cannot browse photo albums when uploading an image on MacBook Pro w/Ventura 13.1

Do you mean the File Upload routine that's used in browsers like Safari to find pictures for uploading to websites? If that's what you mean, then you may be running into a glitch in the way Photos is handled in File Upload in Ventura. It used to show all your albums, but in Ventura it shows only the full Library.

So you have to work around it for now. The search box is available, so you can try searching for your picture with its file name, a keyword you've assigned, a person, or a title. It helps to add keywords or titles to pictures as you go so you can find them later.

You can, before the upload, select your pictures in Photos, and then add a keyword, maybe Facebook011023 or something, to the info window (command-I) all at once. Then the search should give you all the pictures.

Another option is to export the pictures you're going to use to a folder, perhaps on you desktop. Then you can upload from there.

Also, you can leave feedback about this bug here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

Which leads me to believe it's (another) Ventura issue. This works perfectly well in ALL previous OS just not with Ventura.

It is indeed a Ventura issue, but not a bug - the interface between external apps and Photos has changed. Older apps have to be updated to be fully compatible. The system apps can access the Photos Library more easily, third-party apps need upgrading, 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.

Some applications can already show the albums when uploading photos. For example the Photos Browser in Apple Mail can show the albums. Photos is supporting this, only the protocol has changed and all other applications need to be updated for full compatibility with Ventura, so they can access again the albums in the Photos Library.

Ugrading to a new system version is frequently affecting the foundations the apps or device drivers are built on, and if we upgrade, we should expect to have to have to replace many applications by upgraded versions or even different apps. Before we upgrade we have to find find out what we will gain by the upgrade and compare it to the losses and only upgrade, when we are sure, all features we need will still be supported. We are not forced to upgrade, unless we desperately need some new feature that will come only with the upgrade.

Apple's Mail is behaving as expected, also Pages and Keynote, but many third-party apps need to catch up and be updtaed by the manufacturer's:

It is supposed to be an improved, new feature. macOS 13 has Ventura introduced a new Photos Picker. 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.

We are supposed to use the search, when trying to find photos for uploading. we just have to be creative, when using the search.

All applications, that want to use photos from the Photos Library have to be updated to use the new protocol for the photo picker. Some apps can already show the albums in the Photos Library, for example Mail, Pages, Keynote, unfortunately not yet Safari.

DeepThought42 wrote:

I'd argue it's a bug. It doesn't work in Safari either, and that is not a third-party application. I have over 50,000 photos all organised into Albums, and now when I upload to any website, the Media picker just shows me all photos in the library.

Apple implemented the new photo picker for the system apps as stated: "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." Safari is not a System app - it comes installed with the system, but is updated separately.

Additionally it is available in the iWorks apps, but I wish Apple would add it to Safari too. And improve the list of albums in iMovie. Currently iMovie is showing only a flat list of albums, without the folder structure, which is a mess. It is hard to find the album I want to use in a flat list of thousands of albums.

It's been like this for a long time, extremely annoying. I started making folders and putting them on my Desktop, I can upload from there.

happysoupy wrote:

This bug is driving me crazy because I post a lot of photos. Search parameters are just bizarre in what they show. I'm thinking of uninstalling Ventura and going back if this isn't fixed.

If it were a bug, Apple could fix it. It is up to the developers of the third-party apps to get their apps ready for Ventura and to implement the support to access the albums in their apps on Ventura. Apple is still lagging to make the Media Browser for Photos in Safari as versatile as in their other apps.

happysoupy wrote:

I'm thinking of uninstalling Ventura and going back if this isn't fixed.

Careful! If you go back to a previous OS, your Photos Library that has been updated by Ventura will not be readable. But if you're using iCloud to sync your devices, then you can make a new library on an older OS and let iCloud populate it.

Same. The worst part is that I can’t even access photos in shared albums, which I use to store a lot of photos and videos (so they don’t take up space on my mobile devices). I instead have to go over to Photos, import the photo or video, go back to the other app, and upload it. I don’t even want to think about having to search through my photos.

Hi there,

I understand how frustrating it can be when you can't browse photo albums while uploading an image on your MacBook Pro with macOS Ventura 13.1. I was facing the same issue a few days ago, but when I updated macOS, it got resolved."

I have the same problem, not only when uploading to for instance Facebook, but also when attaching photos to emails. Why has the option to browse albums disappeared? I have ten of thousands of photos on my Mac, and now have either to run through all of them or add complicated keywords... Please Apple fix this in your next Ventura update - sometimes consistency and longtime used operation methods should not be changed ....

I am having the same issue. I am in real estate and take thousands of house photos. when I go through photos I create an album for the ones I like to go in the MLS. Just went to upload photos and no albums, I have to go through all of them again which is a HUGE inconvenience. This needs to be corrected. Its a basic feature used daily and stupid that apple took it away.

I'd argue it's a bug. It doesn't work in Safari either, and that is not a third-party application. I have over 50,000 photos all organised into Albums, and now when I upload to any website, the Media picker just shows me all photos in the library.

Sure, Safari is not a System App, but if Apple can’t be bothered making their own browser work with the new Photo Picker, then why should anyone else?

I stupidly upgraded to Ventura on all my Macs and have been suffering with this issue ever since. I have all my photos nearly organised and now it’s a nightmare when having to upload things to a web site, which with everything now cloud based is something I have to do all the time.

It’s a baffling omission by Apple given this has been seamless for over 15 years.

Anyway, that’s my rant about it over…