Some pictures in photos don't go full screen

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Level 5

7,080 points

Some pictures in photos don't go full screen

I double click on a picture to have it fill the window and then arrow through more pictures, and each one fills the window, as well. But recently (months?) a picture will only half fill the window. This photo is not low resolution-- it's maybe 2000x 1500 pixels like the others, but it doesn't fully enlarge. If I hit the space bar it reduces to the thumbnail, and when I then click on it the picture will enlarge to full size. That picture may or may not do it again. I don't see any pattern in which photos enlarge and which don't, and it's rather irritating.

What can I do to make the photos expand properly?

I've got Photos 7.0 and OS 12.3.1 on an M1 MacBook Air.

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Apr 19, 2022 9:03 AM

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Answer 1

EastDog

Level 2

149 points

Apr 22, 2022 12:19 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Richard, I see exactly the same thing you do. I've noticed this for months, and for whatever reason, it does strangely seem to be getting more frequent.

As I scroll through pictures, the zoom slider is set to "Fit", all the way to the left. And then every several photos, and one will appear a 1/4 size, centered, with the zoom slider bizarrely reflecting a zoomed out state, like 61%, which you actually cannot achieve on your own - in normal operation, the furthest out you can zoom in is "Fit". This happens for no file/photo-specific reasons (meaning it'll happen to one photo that was taken by the same camera seconds after another; edited vs. non-edited doesn't seem to matter) that I've been able to discern. But one thing I just noticed right now, and Richard, perhaps let me know if you see the same thing, is that right now it only appears to be happening with photos taken on iPhones (iPhone 6, X, 12), and not those taken on any standalone camera.

It's a bug, plain and simple. Not a blockbuster bug; the photo will come back at full size by double clicking it closed and then back open, or nudging the slider back to the left/Fit. But it's really annoying. And it's unambiguously a bug.

I welcome folks trying to help, but no link to a knowledge base article is going to fix this. Apple needs to.

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Answer 2

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

Jun 24, 2022 10:14 AM in response to EastDog

Yes, EastDog-- I still have not had a recurrence of the incredible shrinking picture problem! It's weird that you and I seem to be the only people in the world to experience it, and now it's gone! Thanks, Apple!

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Answer 3

ryane77

Community Specialist

Apr 20, 2022 9:14 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi Richard.Taylor,

We see you're finding that some photos are not showing in full screen from the Photos app. Is that right?

Have you checked the resolution on the affected photos and then compared them to the resolution of photos that do appear in full screen?

Also, do you know if the affected photos were taken in portrait mode or landscape mode? That could make a difference.

Depending on the answers to the above, this link might also help: Get help with the Photos app on your Mac - Apple Support

Let us know, and have a good one.

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Answer 4

Old Toad

Level 10

207,871 points

Apr 22, 2022 1:01 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

log into a basic admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac, create a test library, import those same 3 photos and see if the problem persists. This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide.

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Answer 5

May 12, 2022 12:11 AM in response to EastDog

Hi

We are not apple here, we are users like you - if you want to give feedback to apple, the only channel they might listen to is:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

They are more likely to do something if a lot of people request the same.

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

207,871 points

Apr 20, 2022 2:12 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Try the following: export a couple of photos that do scale up correctly and some that don't as original photos. Then as a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import those exported photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread.

Then close that library and open your original library and test again.

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Answer 7

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

Apr 22, 2022 10:55 AM in response to ryane77

I don't see a difference in resolution or orientation. I just looked at 3 photos in a row, each 1600x900, but middle one is smaller on screen. I could arrow back and forth, and the same picture was small. Further along, same thing. Then I went back and that first middle photo was full size, but the two after (which were full size earlier) appeared as smaller on screen. Weirdest thing...

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Answer 8

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

Apr 22, 2022 11:12 AM in response to Old Toad

I do have several libraries, so I tried on one of the others with similar photos. This other library has a mixture of higher and lower resolution pictures. It did the same thing when I looked at the same set of photos that had been exported and and imported as PNGs. Some of the same photos are 2500x1900 (or so) versions of the same pictures rather than 1600 x 900, and I have not yet seen one of those smaller. But this is not so easy to reproduce-- it doesn't always happen with the same pictures, and I'm not absolutely sure how to make it happen.

I do see sometimes that a picture starts small and then pops to full size. I do not have Photos set to "Full Screen," but it is nearly the same size as the display. I can see the edges of a few other app windows beneath Photos.

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Answer 9

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

Apr 22, 2022 12:30 PM in response to EastDog

I see no connection with photos from my iPhone or the phones of others. In fact, I'm spending much of my time trying to organize photos taken before the iPhone, so they are almost entirely from cameras-- Nikon, Canon, and Kodak. It happens to all brands. I think that you are right-- this is a Photos problem, not a picture problem. It's good to see that it happens to someone other than just me!

You didn't say what computer you're using. I do wonder if it might be connected to the M1 or to the MacBook Air display....

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Answer 10

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

Apr 22, 2022 1:59 PM in response to Old Toad

This is not photo specific. There are not 3 photos that don't go full and 7 that do-- it could be any photo one time and maybe not the next. It never happens on the first photo I click on. Often I've arrowed through a bunch before the first one happens. By bunch I mean that I'm searching through albums with maybe over a hundred pictures. I'm not sure I've seen the effect when going through an album of 20.

So here's what I did: I created a new user with administration privileges. I chose a different library from the other two I had been working on--one that has many of the same as well as different pictures. I changed the privileges to include the new user and opened that library in Photos. The same thing happened. No different that I could tell.

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Answer 11

EastDog

Level 2

149 points

Apr 25, 2022 1:08 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

My note that it seemed to be only happening to photos taken on iPhones was based upon observations just at the time I was replying to you, but since, again, you are describing essentially exactly what I am seeing, I also trust your observation. I just went through about 500 photos, about 50:50 split between iPhone and camera shots... and saw it far less today, but again, it was just iPhone shots.

And no, it's not a RAM thing - I've got an untaxed 40GB of RAM here on this Intel iMac, and my M1 Air (on which I've also seen this) of course has the measly 8.

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Answer 12

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

Apr 26, 2022 10:31 AM in response to EastDog

Good-- that answers the big question I had about it being hardware related, since the M1 is so new.

I took data, actually. The shrinkage runs from 51% to 60% linear, and there is no correlation between the zoom ratio and the pixel number, aspect ratio, portrait/landscape orientation, or camera brand.

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Answer 13

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

May 7, 2022 10:13 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I just want to report how frustrating this is, to be running along looking for something in an album of photos and suddenly they get small. With a new library I created for about 1200 pictures, it is happening often and repeatedly. Somebody ought to do something about this....

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Answer 14

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

May 12, 2022 1:54 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks. Of course I've sent the feedback, but there are only two of us who've had this problem, apparently. However, I've found a

NEW CLUE:

I've started using a larger monitor with my Air, and I haven't seen the effect even once on this external monitor. It's not mirroring-- I'll have to try that and see what happens. And when I'm using the Air by itself, it still happens. But when the Photos screen is displayed on the other monitor, scrolling through the pictures always goes max size. It also seems to be true that when the Photos window appears on the Air screen while the other monitor is attached, the shrunken picture happens, but much less often.

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Answer 15

Richard.Taylor Author

Level 5

7,080 points

May 22, 2022 9:42 AM in response to EastDog

Another interesting discovery:

On a picture that is small, 88% instead of 150%, when I choose Edit, it remains small in the edit screen, and it still says 88%. If I click crop then adjust, it expands to the "fit" size in "adjust" view, but it still says 88%. If I click done from edit, it goes back to the "fit" screen, is "fit" size, but it still says 88%! If I hit space bar to go back to thumbnail view and again to "fit" view, it expands to "fit" and says 150%.

I usually use Photos as a full sized window with menu bar rather than in "Full Screen" mode, but it's the same either way.

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Some pictures in photos don't go full screen

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