The mathematician Bertrand Russell describe a paradox in 1901 about sets of thing : collections could be trace that could n’t incorporate themselves , even though the rule said they must . One approachable non - mathematical account take Samuel Barber : imagine a Samuel Barber who only shaves people who do n’t shave themselves . Could that barber shave themself ?

Apple posed a similar but simpler conundrum viaa hemipterous insect it introduced into smart albums in macOS Catalinathat the company fixed in macOS Big Sur . you may create smart album in photograph that include only photos and videos not included inanymanually assembled album , one that has medium include inone or more albums .

The germ appear in Catalina if you deleted an album using the Photos sidebar by Control - clicking the album name , selecting Delete Album , then confirming the cut . The Photos app would forget to remove the “ in an record album ” flag on the medium , and you would find it still remained in a fresh record album that collected all paradigm and TV not in any record album .

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This has been fixed in Big Sur , preventing the detonation of any nearby robot brains stress to class out the paradox . And , seemingly , no rebuild of your Photos library is required . Whatever operation Big Sur and Photos does the first fourth dimension you found Photos after upgrading look to take fear of any weirdness that might linger .

Apple still lacks a way for something obvious to even the least numerical mind : rule out which albums a photo and movie is actually present in if it ’s present in any record album ! A sort contributor to Apple ’s expert supporting forumscreated a complicated AppleScriptthat provides the resolution , however .

This Mac 911 article is in reception to a query submitted by Macworld reader Line .

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