How to add photos from Finder to a specific album in Photos

Drag the files from Finder onto the album’s name in the Photos sidebar. Photos imports them into your library and adds them to that album in one step, so there is no second pass through recent imports to sort them. If the album does not exist yet, import the photos first and make the album from them with File > New Album with Selection.

Drag straight onto the album

1. Open Photos and make sure the sidebar is showing. If it is not, choose View > Show Sidebar.
2. Find the album in the sidebar. Albums you created are listed there; if you keep albums inside a folder, click the folder’s arrow to show them.
3. In Finder, select the photos you want. Command-click to pick several, or press Command-A to take everything in the folder.
4. Drag the selection onto the album’s name. The name highlights when the drop will land on it.
5. Let go. Photos imports the files, and the album shows them straight away.

Two kinds of album behave differently. Smart albums fill themselves from rules, such as every photo from a certain camera or with a certain keyword, so you cannot add photos to them by hand. Shared albums send what you add to everyone who follows them, so be sure which kind of album you are aiming at before you let go.

Dropping onto the main Photos window, or onto the Photos icon in the Dock, also imports the files, but into the library only. They will not be in any album until you add them.

What happens to the original files

With the default setting, Photos copies each file into its own library during the import. The originals stay exactly where they were in Finder. Once you have checked the album looks right, you can keep the Finder copies, archive them, or delete them if you do not need them there.

The setting is in Photos > Settings > General, under Importing: “Copy items to the Photos library”. If someone has turned it off, Photos only points to your files where they are instead of copying them. That saves space, but it has costs. Move or delete an original later and Photos can no longer open that photo, and pointed-to files are not uploaded to iCloud Photos. For most people, leaving the box ticked is the better choice.

Photos already imported? Add them afterward

If the photos went in some other way, through File > Import or a drop onto the Dock icon, they are in the library but not in the album.

1. Find them. The Imports view in the sidebar lists recent imports by date, which is usually the fastest way.
2. Select the ones you want.
3. Drag them onto the album in the sidebar, or right-click and choose Add to, then the album’s name.

To start a new album from the selection, choose File > New Album with Selection and give it a name.

Adding a photo to an album does not make a copy. Albums work like playlists: the same photo can sit in as many albums as you like without using more space. Inside an album, pressing Delete removes the photo from that album only. Command-Delete removes it from the whole library, so be careful which one you press.

Duplicates and formats Photos will not take

Photos notices when a file you are importing is already in the library and asks whether to import it again. Choose Don’t Import to avoid a second copy. The existing photo is still in the library, and you can add it to the album with Add to as above.

Photos reads the common photo and video formats. If a file is in a format it cannot read, it tells you it could not import it rather than adding a blank. The simplest fix is to open the file in Preview, choose File > Export, and save it as JPEG or HEIC, then drag the exported file onto the album.

Collecting photos from several places first

Photos for one album are rarely in one folder. A few arrived in Downloads, one is a screenshot on the desktop, two were saved from a message, and a scan sits in a document folder. Dragging each batch means going back and forth between Finder and Photos, finding the album in the sidebar each time, and hoping the Photos window is not hidden behind a Finder window when you need it.

Ledge lets you gather first and import once. As you come across each photo, drag it up to the notch at the top of the screen and let go; it lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there. When the set is complete, bring Photos forward with the album visible in the sidebar, open the shelf with Option-Space or a click on the notch, and drag the whole set onto the album’s name. With the default setting, Photos imports its own copies, so the originals are still in their folders afterward.

Everything happens on the Mac. Ledge has no account and no cloud, which matters for photos of family, documents or anything else you would rather not route through someone else’s server. On a Mac without a notch, the shelf lives at the top center of the screen.

If some of the photos are coming from a conversation, how to save a photo or file from Messages on a Mac covers getting them out first. For the opposite trip, moving a photo out of Photos into another app on a Mac explains what you get when you drag a photo back out.

Questions

Does putting a photo in two albums use twice the space?

No. The photo is stored once in the library, and each album simply lists it.

Why can I not drop photos onto a smart album?

A smart album is a saved search. It shows whatever matches its rules, so there is nothing to drop into. Add a keyword or other detail that matches the rules, or use a regular album.

Will the album appear on my iPhone?

If iCloud Photos is on for both devices, the photos you import and the albums you make sync across, with the exception of files Photos only points to rather than copies.