As well as the new features you see and use within Photos itself, iOS 14 has brought some new touches to how other apps can use your photos. The most useful is the improved image picker. Turn on Finder integration. If you’re on OSX 10.10 or higher, get sync status directly from Finder by enabling Finder overlays in Settings. First, click the Apple logo in the top left corner of your Mac Desktop and select System Preferences, then select Extensions in the top-level menu (shown in the 3rd row from the top). Toggle on the OneDrive Finder Integration to enable Finder overlays.

1. Download Google Photos For Mac
2. Download Photos For Mac
3. Photos App For Mac

Photos is organized into Library, For You, Albums, and Search. When you turn on iCloud Photos, your collection is kept up to date across your devices. And with the advanced search features, you can easily find photos based on a person, place, object, or event.

My shared photo albums are syncing between my iPhone and my iPad but not to my Mac. Also, when I try to create a new 'shared' album on the photos app on my Mac, it will not create at all. Basically nothing with the photo-sharing on my Mac is working at all. Photos might be the most important app on the Mac. After all, it is used to manage your precious, invaluable photos. It is the app we get the most questions about for our Mac 911 column.

Before you begin

• Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.
• Set up iCloud on all your devices.
• Make sure that you’re signed in with the same Apple ID.

Library

Enjoy a curated view of your moments in the Library tab, then browse by years, months, days, or all photos. You'll also see Live Photos and videos come to life as you scroll and browse.

• Years: View your entire library of photos and videos that you've taken each year. Then swipe to scan the highlights.
• Months: See groups of photos and videos taken during each month by memories and locations. Tap the More button to share or play a movie created from your moments.
• Days: Browse photos of the day and watch some of your videos automatically play as you scroll. Tap a photo and swipe up to see its location on a map and the people in it.
• All Photos: See your complete photo library including screenshots and duplicate photos in the order they were taken.

With iOS 14, you can filter what gets displayed, so it's easier to browse through your Library. For example, you can choose to show only photos or only videos. To filter what you see:

1. Tap the Library tab, then tap the More button in the upper-right corner.
2. Tap Filter, then choose an option.
3. Tap Done.

To undo the filter, tap the Filters button near the top of your screen, then choose an option, and tap Done.

Live Photos and videos won't autoplay in Photos when Low Power Mode is enabled.

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For You

In the For You tab, Photos searches for your photos and videos to find moments that stand out, then presents them in collections called Memories. You can also see Shared Album activity, get ideas for adding effects to select photos, and find Sharing Suggestions, which are collections of photos you can share.

Albums

In the Albums tab, you find the albums that you’ve created, shared albums that you've created or joined, and collections of different types of photos and videos, like Selfies, Portrait, and Slo-mo. You can also look at your photos arranged on a world map in the Places album, or browse your photos based on who’s in them in the People album.

The Recents album shows your entire collection in the order you added them to your library. When you use iCloud Photos, the changes you make to your albums on one device appear on your other devices too.

Create a new album

1. Open Photos.
2. Go to Albums and tap the Add button .
3. Tap New Album. Type an album name, tap Save, then choose the photos and videos that you want to add.
4. Tap Done.

Add to an existing album

1. Open Photos.
2. Tap Select, then tap the photos and videos that you want to add.
3. Tap the Share button , then tap Add to Album and choose an album.

Manage your albums

To change the name of an album:

1. Go to the album and tap the More button .
2. Tap Rename Album.
3. Change the name, then tap Save.

To rearrange your albums:

1. Go to Albums, tap See All, then tap Edit.
2. Touch and hold an album and drag it anywhere you want.
3. Tap Done.

With iOS 14, you can also sort the photos within your albums. Here's how:

1. Go to an album, then tap the More button .
2. Tap Sort, then choose a sorting option, like Custom Order, Oldest to Newest, or Newest to Oldest.

Share an album

You can share photos, videos, and albums with select people, then allow them to add their own photos, videos, and comments. In the Albums tab, you can see the Shared Albums that you've created and joined. Learn more about sharing albums in the Photos app.

Search your photos

Photos makes it easy to find photos of a specific person, place, thing, or event. Tap the Search tab, then type what you're looking for in the search bar.

• Moments: Search for an event, like a concert you attended or a trip you took. Photos uses the time and location of your photos along with online event listings to find matching photos.
• People: Find photos in your library of a specific person or a group of people. Just keep names and faces organized in your People album.
• Places: See your photos and videos on a map in the Places section. Or type a location name in the Search bar to see photos and videos from that place.
• Categories: Photos recognizes scenes, objects, and types of locations. Search for a term like 'lake' and select a result to see photos that match.

The Search tab also suggests moments, people, places, categories, and groups for you to search. Tap a suggested search, such as One Year Ago or Animals, to explore your photos.

When you search your photos, the face recognition, and scene and object detection are done completely on your device. Learn more about photos and your privacy.

Photos in your System Photo Library are available in apps like iMovie, Pages, and Keynote. You can also sync them to iOS devices and view them on Apple TV. And if you want to use your own images as your desktop picture or screen saver, the images need to be in your System Photo Library before you can select them in System Preferences.

If you have only one photo library, then it's the System Photo Library. Otherwise, the first photo library that you create or open in Photos will become the System Photo Library. If you have more than one library, you might need to designate a System Photo Library, so other apps can access the photos and videos you want them to use.

Follow these steps to designate a System Photo Library:

1. Quit Photos.
2. Hold down the Option key and open Photos. One of the photo libraries is already designated as YourLibraryName (System Photo Library).
3. Choose the library you want to designate as the System Photo Library.
4. After Photos opens the library, choose Photos > Preferences from the menu bar.
5. Click the General tab.
6. Click the Use as System Photo Library button.
   

If you open a second or different library in the Photos app, and you haven't designated it as the System Photo Library, other applications will use photos from the original System Photo Library. Hold down the Option key when you open Photos to see which library is set as the System Photo Library.

iCloud and the System Photo Library

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You can use iCloud Photos, Shared Albums, and My Photo Stream only with the System Photo Library. If you choose a different library in Photos without designating it as the System Photo Library, the iCloud tab in Photos preferences is disabled:

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If you designate a new library as the System Photo Library and then turn on iCloud Photos, the photos and videos in the new library will merge with those already in your iCloud Photos. If you want to keep the contents of your photo libraries separate, don’t turn on iCloud Photos for more than one library in Photos.