The sidebar in the Finder used to contain a "Photos" entry on the bottom which made it easy to access your photo library, e.g. to select attachments. This seems to be gone in OS 26, and is not an option in customizing the Finder.
(There is a "Pictures" option but that only opens the Pictures folder in your home directory.)
Where did this option go?
[Edited by Moderator]
iMac 24″, macOS 26.0
There is no 'Photos' option in the Sidebar for Sequoia, only the same Pictures option that opens the Pictures folder in the Home directory.
If you want to put a button to the Photos app in your Finder sidebar, you can do so by opening the Applications folder, holding down the Command key and dragging the Photos app to the Favorites section of the sidebar.
Customize the Finder sidebar on Mac - Apple Support
For example:
There is no 'Photos' option in the Sidebar for Sequoia, only the same Pictures option that opens the Pictures folder in the Home directory.
If you want to put a button to the Photos app in your Finder sidebar, you can do so by opening the Applications folder, holding down the Command key and dragging the Photos app to the Favorites section of the sidebar.
Customize the Finder sidebar on Mac - Apple Support
For example:
My bad – I was looking for it in the "Open…" dialog which looks similar to the Finder but has the Photos option – and still has it in the new OS.
You can drag just about anything into the side bar..
if the option is not there in your Finder>Settings>Sidebar seems an anomaly
You can try relaunching the Finder on the fly. >Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch
Pictures folder from your Home folder
Photos.app from applications, if that is your desire
hold the Command key and drag, Control click to remove. They are just alias point back to the source.
Same with the Finder menu bar...
Old Toad wrote:
Customize the Finder sidebar on Mac - Apple Support
That document indicates that files can be added. It doesn't say that apps can be. I've tried and the only place apps can be added is to folders in the sidebar.
Apps can be added to the Favorites section. Try it! See the screenshot posted previously, note the application icon next to Photos. A single click on that item in the Sidebar opens the Photos app.
Full disclosure, this was on a Mac running Sequoia since my Tahoe Mac is at home but I’m not. I’ll try later today on Tahoe, certainly let me know if you find it no longer works in macOS 26.
Moot for this thread since it turns out the OP wasn’t talking about the Finder sidebar anyway.
As far as I know, Apps have never been allowed in the Finder Sidebar. Apps are supposed to be in the Dock.
One place I see Photos in a sidebar is within Safari-- when you get into an upload dialog in Safari,
you're shown a folder, and the sidebar allows you to choose the usual stuff, but Photos is added at the bottom, after tags. But that's not in the Finder.
Is this what you're remembering?
Richard.Taylor wrote:
As far as I know, Apps have never been allowed in the Finder Sidebar.
They can be added to the Favorites section of the Sidebar.
neuroanatomist wrote:
Richard.Taylor wrote:
As far as I know, Apps have never been allowed in the Finder Sidebar.
They can be added to the Favorites section of the Sidebar.
Customize the Finder sidebar on Mac - Apple Support
That document indicates that files can be added. It doesn't say that apps can be. I've tried and the only place apps can be added is to folders in the sidebar.
For Christoph Drösser: that's what the Dock is for. Having apps close at hand for easy opening.
neuroanatomist wrote: ……holding down the Command key and dragging the Photos app
Well-- you learn something new every day! Command drag! Weird that apps and files are different from folders. I can't imagine why I'd want an app in the sidebar rather than the dock, though. Files, maybe. Thanks!
Of coarse, that wasn't poster Christoph Drösser's original problem…
neuroanatomist wrote:
@Old Toad, adding apps to the sidebar in Finder works just fine in Tahoe:
Dang, I forgot which Community I was in. Am waiting till January to upgrade to Tahoe 26 due to incompatibility of FileMaker Pro which I use to gather all tax expenses. Can't afford to purchase the current versions, way too expensive. Once I've filed it's off to Oz!
neuroanatomist wrote:
I’ll try later today on Tahoe, certainly let me know if you find it no longer works in macOS 26.
@Old Toad, adding apps to the sidebar in Finder works just fine in Tahoe:
Photos gone from Finder sidebar in OS 26 Tahoe
