Your library

Your library is every photo and video you've added to Photos. Only you see it, unless you share an album.

Where your photos are kept

Photos keeps each one in My files in Files, in Photos, then a folder for the year and month it was taken, like Photos › 2026 › 10. They're ordinary files, so you can open them in Files too. If you add, move or delete photos in that folder from Files, Photos notices and keeps up.

Photos reads when each photo was taken, where, and with what camera, from the photo itself. Adding the same photo twice keeps one copy.

Finding your way around

• Library shows everything, newest first. On a computer, Show by switches between Years, Months, Days and All. Pick a year to see its months, and a month to see its days.
• Favourites, Videos and Recently added (the last 30 days) are in the sidebar, with Places, Albums, Shared with me and Trash.

On a phone, these are across the top instead.

Looking at a photo

Open a photo to see it bigger. The arrow keys, or Previous and Next, move between photos. On a photo, + and − zoom in and out, and 0 goes back to the whole photo.

• Press the heart, or F, to make it a favourite.
• Press Show info, or I, to see when and where it was taken, the camera, which albums it's in and where its file is kept. You can add a caption there too, which search finds.
• Download saves the original to your device.

Press Escape to go back to the grid.

Choosing several

Press Select, then pick photos. You can favourite them, add them to an album or move them to the Trash all at once.

The Trash

Move to Trash, or the Delete key, puts a photo in the Trash. It's the same Trash as Files, and photos stay there for 30 days. Open Trash in Photos, select what you want, then press Put back or Delete for good. See Trash and earlier versions.