How to Use Places in Apple Photos on Your Mac
Apple Photos includes a powerful feature called Places that lets you find photos based on where they were taken instead of when. Using built-in GPS data, Photos maps your images across the world, making it easy to rediscover memories by location. This guide walks through how Places works, how to navigate the map, and how to manually add locations when GPS data is missing.
🎓 What You’ll Learn
What the Places feature does in Apple Photos on your Mac
How Photos uses GPS and location metadata to map your pictures
How to switch between Map, Satellite, and Grid views
How to pan and zoom around the map to find photos by location
How to use 3D view in supported areas
How to identify photos that do not have location data
How to manually assign a location to a photo using the Info panel
When Places is the best way to find photos compared to searching by date or people
🖼️ Understanding Places in Apple Photos
The Places feature organizes photos using GPS metadata embedded at the time a photo is taken.
Photos appear on a world map based on location
GPS data comes from iPhones, smartphones, and some cameras
Locations are stored as metadata and travel with the image
This allows you to search visually instead of scrolling endlessly through dates.
🗺️ Exploring the Map Views
Places offers three different ways to view your photos:
Map View – Standard road map view
Satellite View – Aerial imagery for visual context
Grid View – A chronological photo layout grouped by location
Switching views helps depending on whether you want geography or a visual gallery.
🧭 Navigating and Zooming
You can move around the map in several ways:
Click and drag to pan
Double-click or use zoom controls to zoom in
Use trackpad gestures to zoom and scroll
As you zoom in, photo clusters spread out and reveal individual images tied to precise locations.
🛰️ Using 3D View in Cities
In supported areas, Places unlocks a 3D map mode.
Zoom in far enough to enable 3D
Hold Option while dragging to tilt the map
Explore photos mapped within city streets and landmarks
This is especially useful for travel photos and urban exploration.
📍 Why Some Photos Don’t Have Locations
Not every photo includes GPS data.
Common reasons include:
GPS disabled on the camera
Older DSLR or point-and-shoot cameras
Battery-saving settings
Photos without GPS won’t appear on the map until a location is added manually.
✏️ Manually Adding a Location
You can add a location to any photo after the fact.
Open the photo
Click the Info (ⓘ) button
Enter a location name or address
Once added, the photo immediately appears in Places.
🧠 When Places Is Most Useful
Places shines when:
You remember where but not when
You travel frequently
You want a visual way to browse memories
You’re organizing large photo libraries
It complements People, Albums, and Search — not replaces them.