Merging photo collections together
Sometimes the Photos app splits the same person or pet into two different collections, but you can combine them without dragging each photo individually. Here’s how to do it in iOS 17.
Over the course of people’s lives, physical features tend to change and may look slightly different than before. This may cause the Photos app to think it’s a different person when it’s not.
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While it’s not a game changer, it is annoying to have multiple albums by the same person. You might want to merge albums to tidy up your Photos app and make it less cluttered.
Merging two albums of the same person is very easy, and once you’ve completed it, your Photos app will look more organized than before.
Two (or more) become one
Merging two albums is as easy as dragging and dropping them. Here’s how you can combine them effectively.
How to merge two albums of people or pets in Photos for iOS 17
Open the Photos app. Click Albums in the bottom menu. Scroll down until you see the People, Pets and Places section and click on the People and Pets collection. Find two People or Pets collections that you want to combine. Drag one collection onto another. Confirm. that you want to combine them
Combine collections using drag and drop
Once you confirm the merge, all photos from one collection will be transferred to another. The collection will take the name of the person you teamed up with.
There is another way to combine two albums by person’s name. Here’s how to do it.
How to merge two albums of people or pets in Photos for iOS 17 by name
Find one of the collections of the person you want to merge. Click “Add Name” at the top. Enter the same name as the other collection. Confirm the name change and the two albums will be combined into one collection.
Merging collections through renaming
No matter which way you decide to merge the two collections, they will both give you the same result – removing multiple collections based on the same person.
Cancel merge
If you accidentally paired the wrong people, you’ll have to go into the collection and manually select photos that shouldn’t be there. Here’s how you remove them.
Click “Select” in the top right corner of the screen. Select images of a person that should not be in the collection. Click on the three dots in the lower right corner of the screen. Select “This is not [Person’s Name]»
Removing unnecessary people from a collection
Once you choose that these photos are not the person the collection is dedicated to, the photos will be automatically removed from the collection.
Clean up the Photos app
No matter who it is, combining two collections of the same people or pets will clean up your Photos app and make it a little more organized.