Albums not showing up in Photos sidebar

Question

Level 1

11 points

Albums not showing up in Photos sidebar

Some time after upgrading my 2016 MacBookPro to Monterey 12.2.1, Photos does not show any of my albums in the sidebar. I have checked iCloud and all the albums are there. The albums also show up on both my iPad and iPhone. When I try to create a new album or new folder in the Mac, nothing shows up there but the new folder and album do appear in iCloud. I have rebooted my computer and restarted Photos several times with no improvement. Is anyone else experiencing this?

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Feb 19, 2022 8:29 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

195,151 points

Mar 3, 2022 8:09 AM in response to sheribe

Here is a screenshot of the sidebar with the disclosure triangle for the albums: It only becomes visible when you search with the pointer there to the right of albums (sorry, my Mac is currently set to German).

You should be seeing "more space" for the display, if you set the resolution to "scaled".

Once you have increased the resolution of the display, drag the corners or sides of the Photos window to enlarge it, until the the sidebar will appear. It should be the default, that the sidebar with the albums is shown.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,151 points

Feb 19, 2022 8:35 AM in response to Jim Rhodes

Could it be, that you have closed the album list?

There is a disclosure triangle to the left of each folder and "My Albums".

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Answer 3

sheribe

Level 1

24 points

Mar 3, 2022 7:31 AM in response to Jim Rhodes

Prior to the last upgrade to Monterey 12.2., February 19, 2022, when I was not in full screen, I could view my sidebar without a problem. Now the only way I can see the sidebar is to go to View > Always Show Toolbar and Sidebar in Full View > Enter Full Screen. this is very inconvenient to have to go to all these steps when I use to be able to see the Sidebar when either in Full Screen or Reduced Screen. How can I fix it to see the Sidebar when in reduced screen like before the update?

Thanks in Advance for your help and suggestions.

Sheri

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

195,151 points

Mar 3, 2022 7:44 AM in response to Jim Rhodes

Jim Rhodes wrote:

An additional piece of the puzzle: When I go to View>Albums>My Albums, I can access them. The choices just don't show in the sidebar.

When you hover the pointer to the far right of albums, this should reveal the disclosure triangle ">". when you click it, the list of albums should appear.

The sidebar itself may vanish, if the window is too small. You may want to check the resolution of the display. Set the System preferences for the Display to "More space", so the Photos window will have a larger width in pixel size.

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Answer 5

sheribe

Level 1

24 points

Mar 3, 2022 7:54 AM in response to léonie

leonie - when I go to view>albums my albums do appear. I have not changed the display size of my screen since I updated to 12.2.1 a couple of weeks ago. When I do go to Settings>Display there is not a choice of "More Space" to select from. I even searched for the term and nothing comes up. I want to be able to see the side bar on the minimized screen just as I did before teh update.

thanks

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Answer 6

Jim Rhodes Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 3, 2022 8:05 AM in response to sheribe

That is possibly related to my problem. However, when I tried

View > Always Show Toolbar and Sidebar in Full View > Enter Full Screen

it did not change my symptoms of "Media Types," "Shared Albums," and "My Albums" just not showing in the sidebar (see my screen shot above). There is plenty of room for those items to be displayed in the sidebar, and I haven't done anything to reduce screen resolution.

I appreciate everyone's perspective on this.

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Answer 7

sheribe

Level 1

24 points

Mar 3, 2022 1:02 PM in response to léonie

I change my Display to Scaled and then More Space and now the sidebar is there. Thanks for the help. Why does Apple have to mess up the way things work and not tell anyone how to fix or make things go back the way they were?

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