How to Batch Change Descriptions on Apple Products

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If you’re looking to keep track of photo information across your Mac and iOS devices, here’s a simple way to do it. Usually, in Photos for Mac, you can see photo titles below the thumbnails, and when viewing a zoomed-in photo, the title is displayed. However, on iPhones and iPads, especially when syncing with iCloud, those titles aren’t visible. Instead, you might see descriptions or captions, but these don’t automatically sync with the titles from your Mac.

A good solution is to automatically copy the photo titles from your Mac into the description or caption that shows up on your iPhone or iPad. This way, you’ll have the same important info visible everywhere. Luckily, there’s a script that can help with this task.

Here’s how it works: You select your photos in a top-level album or in “All Photos” on your Mac, run the script, and it copies each photo’s title into its description, adding any extra notes you want. You can even include additional comments to the descriptions if needed.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Open Photos on your Mac.
2. Select the photos you want to update (make sure they are not in smart albums or nested folders).
3. Run the script provided below.

The script does the following:

– Prompts you to enter an extra comment or caption if you wish.
– Loops through your selected photos.
– Copies each photo’s title into the description field.
– Adds your optional comment at the end.
– Keeps any existing description intact, appending the new info neatly.

Here’s the script you can use:

applescript
— This script copies the title of photos into their description, adding an optional comment.
— To use it, select photos in a top-level album or “All Photos” in Photos, then run this script.

set newDescriptionSuffix to text returned of (display dialog “Enter the new caption (leave blank for none):” default answer “”)
set withSuffix to (the length of newDescriptionSuffix > 0)

set separator to ” – ”
try
set imageSel to (get selection)
on error errText two number errNum two
display dialog “Can’t get your selected photos: ” & errNum two & return & errText two
return
end try

tell application “Photos”
activate
try
set imageSel to (get selection)
on error errText two number errNum two
display dialog “Can’t retrieve selection: ” & errNum two & return & errText two
return
end try

if imageSel is {} then
display dialog “Please select some photos.”
return
end if

repeat with im in imageSel
— Get the photo’s title
set imTitle to (the name of im)
set newDescription to “”
if (imTitle is not missing value) and (length of imTitle > 0) then
set newDescription to imTitle
end if

— Get existing description
set oldDescription to (the description of im)
if (oldDescription is not missing value) and (length of oldDescription > 0) then
— Append old description
if (length of newDescription > 0) then
set theLink to separator
else
set theLink to “”
end if
set newDescription to newDescription & theLink & oldDescription
end if

— Add optional suffix comment
if withSuffix then
if (length of newDescription > 0) then
set theLink to separator
else
set theLink to “”
end if
set newDescription to newDescription & theLink & newDescriptionSuffix
end if

— Update the description field
try
tell im
set the description to newDescription
end tell
on error errText two number errNum two
display dialog “Error updating photo: ” & errNum two & return & errText two
end try
end repeat
display dialog “Descriptions updated successfully.”
end tell

Once this is done, your photo titles will be copied into descriptions, making it easier to see the same info across your devices. This method works well when viewing photos on devices that can show descriptions or captions. It’s a simple way to keep your photo information consistent without manually editing each photo.

Remember, to use the script, just select your photos in the main Photos window, run the script, and watch your descriptions update automatically. It saves time and keeps your photo data consistent everywhere.