ICloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and iCloud.com. Learn how to set up and use iCloud Photos. Take a photo on your iPhone and it appears automatically in Photos on your Mac. How to turn on iCloud Photos. Make good photos great. You don’t have to be a pro to edit like one—use the Photos editing tools to give your pictures just the right look. You can crop and straighten, remove red-eye or blemishes, improve light and color, and more.
If you’re trying to figure out the best application to manage your photos on your Mac device, then we recommend using Mac’s Photos app. The Photos app on Mac is probably the simplest but the most effective photos application you can use to manage your photos.
Learning the intricacies of the Photos app isn’t as difficult as other projects it to be. The interface is simple and easy to understand and navigate, so you’ll probably figure it out on your own even when the most complicated task is required. Moreover, your photos are displayed in vibrant hues and tones, as what Macs are known for, so you’ll enjoy working on them. All you need is to understand the basic steps to get you started.
What is the Photos App on Mac?
Before going into the different tasks you can accomplish on the Photos app, here’s an overview of what the application is and what you can expect.
The Photos app for Mac is one of the basic photo management tools in the market. It’s termed basic mainly because of its simplicity, but don’t be fooled because the application is actually powerful. In fact, one of the reasons why Apple developed this particular app was to provide users of the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and the iPod touch a photo management experience unique to Apple products. It turned out to be so successful that Apple stopped the development of their other photos management software on Mac called iPhoto and Aperture to mainly focus on Photos.
Navigating the Apple Photos App and Getting Started
The Photos app was specifically designed for easy navigation. This means that if you’ve ever used iPhoto or Aperture, you’ll find that most of the tools are familiar. On the other hand, if you’ve never used a photo management tool before, it will still be easy enough to figure out what each tool is for and where it’s located.
However, the first step of managing your photos is to organize them properly. One of the best ways to do this is to keep your photos in a central location, mainly the iCloud. With your photos on iCloud, you’ll be able to access them from any device, not just your Mac laptop.
To enable the iCloud photo library, simply go to the settings and click on Turn on iCloud Photo Library. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll need to be signed in with your unique Apple ID to change the setting.
Once the iCloud library is enabled, you’ll need to manage the storage space. If you have a large number of photos in your collection, you might need to upgrade your storage plan.
How to Select Multiple Photos
Managing your photos would certainly be a tedious task if you have to manually select each photo one by one. Fortunately, with the Photos app, you can select multiple photos and accomplish whatever task you need to do with them, such as deleting them or moving them into different folders.
To select multiple photos, follow these steps:
- Click on the first photo.
- Hold the shift key.
- Click on the last photo. This will select all the photos between the first and last photo you clicked on.
Another way to select the photo is to drag your mouse around the group of photos you want to select. This will enclose those photos in a rectangle, thus automatically selecting all within the rectangular boundary.
How to Find Photos
If you have a rather large collection, it can be quite a difficult remembering where certain photos are located. If you can’t find the photo or you don’t want to spend so much time searching for it, click on the built-in search bar and type in a keyword. If you saved the photo using that particular keyword, then the photo will appear in the search results.
How to Remove Photos from the Library
There may come a time when you’ll no longer need certain photos. Since each photo does take up space, deleting those you don’t need can free up space for photos you likely want to keep. To remove photos you don’t need, just take these steps:
- Select the particular photo you want to delete.
- Press the Delete key on your keyboard to remove the photo.
- The application will confirm if you want to delete the photo, simply click on the Delete button.
- If you need to delete more than one photo, here are the steps:
- Select the photos you wish to delete by holding the Command key and clicking on each photo.
- Once all the photos are selected, press the Delete key and confirm the deletion.
Note that Apple won’t permanently delete the photo just yet. The deleted photos will be stored in the recently deleted folder for 30 days. You can check out this folder if you need to restore some photos. After 30 days, the photos will be deleted permanently.
How to Ensure the Photos App Works Seamlessly
The photos you take are an important part of your life. As such, you would want to ensure that they’re available for you to view any time you need to. The best way to make sure that the Photos app, as well as other apps on your Mac, works as you need it each and every time is to take care of your Mac. A great tool that will help you keep everything in working order is by using a 3rd party cleaning software like Tweakbit MacRepair. With this powerful tool, you’ll be able to find and fix problems on your Mac before they affect its performance.
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Xee is quite a straightforward replacement of Preview. Despite the similarities, Xee steps ahead with a few unique features. As expected, the Previews and Next buttons for browsing between images are placed at the top left corner. The other options appear neatly placed next to them at the top.Xee's status bar shows additional details about the image, such as its dimensions, file type, file size, color details, and more. The only thing I found odd that Xee did not pick up the Dark them of my macOS. I had to navigate to Xee's Preferences > Style and then pick Black.Xee is simply an Image Viewer. That means if you are looking for an Image Viewer with editing options, you are out of luck here. This app is streamlined, fast, and quite responsive.Unfortunately, Xee isn't free, and you will have to pay $3.99 to buy it from the App Store on your Mac.Download XeeHow To Reinstall Photos App On Mac
2. XnView MP
The XnView is more than an image viewer. It's a popular cross-platform media management software, and Windows users love it so much that many want to set XnView as the default image viewer on Windows 10. With support for over 500 image formats, the developers lock quite a bunch of handy features behind the paywall. However, the app lets you customize the layout of the app.When the app is open, navigate to View>Layout and select Free from the subsequent menu. After that, you can click on the x-shaped icon irrelevant windows. In short, you get enough viewing and sorting modes that you can keep changing between them to suit your requirements. The app's performance setting allows you to squeeze out the maximum from your on-board GPU chip. That means, the processing and caching will be faster on beefed-up MacBook Pros.Download XnView MP3. Phiewer
The free version of Phiewer lets you view one image at a time. When you open a photo, it shows the main image with a collection of thumbnails on the left side. While being one of the fastest image viewers to open a photo, Phiewer shows the thumbnails on the left with an option to start a slideshow directly. However, the blurring effect offering backdrop might just steal your attention for a bit.Phiewer stands out by displaying the basic details about a photo distinctly on its interface. Besides photos, it also supports a variety of media formats. That will become apparent as soon as you sync your media folders with the app. You might enjoy the readymade bouquet of options, such as different effects, to try out on photos. You can pay for the Pro version to unlock alignment, cropping controls, applying filters, adjusting granular aspects, and more.You may call it a simpler version of the XnView MP and use it accordingly.Get Phiewer4. Lyn
Lyn is like a proper replacement of the Photos app with the Image Viewer capabilities built-in. The interface of Lyn app is quite familiar so that you won't feel out of place at all. When you launch it initially, you will notice the basic adjustment options at the top — they will remind you of Preview.Apart from viewing options, you can also link other cloud-based services such as Flickr, Facebook, Dropbox, and more. The i-shaped button is the hidden information panel that will present you with details of the image ranging from resolution to metering mode. If you check the photos clicked using your digital camera, DSLR, or Mirrorless, then Lyn is a suitable image viewer app. Of course, you can always customize the layout from the preferences for quick access to the frequently used folders. Lyn supports a variety of picture formats, and you can quickly share photos with your friends over email, Flickr, or even Smugmug. The basic version comes with a 15-day trial, which is decent enough to try it out. Otherwise, you will have to cough out $20 as a one-time payment to get rid of the trial period limitation.Get Lyn App5. qView
If you are looking for a no-nonsense image viewer for all your photos and screenshot, then this is the best option. Without mincing words, qView is one of the minimalist photo viewer that looks amazing with the dark theme on the macOS.qView is also available on Windows, which makes it a perfect cross-platform tool to use for viewing photos on both the platforms. It works best as the no-nonsense photo viewer on your Mac. Of course, it doesn't offer editing or tweaking options.Download qViewBonus Recommendation: ApolloOne
The ApolloOne is one of the rare apps that utilize the Core Image graphics and hardware features such as multi-threading to deliver the best photo gallery and organization experience.It can also handle RAW photos and support over 1000 digital cameras. Also, it lets you tinker around with the EXIF details. You can always try out its Slideshow to view a series of photos. This feature-rich image viewer can be purchased to unlock support and other helpful settings.Get ApolloOne
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While Apple's Preview gets the basic job done, it does leave a lot to be desired. Specifically for folks who move from or use macOS alongside Windows 10. My favorite is ApolloOne since it supports a variety of cameras for importing images directly, and I often use qView just for browsing photos on my Mac. So which one will you pick?Next up:Wondering what photo backup service to use with iPhone? Check our list of top 5 iCloud Photo backup alternatives for iPhone.
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As of 2017, over 34.7 billion photos have been shared on Instagram.