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Why I can't open photos or videos in Photos app on Macbook pro OS Catalina?

Hello. I have an issue with photos and videos on my Mac.

May I ask why I can't open photos or videos in Photos app on Macbook pro OS Catalina?

Command + O does not do a thing.

I have to right click and see it in preview or open a video in quick time.


Can I do it like a photo viewer on Windows? There I open a photo and do left and right which I can't on Mac and when it comes to video it plays.

This thing is weirdest. As far I prefer it more than my Win PC but non opening photos and videos in full size is so unbelievable for such a good computer.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 9, 2020 4:57 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 10, 2020 4:50 PM

You need to import photos and videos to browse or edit them in Photos. Photos is a Photo manager, not just an editor. Import the photos into the photos Library, if you want to browse them with Photos.


On Catalina you can use the Finder as a photo browser. Just open a folder of photos in the Finder, switch the Finder window to Gallery View, by clicking the Gallery icon in the toolbar, then enable Full Screen mode. You can now step the photos with the arrow keys or by clicking the thumbnails in the film strip, for example:


And if you switch the Finder window to column view, the right column will show you some exif information for your photo:

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 10, 2020 4:50 PM in response to mihael_

You need to import photos and videos to browse or edit them in Photos. Photos is a Photo manager, not just an editor. Import the photos into the photos Library, if you want to browse them with Photos.


On Catalina you can use the Finder as a photo browser. Just open a folder of photos in the Finder, switch the Finder window to Gallery View, by clicking the Gallery icon in the toolbar, then enable Full Screen mode. You can now step the photos with the arrow keys or by clicking the thumbnails in the film strip, for example:


And if you switch the Finder window to column view, the right column will show you some exif information for your photo:

Jan 10, 2020 4:23 PM in response to mihael_

If you are already inside the Photos app (as I think you are indicating), just double-click on a thumbnail (or hit space bar if an image is selected) to enlarge the image. Then you can use right and left keys to switch the focus to different images. Double-click again (or hit space bar) to return to the array of thumbnails.

Why I can't open photos or videos in Photos app on Macbook pro OS Catalina?

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