AI search for Apple Photos on Mac
Connect your System Photo Library or an album on macOS. Search photos and video moments, sync Photos albums and favorites, and publish smart groups as albums.
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Apple Photos setup and MCP guideTry this workflow
Open Apple Photos in OwAI, grant full Photos access, and select the system library or an album. Indexing follows App Settings. Sync now refreshes changes; OwAI also scans every five minutes.
Collections sync editable Photos albums; groups publish albums, and favorites sync both ways. Deleting a linked collection or group requests album deletion, never original deletion. Members outside this source are protected.
What to expect
iCloud media downloads on demand into a 5 GiB cache. OwAI uses rendered JPEG/MP4 copies; Live Photo motion and hidden items are excluded. Approved deletion uses Photos Recently Deleted. Remote image reads need the owning Mac online and Remote media access.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is OwAI free?
Yes. Local browsing, organization, local AI models, people, collections, groups, and duplicate management are free and do not require an account.
What is sent for hosted inference?
When you select hosted inference, resized images or selected video frames are transmitted for processing and are not persisted. You can instead download local models and keep inference on your device.