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After upgrading to macOS Catalina and resyncing the Photos library, the Photos app no longer shows the option 'Photos' in the left hand sidebar. The only options shown under 'Library' are Memories, People, Places, Recents and Imports. What happened to the 'Photos' option?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15
To close the loop on this, I had been having other problems with Catalina (yes - I'm already on 10.15.5) regarding performance, lockups etc. I contacted Apple support about these and we reset the NVRAM on my system (which is a brand new system). After doing this, I loaded Photos and, bingo, the 'Photos' option appeared again.
Since my recent problems also involved display anomalies, I suspect the graphics controller on my 2020 MBPro was at fault. Thanks for your help.
To close the loop on this, I had been having other problems with Catalina (yes - I'm already on 10.15.5) regarding performance, lockups etc. I contacted Apple support about these and we reset the NVRAM on my system (which is a brand new system). After doing this, I loaded Photos and, bingo, the 'Photos' option appeared again.
Since my recent problems also involved display anomalies, I suspect the graphics controller on my 2020 MBPro was at fault. Thanks for your help.
That's a but with some Macs that's been reported previously.
What system and Photos versions are you running? If you're not on 10.15.5 download and apply the macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Combo Update.
Try the following:
As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it? (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread)
Next log into another admin user account, Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac, and see if the problem persists. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your user account or is system wide).
Also be sure to r report the problem in detail to Apple via Feedback - Photos - Apple
Many users have reported this problem after the upgrade to Catalina. It seems only to happen for certain Mac models, perhaps depending on the graphics card.
The "Photos" item will vanish, if the advanced graphics are disabled. This is the case, when a Mac has been started in Safe Mode.
But I do not know, how to restore the "Photos" view, if the Mac is not in Safe mode and you are still having the problem.
You can fake a custom "All Photos" album with a new Smart album with the rule "Date Captured is before 1.1.4000", for example.
That is interesting, perhaps it will help in similar cases.
Thank you for letting us know what Apple Support told you.
Type warning: That should be bug, not but.
Viewing 'Photos' by year on Catalina
