I’m trying to organize my photo library on my Mac and need to select a bunch of photos at once. I can’t seem to figure out the quickest way to do this without clicking each one individually. Can anyone share a faster method or some tips for selecting multiple photos efficiently?
Yeah, picking a ton of photos one by one is a nightmare—been there. On your Mac, it’s way easier if you use keyboard shortcuts. In Finder or Photos app: click the first pic you want, then hold down the Shift key and click the last pic in the range you want to select—all photos in between will be highlighted. If you want to select specific photos that aren’t next to each other, hold down the Command key (⌘) and click each photo you want to add to your selection. Can’t believe how long I went without knowing this—years lost clicking one file at a time like a caveperson. Welcome to the 21st century!
Honestly, while sterr’s got the whole shift/cmd thing down (classic power move), sometimes that’s still clunky, especially if your photos are scattered all over or you have hundreds to sift through. Here’s my HOT TAKE: If you’re using the Photos app, jump into the ‘Moments’ or ‘Years’ view. You can right-click a whole moment or year and select all the photos inside in one shot—mass selection without finicky clicking. It’s kind of under-the-radar, but super effective if your photos are even remotely sorted by date.
Wanna get even more clever? Use the search bar in Photos—type whatever (a date, ‘dog’, ‘beach’, etc.), wait for your Photos AI to serve up the results, then press Command+A to select ALL that match. Big time saver if your pics have location tags, faces, or decent labeling.
Also, don’t sleep on Smart Albums. Set up a Smart Album for all pics from a certain date range, camera, keyword, or whatever, and then select them all at once from there. Yes, Apple’s logic sometimes gets sketchy with Smart Album filters, but when it works, it’s magic.
TL;DR: Yes, you can minimize the carpal tunnel risk—try ‘Moments,’ use the search bar for bulk selects, and set up Smart Albums for even lazier batch grabs. Beats click-fest-ing like it’s still 1999.