Sort Events and photos

iPhoto displays your Events or photos in the order in which they were taken, from oldest to newest. You can rearrange Events or photos in the photo library or in an album by sorting them.

Note:  You can sort by only one criterion at a time. For example, you can sort all the photos in an album by date, and then re-sort them all by title, but you can’t sort the photos by date, and then by title within date.

To sort Events

  1. Click to select Events in the Source list and then choose View > Sort Events. (If you’re in full-screen view, move your pointer to the top of the screen to make the menu bar appear.)

  2. Choose an option from the submenu:

    • By Date: Arranges Events or photos by the date on which they were taken, from oldest to newest. To reverse the order, choose View, choose Sort Photos or Sort Events, and then choose Descending.

    • By Title: Arranges Events or photos alphabetically by their titles.

    • Manually: Lets you drag Events or photos into any order you want, except for photos in a Smart Album.

To sort photos within Events (but not the Events themselves)

  1. Click to select Photos in the Source list, choose View > Event Titles, and then choose View > Sort Photos. (If you’re in full-screen view, move your pointer to the top of the screen to make the menu bar appear.)

  2. Choose an option from the submenu:

    • By Date: Arranges Events or photos by the date on which they were taken, from oldest to newest. To reverse the order, choose View, choose Sort Photos or Sort Events, and then choose Descending.

    • By Keyword: Arranges photos alphabetically by their keywords.

    • By Title: Arranges Events or photos alphabetically by their titles.

    • By Rating: Arranges photos from lowest to highest rating. To reverse the order, choose View > Sort Photos > Descending.

To sort photos (regardless of Event groupings)

  1. Click to select Photos in the Source list, choose View and make sure Event Titles is deselected, and then choose View > Sort Photos. (If you’re in full-screen view, move your pointer to the top of the screen to make the menu bar appear.)

  2. Choose an option from the submenu:

    • By Date: Arranges Events or photos by the date on which they were taken, from oldest to newest. To reverse the order, choose View, choose Sort Photos or Sort Events, and then choose Descending.

    • By Keyword: Arranges photos alphabetically by their keywords.

    • By Title: Arranges Events or photos alphabetically by their titles.

    • By Rating: Arranges photos from lowest to highest rating. To reverse the order, choose View > Sort Photos > Descending.

You can sort your Events or the photos in an album by one of the options above, and then manually sort those Events or photos further. This way you can sort Events or photos by date, for example, and then drag the sorted Events or photos into an order you prefer. You can’t manually sort photos in Photos view.