How do I get Apple Photos to re-identify all pictures of my deceased pet?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How do I get Apple Photos to re-identify all pictures of my deceased pet?

This morning people and pets albums identified and showed all the pictures of my dog. It gave me the option to name him, which i did. Now it only shows one picture of him in people and pets and the rest are gone. I can’t find any way to get it to reset and find all the rest of the 600 or so pics of him in my library which it showed this morning but now doesn’t. He died last Friday and I’d really rather Apple hadn’t done this today.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: People and Pets error

iPhone 13 mini, iOS 26

Posted on Feb 25, 2026 4:18 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 26, 2026 9:09 AM in response to Jo K Horwood

Wow, that is awful. It's important to look through all the other people and pets albums to see if your beloved dog has been included with another name, as can happen.

If you find him in other albums, let us know-- it can be difficult to separate out names-- we might be able to help.

As for the future, we always include our people and/or pet names in the Caption field as well as using the People albums. The faceID works only with faces. But with names in the Caption we can search for "Flurry" (the cat) and get pictures that don't have her face in addition to the ones that do. Also, the Caption field transfers to other picture apps, but faceIDs are Apple only.

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Answer 2

Mar 1, 2026 6:13 PM in response to Jo K Horwood

I feel sorry for you, another option is to just put "dog" in the general search bar in the full library view. It does a pretty good job. Then you can keyword them and name them.

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