Using Photos Album for Screen Saver

In the computer the photo library came from, the photos>preferences>general tab has the "Use as System Photo Library " option NOT greyed out and yet the screen saver uses photos no fuss no muss?

Do you have more than one library?

Make a test and launch Photos while holding down the options key until you are seeing the Library Chooser panel. One of the libraries should be marked as the System Photo Library.

You may have accidentally opened a copy on a backup drive.

When you select one of the libraries in the panel, you can see the location where the libraries are stored in the path bar at the bottom of the panel.

That is interesting. It seems like the Screensaver will use the lasty opened library, if you do not have a System Photo Library.

One library should be your System Photo Library. Perhaps you deleted the System Photo Library and never enabled another library as the System Photo Library?

See this Help Page:

https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/?lang=en#/pht211de786

When you first use Photos, you create a new library or select the library that you want to use. This library automatically becomes your System Photo Library. Although you can use multiple photo libraries in Photos, the System Photo Library is the only library that can access iCloud services, including iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Photo Sharing, and My Photo Stream. In addition, some Apple apps and third-party apps also access your System Photo Library using the Media Browser.

It really did work but it did raise another question if you don't mind.

In the computer the photo library came from, the photos>preferences>general tab has the "Use as System Photo Library " option NOT greyed out and yet the screen saver uses photos no fuss no muss?

Any idea why? And both computers are running Sierra v10.12.4

Thanks

The library Photos is using, as well as the screen saver, is not labelled like you show.

The other "Photos Library 3.photoslibrary is on my backup drive.

Did you enable the Photos Library as your System System Photo Library in the Photos Preferences > General tab, after created the new Photos Library ?

The option "Use as System Photo Library " should be grayed out in the Photos > Preferences > General, when you are viewing the library, that you want to use for your screensaver and with other applications. If "Use as System Photo Library " is not grayed out, click it. Then log off and on again before trying to enable your album as your screensaver source.

You're welcome. 🙂

Late to the party but thank you for this answer. After hours of troubleshooting, your answer is THE true fix for this problem.

🙂

Don't know if my other post was done properly. So again, thank you for this answer, fixed the problem immediately.

I'm glad it worked for you, Warren.

The only thing I can venture a guess on is that I don't use icloud for anything other than my contacts, notes, calendar, and find my mac.

Maybe that is why it works in my case?

I cannot test this, because I would have to disable iCloud Photo Library and then wait two weeks for it to sync again.

I hope someone will drop in, who does not use iCloud Photo Library.

Well, thanks anyway, you were a great help and fixed the actual problem.

Stumping a level 10 is hard to do.

Thank you