I’m confused with this Recent photo album. All my photos are in there regardless when they were taken. I try to put them in another album and they stay in “recents”. I delete from recents , they are then gone from the albums as well. What am I doing wrong ?
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Why does my “recents” photo album have all my pictures in it regardless of how far back they were taken ?
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Recents is a view, not an album. My recents goes back several years and looks a lot like the Library view. I rely on the Library view most often.
When you create an album, it doesn't move the photo from the Library or Recents view. Instead it places a copy of that photo in your album so that it's easier to organize your photos the way you like.
If you delete a photo from an album, it will still be in your Library and Recent views. If you delete a photo from your Library or Recent views, it will be deleted from Photos.
Does that help clear it up a little?
When you create an album, it doesn't move the photo from the Library or Recents view. Instead it places a copy of that photo in your album so that it's easier to organize your photos the way you like.
If you delete a photo from an album, it will still be in your Library and Recent views. If you delete a photo from your Library or Recent views, it will be deleted from Photos.
Does that help clear it up a little?
Seems rather messed up that my “recents” folder has photos from 2009. I would like to have “recents” for stuff that isn’t sorted yet to my liking. I guess 2009 is recent compared to 1999 but if I did have photos from 1999 on here they’d be in the “recents”
makes no sense that every photo regardless of when taken sits in my recent album.
Sure looks like an album to me.
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What iPadOS version are you on? I'm on 14.6 and there's no Recents album. Recents only shows in the top Photos section.
Edited: I see the difference. You didn't mention a device but the view you're showing is on an iPhone. I'm looking on my iPad.
Edited: I see the difference. You didn't mention a device but the view you're showing is on an iPhone. I'm looking on my iPad.
Just to clear all this up, here's what the Apple Support guide for iOS 14 says about Recents:
"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."
support.apple.com
So Apple calls it an album too. Sorry to have created any confusion about it. It's a visual difference between the two devices.
"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."
View photos and videos on iPhone
In Photos on your iPhone, view photos and videos and browse through your photos and videos in the library.
So Apple calls it an album too. Sorry to have created any confusion about it. It's a visual difference between the two devices.
Last edited:
Apple has a strange definition of “recent”Just to clear all this up, here's what the Apple Support guide for iOS 14 says about Recents:
"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."
View photos and videos on iPhone
In Photos on your iPhone, view photos and videos and browse through your photos and videos in the library.
So Apple calls it an album too. Sorry to have created any confusion about it. It's a visual difference between the two devices.
If anything, it might help if the most recent was at the top, but it seems to mirror the Library (on the iPad) view.
yea maybe, but having photos in the "recent" album when I first starting taking photos with my iPhone 3GS seems rather weird. Camera roll would be a better and it used to be called camera roll. The recently deleted folder, has a time period of 60 days.
In my Recently Deleted for a photo I just now deleted, it shows "29 days." That's in line with the 30 days described by Apple:
Delete photos on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support
You can delete a single photo or video or delete multiple images at once. You can also recover anything that you accidentally delete.
In my Recently Deleted for a photo I just now deleted, it shows "29 days." That's in line with the 30 days described by Apple:
Delete photos on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support
You can delete a single photo or video or delete multiple images at once. You can also recover anything that you accidentally delete.
Well my recently deleted on my iPhone 12 tells me this. Regardless, 40 days vs 10 yrs, there is a disparity at Apple regarding the definition of "recent" if my recent "album, folder or whatever they want to call it for camera roll" has my photos since 2009 in it.
I see the same 40-day message but I wouldn't count on 40 days. I've seen them auto-deleted within a day of reaching the 30 days limit.
Let me help you with the weird concept of recents album in IOS phots.
How apple makes things work between icloud and gallery is through using recents basically recents are a way of keeping track how image/video is entered into you ios device the reason you can't move or delete it that whenever you allow icloud to keep track of your photos it starts picking up the data from device to cloud in same form as its entered the device from recents and vice versa when we try to retrive it back.
so fetching data from multiple albums and different entry points ( date of putting image in a ablum and date of image coming in your device) can mess up the whole way of uploading/downloading from cloud.
i hope this helps.
ericwn
macrumors G5
Glad I've found this conversation - I have to agree with you OP, the Recents folder makes no sense and is just a confusing mess - that to me looks more like a bug than a feature.
I agree 100%. Library should show all photos. On my MacBook Air, it does not even though set to show All Photos. Recents shows all photos including ones just taken on another device since we use iCloud photos. Recents should be a set time frame, say the last 30 days, but Library should be the only place where all photos can be searched through and see as far back in time as is known in our iCloud library. Something is amiss in how Apple defines things.
This is the same on the iPhones. If I go into Albums and choose Recents, all photos I have are shown there even the last one I took. But if I choose Library, some are missing.
All VERY strange and illogical.
This is the same on the iPhones. If I go into Albums and choose Recents, all photos I have are shown there even the last one I took. But if I choose Library, some are missing.
All VERY strange and illogical.