Shortcuts

PowerPhotos provides a comprehensive set of actions for the Shortcuts app, letting you automate common tasks with your photo libraries. You can use these actions to build workflows that browse your libraries, organize albums, edit photo metadata, copy or move photos between libraries, export photos to folders, and more. Shortcuts can be run on demand, or triggered by other events on your Mac.

To get started, open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut. When adding actions, search for “PowerPhotos” to see the full list of available actions. Each action has parameters you can configure to customize its behavior. Many actions can also be chained together, with the output of one action feeding into the next. For example, you could use the “Get Photos” action to retrieve photos from a library, filter them using a built-in Shortcuts action, then pass the results to “Copy Photos” to copy them to another library.

For more information about creating and using shortcuts on your Mac, see Apple’s Shortcuts User Guide.

For downloadable example shortcuts demonstrating how to use these actions, see Example Shortcuts.

Library actions

Action	Description
Find Library	Searches for libraries matching a set of filters such as name, type, and photo count.
Choose Library	Presents a picker to choose a library from the PowerPhotos library list.
Get Libraries	Returns all photo libraries in the PowerPhotos library list.
Get System Library	Returns the system photo library designated as the default by the Photos app.
Add Library	Adds an existing photo library from disk to the PowerPhotos library list.
Create New Library	Creates a new, empty photo library at a specified location.
Duplicate Library	Duplicates a photo library to a specified folder and adds the copy to the library list.
Open Library in PowerPhotos	Opens a photo library in PowerPhotos.
Open Library in Photos	Opens a photo library in the Photos app.
Remove Library	Removes a photo library from the PowerPhotos library list.

Album actions

Action	Description
Find Albums	Searches for albums matching a set of filters such as name, type, and photo count.
Get Albums	Returns albums from a photo library, with options to filter by album type.
Create Album	Creates a new album in a photo library.
Create Folder	Creates a new folder in a photo library.
Rename Album	Renames an album or folder in a photo library.
Delete Albums	Deletes albums from a photo library without deleting the photos they contain.
Add Photos to Album	Adds photos to an album within the same library.
Remove Photos from Album	Removes photos from an album without deleting them from the library.
Select Album in PowerPhotos	Selects an album in the PowerPhotos window.

Photo actions

Action	Description
Find Photos	Searches for photos matching a set of filters such as title, date, keywords, and more.
Get Photos	Returns photos and videos from a photo library.
Get Photo Metadata	Gets metadata from one or more photos and returns it as text.
Set Photo Metadata	Sets a metadata field to a new value on one or more photos.
Show Photo in Photos	Opens the Photos app and reveals the specified photo.
Show Photo in PowerPhotos	Shows a photo or video in the PowerPhotos photo viewer.
Delete Photos	Deletes photos from their respective libraries.

Transfer and export actions

Action	Description
Copy Photos	Copies or moves photos from one library to another.
Copy Albums	Copies or moves albums and their photos from one library to another.
Import Photos	Imports files and folders into a photo library.
Export Photos	Exports photos, albums, or a library to a folder using a saved export preset.
Merge Libraries	Merges one or more source libraries into a destination library.