All of a sudden I can't see ALL photos in my Photo library!

Question

All of a sudden I can't see ALL photos in my Photo library!

I'm running Photos 7.0 on my iMac with OS 12.6.7 Everything has been working normally, until my computer froze and I restarted it. Now when I open Photos There is no option to see all photos in the left column, it starts with Memories, then Shared with You, People, Places, Favorites, Recents, and Imports. I swear there used to be an option above all those that lets me see all photos in the library.

I know I'd uploaded a number of photos in the last 5 days because I can see them in People, but they do not appear in Recents or Imports.

I've reopened Photos from the application folder, same deal. I also opened an older version or Photos on my laptop running Mojave, and it DOES Have an option at the top of the left column that shows all photos.

Not that it should make a difference because it was working just fine until just now, but the Photos Library is stored on an external drive.

Any ideas?

iMac 21.5″, 12.6

Posted on Jun 28, 2023 8:50 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,827 points

Jun 29, 2023 3:17 AM in response to Escott from ER

This has been a common problem since macOS 10.15 Catalina. The sidebar will be omitting the "Photos" item, when your Mac has been started in Save Mode. This disables some advanced capabilities of the graphics and Photos cannot run properly.

Try to restart your Mac in normal mode, see: Photos on Catalina: If the Photos View vanishes from the sidebar, check if the Mac is in Safe Mode - Apple Community

If the Mac is not in Safe Mode, but the Photos item is still missing, try to reset the NVRAM. It helped in a similar case as pointed out by user travellerva:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251542025?answerId=252980934022#252980934022

How to reset the NVRAM: Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac – Apple Support

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Answer 2

Jun 29, 2023 2:46 PM in response to léonie

Thank you! That was it, I didn't realize I had started in Safe Mode, but once I restarted the Photos options were all there. Before I asked the questions I searched the community here and didn't find the answer, so I hope this might help other people too!

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,827 points

Jun 29, 2023 3:46 PM in response to Escott from ER

I’m glad that restarting could fix it. For some older Macs the graphics card needed updating.

Does your mac have a wireless keyboard or mouse or trackpad? If you turn the bluetooth devices on while the Mac is starting up it might accidentally start up in Safe Mode without you noticing it.

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Answer 4

Jun 29, 2023 4:23 PM in response to léonie

I do have wireless everything. I am having other slowness and freezing issues with my iMac so I have to restart all the time, so I might have accidentally restarted in Safe Mode. I didn't know about the bluetooth devices. Thank you.

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All of a sudden I can't see ALL photos in my Photo library!

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