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Problem attaching photos in Safari

I've had a strange problem for a while now and have a work around but would like a proper solution. It may have been since I got my new MacBook Air.


When I'm on FB or twitter or whatever, and I want to attach a photo to a post, I click attach photo, the window opens up, and then I choose Photos from the list. Normally, all my photos would show up and I would choose a picture to attach. But now, it shows one single album from my photos with no way to back to access all photos.


I've narrowed this down to being a Safari issue, because I have no problem going back and forth between albums etc and attaching photos to posts when I'm using Chrome.


Has anyone experienced this before? Any solutions?


MacBook Air M1

Ios 11.2.3 Big Sur

Safari 14.0.3




MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 10:04 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 24, 2021 11:00 AM

Nice work, Barb!


You're narrowing this down. This tells us the issue is user specific. It also means you wouldn't need to reinstall the macOS, since the issue is only happening in your user account.


Try removing the app's saved state by relaunching Safari and holding the Shift key on your keyboard. Release the key once the Safari window reappears/opens. This is a simple way to remove an app's previously saved state.


In the browsing window of Safari, if you move your curser inside of the window by the Photos, Favorites, and Shared albums. Can you scroll inside of that? It didn't appear that you could, until we just tested it out a few times, so we wanted to share that with you.


If it continues after this, Contact Apple Support (they'll have your back).


Have a lovely upcoming weekend, cheers.

10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 24, 2021 11:00 AM in response to kelownagurl

Nice work, Barb!


You're narrowing this down. This tells us the issue is user specific. It also means you wouldn't need to reinstall the macOS, since the issue is only happening in your user account.


Try removing the app's saved state by relaunching Safari and holding the Shift key on your keyboard. Release the key once the Safari window reappears/opens. This is a simple way to remove an app's previously saved state.


In the browsing window of Safari, if you move your curser inside of the window by the Photos, Favorites, and Shared albums. Can you scroll inside of that? It didn't appear that you could, until we just tested it out a few times, so we wanted to share that with you.


If it continues after this, Contact Apple Support (they'll have your back).


Have a lovely upcoming weekend, cheers.

Apr 23, 2021 10:45 AM in response to kelownagurl

Hello Kelownagurl,


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Based on your post, when you want to browse and attach photos in the Safari app, it only provides a folder. We'll do our best to assist with this.


It sounds like Safari has opened and saved the last location where it accessed photos in a previous session. What options do you see in the browse viewer? Do you see any arrows around the folder option? If so, select the arrow to see if it provides you more access to your documents.


Do you have any issues sharing from other apps? Like this: Use the Share menu on Mac


Let us know for more help, take care!

Apr 24, 2021 7:41 AM in response to kelownagurl

Hey Kelownagurl,


We'll get to the bottom of this!


Try removing Safari's saved state by quitting Safari and relaunching it while holding the Shift key until it opens up. Test the issue.


If it persists, then we'd isolate if you can accomplish this in safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac


Depending on the results in safe mode, use sections, 'If the issue continues in safe mode' and 'If the issue doesn't continue in safe mode'.


Reboot the Mac normally again, then test it out.


Should it continue, then we'll want to test this in another user account on your Mac. If you don't already have another Administrator user account, this explains how to create one: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac Log in to the newly created user and see if you can reproduce the issue there, then log back into your user. This explains how to delete the user account once testing has been completed: Delete a user or group on Mac


If the issue happens in another user and in safe mode, then you may need to reinstall macOS. Make sure you've got a backup of your data: Back up your Mac Then reinstall your OS: How to reinstall macOS


In case you continue to struggle with this, then we'd recommend to Contact Apple Support


Wishing you the best, take care.

Apr 24, 2021 9:48 AM in response to kelownagurl

Hi Barb,


You're so welcome for the help!


A few more things to check: Make sure you're attempting to browse within the Media folder > Photos and not within the Pictures folder on your Mac. When you browse in Safari, look in the sidebar of the browsing window and make sure you've selected Media > Photos. Which should open the Photos Library for you to access those folders within it. (We're using Big Sur.)


Could be helpful:


Get help with the Photos app on your Mac Under section, 'If the Media Browser isn't showing your photos and videos'.


In case you have multiple Photo Libraries: Designate a System Photo Library in Photos


Also, if you haven't deleted that other temporary test user yet, you could always download one image and add it to the Photos Library within that user to test it out. That way you won't have to sign in to iCloud to access all your photos. You could simply download any image to test.


We also wanted to explain that reinstalling macOS should be simple process, timing consuming though; depending on your network speed. Reinstalling would only replace the existing macOS files, which is very different from erasing the data and reinstalling.


You've done some awesome troubleshooting here. It might not hurt to make a call and Contact Apple Support for other suggested steps or solutions.


Take care of yourself!

Apr 24, 2021 11:27 AM in response to destiny241

Got it fixed. Here's what I did in case others have same problem.


After I did the things I've listed in my posts above:


  1. Relaunched Safari with Shift Key to remove saved state. Still had the same problem
  2. Remembered I'm still in Safe Mode so rebooted laptop in normal mode and then relaunched Safari again with Shift Key.
  3. Attempted to attach photo to FB post, now window was completely empty, no photos. Waited quite a while in case it was loading. Nope. Dragged the tiny button in centre of window down to make sure nothing was hidden. Nope. No photos.
  4. Toggled over to Movies (instead of Photos) under Media in side bar. Movies all show up fine.
  5. Toggled back to Photos in hopes of kick starting it. The photos started loading, then showed up in window briefly and then disappeared. Waited. Nothing.
  6. Repeated process again, toggling back and forth between Movies and Photos. Twice more the photos and albums showed briefly in the window then disappeared.
  7. On the third attempt, the photos loaded properly, I had access to all photos, favourites, albums, and I was able to attached a photo to my post. Tested this on Twitter as well. All good.


Thanks again for your help and patience.


Also, FWIW, I did go back to my test account and you're right, I was able to scroll down inside that window and find the two albums I had created. They were well hidden so that was tricky to notice. Thanks again.


Barb

Apr 23, 2021 11:00 AM in response to destiny241

No, for some reason, there are no options (arrows etc) to go back a level to access the parent folder. It's very unusual and is only happening in Safari. I do agree that it seems to have "remembered" a folder I used and now no longer allows me a option to change it.


I am not having problems accessing photos and folders from within any other apps on laptop or iPhone, including other browsers such as Chrome. I even tried using Safari on my phone and was able to access them


So this appears to be solely an issue with Safari on my new MacBook Air. Weird.



Apr 23, 2021 11:49 AM in response to kelownagurl

Hi Kelownagurl,


If you don't have any other options, then next we'd check for the Develop menu in the menu bar when in the Safari app. If you have this menu active, make sure file restrictions are set to 'Disable Local File Restrictions'.


In case you don't see this Developer menu, go to Safari menu > Preferences > Advanced and check the 'Show Develop in the menu bar'.


Hoping this solve it for you, cheers.

Apr 24, 2021 8:26 AM in response to destiny241

Thanks again.


I tried Safe mode, still have the problem


Then I set up a 2nd log in, Administrator account, which I assumed would give me full access but my photos aren't there when I open Photos, or if I log into FB and try to attach a photo.


It seems I'd have to set up iCloud in that account as well in order to get my photos which I'm not prepared to do at this point. All the photos are already on my computer (and only backed up to the cloud) so I don't understand why I have to set up iCloud on a 2nd account?


If it finally comes down to reinstalling the OS, I think I'll stop there. I don't want to have to potentially mess up my whole computer for this issue. My work around is to drag photos to a folder on my desktop when I want to upload them to FB of Twitter and although that's annoying, it's not worth the trouble of reinstalling system software.


Thanks very much for your help. :)


Barb



Apr 24, 2021 10:15 AM in response to destiny241

Of course, I didn't even think to just download some more pics. So I did that, went into the other Admin account, DLed 4 pics and they all show up when attempting to attach a photo to a FB post. I also created two albums and put two pics in each but the albums don't show up within my choices for FB. There are no arrows etc that allow to me to move backward to forward to access the albums. I see photos, favourites, and shared. That's it.


So I'm still not sure what to try next. If I can access the photos (but not albums) in the 2nd admin account, is reinstalling OS still the next step?


If I reinstall OS, apart from the time involved, will I lose viewing history or other settings that I had to take the time to set up when I first started up this new Mac?


Thanks

Barb

Problem attaching photos in Safari

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