iTunes can't "see" Photos app folders...

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Level 1

9 points

iTunes can't "see" Photos app folders...

I've scoured the web for this issue and can't find a solution that solves the problem. I just discovered that my iPhone wasn't reflecting changes to one of my Photos albums, then discovered that iTunes wasn't set to Sync photos at all, which was weird because there were lots of Photos albums already on the phone. This is especially weird because I know that I had previously set various folders to import from Photos when I upgraded to a larger capacity iPhone.

After turning the Sync option on, I then discovered that while "Pictures" was already selected as the "Copy photos from:" option, it would not show me any of the actual Photos albums/folders when I selected the "Selected folders" option. All that appears is other folders that happen to be inside of my Pictures folder (Lightroom, Photo Booth, etc.). Here's what I've tried so far:

- Rebooted

- Updated iTunes, then quit/open both that and Photos

- Checked the Info panel for my Photos collection (that is, 'Photos.photoslibrary'), including permissions (all users can both see and edit)

- Deleted the 'iPod Photo Cache' folders, one in Pictures and one inside of Photos

- Option-launched Photos to switch to a different source folder, then back again, then re-launched iTunes

- Chose another source of photos in iTunes, re-launched, then switched back to Pictures

- Allowed iTunes to delete all photos from my phone (that is, other than ones that the phone took)

No dice. This is what I continue to see...

Very annoying. Anybody have any ideas that I haven't tried?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jan 24, 2017 2:32 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

danp666

Level 1

4 points

Nov 14, 2017 2:53 AM in response to whit_g

I had the same issue – or at least I had the same symptoms. Here’s what fixed it for me:

In an overly eager attempt to save disk space, I also removed

/Library/Application Support/iLife

,

/Library/Application Support/iLifeMediaBrowser

and

/Library/Application Support/iLifeSlideshow

. Putting them back in place, fixed the issue for me, and I could once again select “Photos” from the drop-down in the iTunes sync preferences.

(Please note, it’s

/Library

, not

~/Library

!)

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Answer 2

sberman

Level 10

272,562 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:41 PM in response to whit_g

I think we're almost at a solution!!

You showed me your library location from Photos above. Contrast that to mine:

There are two major points here:

My "Use as System Photo Library" is also grayed out. That's OK, I think.
My name "Photos Library" is very different from yours "Photos.photoslibrary".

So might your Photos be pointing to the wrong place for its library? Is that what you would like to change with the grayed out "Use as System Photo Library"?

Well, you can change your photo library location this way. Simply option-click the Photos icon from your dock! Then you can point to your proper Photos library.

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Answer 3

sberman

Level 10

272,562 points

Jan 24, 2017 5:48 PM in response to whit_g

You keep delving into the innards of how your Mac stores pictures.

I'm suggesting you click "Pictures" on the "Copy Photos From" row and change it to "Photos" --- the app instead of a folder.

Let your operating system worry about the innards of exactly where the photos are located. You should simply specify the application.

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Answer 4

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 3:19 PM in response to sberman

Yep. I should have included the fact that Photos.photoslibrary is greyed out when I view the options for "Copy photos from:". Same for the Photo Booth library - it's like the chosen location has to be a regular folder or nothing.

Here's what I see:

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Answer 5

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:31 PM in response to whit_g

I really appreciate all these ideas, sberman, but I'm afraid we're not quite there (but maybe on the right track?). When I follow those steps, which I had sort of already done by accident before, I can do everything but that last step... because it's greyed out:

As much as I want this to just be some sort of simple misconfiguration, it's feeling like an actual glitch somewhere. But the above symptom seems to point to what is probably the core issue. I'd be tempted to trash a preferences file, but I'm not sure which file would be relevant to this particular issue/setting.

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Answer 6

danp666

Level 1

4 points

Nov 5, 2017 3:15 PM in response to HowBoutThat...

This won’t help, and will only give you additional trouble with syncing all the iCloud stuff.

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Answer 7

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:25 PM in response to whit_g

You need to set your Photos library as the System Photo library.
Then it will show up in iTunes Photos tab.

See this -> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204414

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Answer 8

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 5:01 PM in response to whit_g

Quick update: It dawned on me that while 'Photos.photoslibrary' already had the correct permissions (R&W for everyone), maybe the contents didn't? And that is the case - the contents only have read access for 'Everyone'. But even after manually forcing most of the folders that contain photos AND their contents (Apply to enclosed items...), I'm still not seeing any additional folder options in iTunes.

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Answer 9

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 6:20 PM in response to sberman

AH! Now I see what you're suggesting, and... no. 🙂 I get the same result when I try to select Applications/Photos.app as I do when I try to select Photos.photoslibrary - it's greyed out.

Just out of curiosity, I did try both selecting a folder inside of Photos.photoslibrary and converting the latter to a folder and selecting that. Both options "work" in that iTunes will let me select them, but it wouldn't see the actual Photos albums in either case. :/

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Answer 10

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:54 PM in response to Chris CA

Doh! Sorry, Chris, I erroneously thanked sberman for that particular response. 🙂 In any case, I promise you I did exactly what you and the support doc said the first time - Option-launched Photos, re-selected my existing photos library, then went to the Preferences screen. The option for "System Photo Library" is still greyed-out. One thing that I just tried on top of that is to Option-launch Photos, create a new library on the desktop, select that as the System Photo Library, then quit it and do the process over again selecting the real library, just in case that setting just needed to be "jostled." But no change. :/

sberman: I'm glad (sort of) to hear that your Photos preferences also shows the "System Photo Library" option greyed out, but I'm not sure that gets us very far. While yours says "Photos Library," the only reason mine was saying "Photos.photoslibrary" is that I had previously de-selected the "hide extension" option in the Info panel for that. When I hid the extension again and reopened Photos, it just said "Photos."

But you're also making me realize that this might somehow be related to the conversion from iPhoto to Photos way back when. It may be that yours says "Photos Library" because the Photos app created it that way. Is that the case, or did you also convert from iPhoto?

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Answer 11

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 9:15 PM in response to sberman

Ah, well then. That wasn't a clue after all. 🙂 I'm not sure where to go from here, maybe I should schedule an appointment with the Store at this point. Seems so silly, I feel like this issue should be surmountable, but I'm running low on ideas.

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Answer 12

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 9:43 PM in response to whit_g

Hmmm... the plot thickens:

I decided to create a full-fledged secondary Photos library on my desktop - Option-launching the app and creating it and then adding an image and manipulating that image, and then also selecting it as the System Photos Library. In doing so, I learned, that the old library has a lot of folders and other junk that the fresh library doesn't.

But that seems to be a moot point because... I STILL can't select it from within iTunes! "Pictures" is still the selected option, and when I choose "Other folder" I'm still not allowed to select either my real Photos.photoslibrary nor the new "fake" library.

So... ugh, I still don't know where that leaves me. The glitch seems like it's within iTunes, since Photos has just created and designated a full System Photos Library and iTunes won't use it. But I don't know what to do with that information.

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Answer 13

sberman

Level 10

272,562 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:11 PM in response to whit_g

Do you keep your Photos in the Mac's Photos app?

I do, and I see this in iTunes:

If I were to click on "Photos" above, I would see:

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Answer 14

sberman

Level 10

272,562 points

Jan 24, 2017 3:15 PM in response to whit_g

You did not say that you tried clicking "Pictures" on the "Copy Photos From" line and changing that to "Photos". Did you do this?

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Answer 15

whit_g Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 24, 2017 8:18 PM in response to sberman

I do manage photos using the Photos app, and I don't see that. When I'm on that screen in iTunes, I only see "Pictures" and "Choose folder..." in that drop-down menu, I do not see Photos.

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