Mac & iPhone Photos Management Class 7.9.2026

By

Mac & iPhone Photos Management Class

Internet Accounts Management

  • Accessible via System Settings > Internet Accounts on Mac, and Settings > Apps > Mail > Accounts on iPhone
  • Users should expect at least two accounts: iCloud (always present on Apple devices) and their personal email (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.)
  • Only the Mail feature should typically be enabled for all accounts; Calendar, Contacts, and Notes should be consolidated to avoid duplication across services
  • If an old email address is tied to external services, users should update those accounts or re-register with their current email if the provider doesn't allow email changes
  • This topic will be revisited next week if needed

Photos App: How It Works

  • The Photos app maintains a library that organizes photos by date taken, location, and device metadata (e.g., camera model, f-stop, ISO)
  • Scanned or imported older (non-digital) photos may inherit the scan date rather than the original date; this can be corrected by selecting photos and choosing Image > Adjust Date and Time — can be done for a whole batch at once
  • The library uses facial recognition to automatically group photos by person, even across decades, without manual tagging
  • Photos sync across Mac and iPhone when iCloud Photos is enabled

Adding Photos to Your Library

  • Photos stored in individual folders on your computer are not automatically part of the Photos library; drag them onto the Photos app dock icon to import
  • Recently Saved shows the most recently imported photos; Library shows the most recently taken photo — these are different
  • Adding photos to the library increases iCloud storage usage

Photos on a PC (Windows)

  • There is no drag-and-drop Photos app equivalent on PC; instead, use iCloud for Windows to sync iCloud Photos to the native Windows Photos app
  • If OneDrive is active, it may conflict with iCloud Photos sync

Managing and Sharing Photos

  • Finding duplicates: Go to Utilities > Duplicates in the Photos sidebar; you can delete the lower-quality copy individually or use Merge
  • Exporting (reducing file size): Select photo(s) > File > Export > choose quality (Medium recommended for screen viewing); a 5 MB photo can shrink to ~48 KB
  • For bulk exports, create a new folder first during the export dialog to avoid dumping 46 individual files onto the desktop
  • Compressing for email: Right-click (Control-click) the exported folder > Compress to create a single .zip file — easier for recipients and reduces total size (e.g., 46 photos went from ~200 MB to ~5 MB)
  • Sharing a single photo: Click the photo, then click the share arrow (up-pointing arrow) at the top right to email or text it

Shared Albums

  • Shared albums let you share selected photos without consuming the recipient's storage — the host's storage is used
  • If the host removes the shared album, recipients lose access; participants should save any important photos to their own library beforehand
  • Recommended: add curated photos to an existing cumulative shared album (e.g., one for grandparents) rather than creating many separate albums

Favorites & Cloud Storage Tips

  • Mark photos as Favorites to bookmark them for easy retrieval; favorites sync across Mac and iPhone
  • To reduce iCloud storage costs: export old photos to an external drive, then delete them from the library so they no longer count against your iCloud quota
  • The current iCloud storage cost (~$0.99/month) was noted as low enough that the effort to manually offload photos may not be worthwhile for most people

 

Popular posts from this blog

Technology Class 8-22-04

By
Image
 Visit the Amazon AI Popup in San Francisco https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/robots-on-market-street-lure-visitors-to-amazon-ai-pop-up-space/ar-AA1p96y0?ocid=BingNewsSerp#image=3 https://aws.amazon.com/startups/lp/aws-gen-ai-loft-san-francisco Watch Drone Light Shows with over 1500 drones on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNcMDoBmhGA When searching be cautious and check the http... website address and look at the article to be sure it's what you want. When going to a website, use the address bar on the top of the window, type in the name with .com, and save the website to your bookmarks for a reference to the trusted site in the future by clicking the star. On Macintosh Photos how can I find duplicates? Open the multicolored flower Click the categories on the left and find Duplicate Click Duplicate to reveal the duplicate photos How can I test my foreign language skills. Use the dictation on Google Translate https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=zh-CN&op=tr...
Read more

All About Email pt 1 & 2 3/6/2025

By
Image
Email Security Use a reliable email service. *If you are on @comcast.net setup a secondary email address. And you can forward emails from @comcast.net to your new email while you slowly transition over to a more secure email provider. Getting too much Spam (Junk Mail) Unsubscribing doesn't usually work Use the SPAM/Junk filters Create your filters/rules ~If the above options don't help, setup a secondary email address and share the new address with friends and family while leaving the junk behind in the old email. How to create a new email address? Go to gmail.com (Google), outlook.com (Microsoft) Choose Create Account, follow the prompts How do you access your emails? Webmail = gmail.com, outlook.com (this is recommended by the email provider because they have control over what you see, including the ads) Mail Client App = Macintosh Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird,  2 Layer SPAM filter 1st filter = Mail Providers Spam/Junk filters from your provider. Best Spam/Junk filters gmail.co...
Read more

Q & A Session from 2/27/2025 - Hacked: Warn contacts, change password, tech help. Podcast: on-demand radio app. Shazam: identify music via iPhone control panel.

By
Image
My emails have been hacked! What do I do? Notify all your contacts, friends and family to ignore the recent email and NOT send you money or respond to the email. This includes someone to send the message on your behalf.  Or create/use a secondary email to send a notification email to your friends/family group or distribution list NOT to send you money or respond to the email. (Be sure to put all the contacts in the BCC and send to groups of no mare than 50 contacts at a time) 1. Contact a Computer Tech to help cleanup and verify your email settings are properly configured, change your password and setup 2 factor authentication 2. Determine the extent of the Hack and if your original email can be secured you can continue to use it OR you might need to create a new email address What's a podcast? On-Demand Streaming Radio Shows Apple has a podcast app on their Computers and iOS devices ~Open the app to search for a show by name or host. ~Choose follow to add the show and newly added ...
Read more