the size of the images in this view. It does give you the option to also look at your Memories in Years/Months/Days but you will have much less control over what you see in these options.

For You

For me, this is this is the space I use the least. It is an area you have no control over as it is where Apple Photos uses AI to create Memories (little slideshows) for you typically based on a person or a place. These can be fun to watch, and encourage you to look back on a special time or person. On the other hand, It recently created one for me about St Patrick’s Day in New Orleans last year and it made me realize I need to go back to that date and delete a lot more photos! 

Albums

This is where you have the ability to do some organization! So of course this is my favorite place. 

My Albums

You can create/have the following in this area, Album, Folder, and Shared Album.

• An Album is a group of photos with a common theme: for example, favorite photo of Anderson, 2023 New Orleans Trip, headshots, really anything you can choose to group your photos. 
• A Folder is a way to group all your Albums and my personal favorite! I have a few broad Folders to group all my albums. I have a TRIPS folder, a FAMILY folder, and an OLLIE folder. I like to make Folder names in all caps so I can easily see which groupings are photos and which are albums. I typically suggest to clients that they have a folder for each child and then maybe have a favorite album and an album for each of that child’s activities. 
• A Shared Album is exactly what it sounds like, it is an album you create specifically for sharing with anyone else. Most people think this is only for iPhone users but you can share with people outside the Apple world and it will give them a link to download the photos.
• Note: two albums will show up for everyone in this section.
• Recents and Favorites. 
  • Recents will include ALL of your photos and videos as well as old photos/videos that you have recently edited. For example, one of my photos from St Patrick’s Day that I mentioned earlier is now in my Recents. If I were to import photos in from scanning, for example, they may be from 1992 but will be in Recents because they were just added to the library. (these often confuse people)
  • Favorites will be any photo that you have added a heart to. I think everyone with an iPhone should mark some favorites to make it easier to find the best of your photos.

People & Places 

People will use facial recognition to group photos of people who show up regularly in your images. You can name as many or as few as you choose. I would add anyone that you think you may want to look for a photo of in the future.

Places use GPS information to show you where a photo was taken. Some may not like this because they may feel it is giving your “phone” too much information, but it can make searching for photos much easier. You can choose to look at places on a Map (my favorite) or on a grid where it shows a location. (I once used a photo to find a restaurant in Nashville that I wanted to go back to)

Media Types

This is the best place to start when you want to start clearing out photos because it groups them by type. I choose not to keep all my photos and videos on my phone so most people will have more groups than I do.

• Videos
• Selfies
• Live Photos
• Portrait
• Time-lapse
• Slo-mo
• Cinematic
• Bursts
• Screenshots

I always tell clients to look at their Screenshots as I’m sure they can delete a significant amount of them. The next category we work on is Bursts as they can probably pick one image and delete the rest. 

Utilities

• Imports – this shows all photos that were not taken by your phone. Could include photos shared with you via Airdrop, scanned photos, or even other digital photos that you imported from your computer.
• Hidden – did you know that you can “hide” photos? This is not something I do because I handle these types of photos in a different way but this may include: work photos you don’t want to see with your family photos, medical-type images for your doctor, or anything else that you want to keep but not to see when you pick up your phone. 
• Recently Deleted – when you delete a photo/video it will sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days. If you accidentally delete, you can find it here or if you really want something gone, go in here and permanently delete. 

Search

Search is the most magical thing in Apple Photos! You can search for almost anything.

You can search for the following and even a combination of these things:

• People – if you named them in people you can search for photos of multiple people for example I was looking for photos of my dad and my son and within seconds I have 168 photos of both of them.
• Places – type in a city, state, country, or specific place like the Henry Doorly Zoo and it will show you that specific place.
• Things – this is all AI, type in sunset, dog, tree, or whatever you want to see and it will show you what it thinks are these things. (not perfect but usually gives you something)
• Words – if you have a screenshot, a shirt with writing, or a sign in the background, it will search for a specific word
• Any combination of the things above. In the example below, I searched for sunglasses, Lisa Tonjes Moritz, and Texas and I got 17 photos of me wearing sunglasses in Texas (and sometimes they were on my head and not my face)

HOPEfully, you’ve learned something new that you can do or find with your photos and videos on your iPhone! 

Coming Soon: Part 2 will break down a few more things you can do with Apple Photos on your Mac!