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photos from library not visible in finder

I am trying to see the folder structure of photos library in finder (Media) especially when trying to upload photos from facebook on my macbook. Currently I only see the photos under media but can't access any shared albums to look up specific photos.

Posted on Aug 12, 2023 2:47 PM

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Posted on Aug 13, 2023 12:40 AM

That is a recent problem with FaceBook and some other third party apps. These apps have not been updated to use the new Photos Picker in Photos 8, when they try to access the System Photos Library via "Media > Photos". Most of the system apps have been updated by Apple to use the Photos Picker and can show the albums and folders (Mail, Preview, Pages, etc,), but Safari is still missing from the list. So we are stuck, when we need to use a web browser when sharing photos.


In that case it is easier to keep Photos open and find the photos we want to share in Photos, then export them to a folder on the Desktop and upload from there. Or, when sharing a single photo, look up the filename in Photos and paste it into the search field in the upload dialog, where we are only seeing a flat list of photos without albums and folders.


See: macOS Ventura - New Features - Apple


"New Photos picker in system apps


A new Photos picker makes it easy to import photos and videos into system apps from your Photos library. Search your library to find just what you’re looking for."


And Shared albums are not a part of your Photos Library. They are shown in Photos, but are not visible in "Media> Photos" at all. You would have to import the shared photos from the shared albums to see them in "Media > Photos".


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 13, 2023 12:40 AM in response to wginkel

That is a recent problem with FaceBook and some other third party apps. These apps have not been updated to use the new Photos Picker in Photos 8, when they try to access the System Photos Library via "Media > Photos". Most of the system apps have been updated by Apple to use the Photos Picker and can show the albums and folders (Mail, Preview, Pages, etc,), but Safari is still missing from the list. So we are stuck, when we need to use a web browser when sharing photos.


In that case it is easier to keep Photos open and find the photos we want to share in Photos, then export them to a folder on the Desktop and upload from there. Or, when sharing a single photo, look up the filename in Photos and paste it into the search field in the upload dialog, where we are only seeing a flat list of photos without albums and folders.


See: macOS Ventura - New Features - Apple


"New Photos picker in system apps


A new Photos picker makes it easy to import photos and videos into system apps from your Photos library. Search your library to find just what you’re looking for."


And Shared albums are not a part of your Photos Library. They are shown in Photos, but are not visible in "Media> Photos" at all. You would have to import the shared photos from the shared albums to see them in "Media > Photos".


Aug 13, 2023 11:10 AM in response to Old Toad

My Photos Library is the System Photos Library -otherwise I could not enable iCloud Photos, but the "Media > Photos" in the sidebar of the file chooser is only showing a flat list of 60000 photos, no albums, when I try to open photo from Safari on macOS 13.5 Ventura . This is different in Mail or Keynote. Which system version are you using OT?


For examle - trying to open an image from the Photos Library from Safari:

But searching for a keyword is working well, for example "flower"

Aug 13, 2023 12:13 AM in response to Yer_Man

hi Yer_Man, thanks for the answer. Let me clarify the issue, when I click Upload pictures from facebook it opens a finder view and I can navigate to the Media / Photos folder. There I however only see all photos in my library. I do not see any options to navigate to e.g. a shared album or to my favourites.


On my iphone I can easily than select different albums to select photos, but on my macbook I can't seem to get that done. Any suggestions?

photos from library not visible in finder

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