Cannot browse Photos albums for website uploads on Mac

Question

Level 1

5 points

Cannot browse Photos albums for website uploads on Mac

I cannot browse photo albums when uploading an image to a website. I am on Mac desk top 2017 running Ventura 13.7.8.

This has been discussed before and I'm still in the same situation. I'm about done with it as Ive just realised today how much time I waste looking for photos. When I want to upload photos to a website like Etsy, Instagram any web site. My Mac brings up all the photos and not my albums. Surely this has been fixed.?? I currently often either waste time looking for the photos ( endless) or just drag and drop the photos in but that's a work around and not a solution. It would be far easier if the albums came up, I choose an album then upload my photos from there. I can't believe I'm still here and asking this question. Was it ever fixed? Have I missed something vital. Do you still have this issues and how did you solve it? Not happy with Apple at the moment thinking of going back to good old windows. Never had these issues there. This Mac is 7 years old but thats not an issue as I'd still love it if I could fix this as it is its affecting my work. I need help.

Thanks

iMac 21.5″ 4K

Posted on Jan 5, 2026 5:04 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

17,305 points

Jan 5, 2026 7:42 AM in response to Deebeedeb

The Photos browser media picker does not show albums--no one knows why, and no one is happy with it.

This means that we need to decide which pictures we want to load before going through the actual loading. There are several options we use:

#1. If it's a bunch of pictures, I will choose the pictures in Photos itself and use Photos' Menu option "File>Export>Export nn Photos" to send my choices to a Finder folder on my desktop. The biggest advantage of this is that I can decide what size I want the pictures, and I can set the file names so they make sense.

I can also ensure that private information is not transferred. Then, instead of using the Photos chooser in Safari, I just point the browser to the Finder folder and grab the pictures. It seems to me that this is way better than using the media chooser and getting whatever it decides.

#2. I sometimes look up the pictures in Photos, select them all, open the Info Window (⌘-i) and add a keyword like "Insta" to those pictures. The Safari media picker has a search field

so I can just type in the keyword and get them all.

#3. If all the pictures I want are on the same day, or at the same location, or all have a red dress in them, I can use the search field to bring up just those pictures, and choose from those.

#4. For some sites, I can just copy a picture in Photos and paste it in Safari. In some cases, I use a screenshot.

Probably the Export to a Finder folder offers the most useful options-- better, even, than if the media picker really worked.

Also, I have left feedback about this for Apple, here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

By the way, if you use the feedback, keep in mind that the people who read it and decide to pass it on are not the people who can fix it. I'd say don't mention that you're frustrated. Respect beats pity.

I hope this helps…

Reply