Merge duplicate pets under People & Pets in the Photos App

In the Photos App on my iMac, under the "PEOPLE & PETS", I am not able to merge 2 or more pets that are the same. I have easily merged 2 or more people by selecting the duplicate person then Control click and choose merge # of people. This will not work with pets.

iMac 27″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Apr 6, 2025 11:22 AM

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Posted on Apr 7, 2025 9:27 AM

First-- I have no experience merging pets. Pet IDs have to be really hard for the computer, and I have a certain sympathy for them.


But I just found that I, too, have two albums for the same cat, and they don't merge. So I went to the pictures in the smaller group, and I did "This is not Flurry" and then added the name Flurry. It gave me two choices (for the two Flurry albums,) and I picked the other one. It worked. When I did all the pictures, and then I clicked on the now empty Flurry album, Photos crashed! But, when I re-opened Photos, there was only one Flurry.


Does that work for you?

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 7, 2025 9:27 AM in response to Gary Davison

First-- I have no experience merging pets. Pet IDs have to be really hard for the computer, and I have a certain sympathy for them.


But I just found that I, too, have two albums for the same cat, and they don't merge. So I went to the pictures in the smaller group, and I did "This is not Flurry" and then added the name Flurry. It gave me two choices (for the two Flurry albums,) and I picked the other one. It worked. When I did all the pictures, and then I clicked on the now empty Flurry album, Photos crashed! But, when I re-opened Photos, there was only one Flurry.


Does that work for you?

Apr 7, 2025 9:36 AM in response to Gary Davison

By the way-- since you have a Mac, you should add keywords for your pets. I select all from the Flurry album, and I add "Flurry" to the keyword list for all of them. There are also pictures of Flurry that don't make it to the Pets album, and so I find those and add her keyword name there, too. People/Pets albums are flaky, at best, so many of us double up with the name in keywords or in captions or in Titles for them.


Keywords, Titles and Captions transfer when you export pictures, but Facial Recognition does not. Keywords, Titles, and Captions are sure to survive OS upgrades, but Facial Recognition may not.

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Merge duplicate pets under People & Pets in the Photos App

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