i’m thinking about this again this morning, and i think i should have expanded the scope of this a bit, putting less emphasis on orphaned. (it doesn’t look like i can change the original post at this point though.) really, i think you should be allowed to search through any photos you’ve uploaded (by upload date, by observation date, by taxon of associated observations, by whether or not they are attached to any observations, etc.) and then you should be allowed to associate any photo you’ve uploaded with any existing or new observation (in the observation edit screen and the upload screen, respectively).
i think improved ability to manage uploaded photos as assets in themselves might actually provide a solution for other requests, such as https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/duplicate-photos-in-the-web-uploader/597. or it could provide the foundation for some other requests, such as https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/share-observations-between-users/337. and it could also indirectly provide an easy way to search for their own observations that are linked (via photos that are shared by multiple observations).
there might be a concern that treating photos as assets in themselves might give people the wrong idea that the platform is a photo backup service. but if it’s emphasized that any photos not associated with observations will be automatically deleted, then i think that provides enough disincentive to use the platform in that way.
everything that i’ve said here could probably also be applied to audio files or any other future media options.
i was also thinking about
and i wonder if there was an attempt to address this already (see https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/cannot-view-photo-metadata-when-logged-out/4013)? if the thing referenced here was an attempt to address, then i think it needs to go further and hide metadata for photos that have not been tied to observations, even if the user is logged in. alternatively, photos that have not been tied to observations could be hidden from other users altogether. (that latter option might be better and easier to implement.)