MacOS Photos App: Limited to a cropped square grid view?

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MacOS Photos App: Limited to a cropped square grid view?

In the macOS Sequoia 15.4 Photos app, I only see the option to view photos in Albums as cropped square thumbnails, which hides much of the full image.

I’d like to be able to choose a default grid view (original aspect ratio vs. the current squares) and also set the view for each Album individually—for example, viewing portrait albums as squares but landscape albums in their original format.

Is there any way to do this, or are there workarounds or settings I’m missing?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Apr 15, 2025 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

203,991 points

Apr 16, 2025 2:54 AM in response to Doug-Li

While viewing an album you may want to click the aspect ratio button in the toolbar. You will find it to the left of the size slider. This button allows you to toggle between the tiled squares and viewing the thumbnails in the correct aspect ratio. Alternately you can toggle between the aspect ratio view and the tiled squares using the keyboard shortcut ⌥T.

Switching to the correct aspect ratio has the added bonus, that we can see the filenames or titles below the thumbnails.

The View menu will show either "Square Grid" or "Aspect Ratio", depending on the current view and the kind of the collection. We can switch to the Aspect Ratio" only when viewing albums we create ourselves or in "All Photos" and the collections of the "Others" or "Media kind" section.

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Answer 2

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,636 points

Apr 15, 2025 4:13 PM in response to Doug-Li

The app defaults to the most recent choice. There is no way to set preferences for individual albums. Tell Apple what you prefer:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

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MacOS Photos App: Limited to a cropped square grid view?

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