osxphotos does not read shared albums on macOS 26

[mybizgeek]

I am using osxphotos 0.74.0 (installed via brew) on macOS 26.1. I am able to see and work with regular local albums, but I can't seem to work with shared albums.

When running the command 'osxphotos albums', it lists all local albums but doesn't list any shared albums even though I see them in photos app. Could be it a schema issue?

Thanks!

[RhetTbull]

@mybizgeek Can you run this command and send me the output, also identify the name of one or two shared albums:

sqlite3 --header ~/Pictures/Photos\ Library.photoslibrary/database/Photos.sqlite "SELECT * FROM ZGENERICALBUM;" > albums.csv

You can send albums.csv to osxphotos.py@gmail.com

[mybizgeek]

@RhetTbull It has been sent, thanks!

[RhetTbull]

Update: I don't think I'll be able to address this until I upgrade my Mac to 26.1. I'm running 15.7.2 at the moment. I need access to a Mac with shared albums on 26.1 to figure out the new schema.

[peedub]

Is there any further info we can provide in the mean time to help with this?

[RhetTbull]

@peedub I think I will need access to to a machine running macOS 26.x with iCloud enabled. I'll take a look at the database schema and see if there's a query I can have you run to help figure this out. I do not plan on upgrading my machine to 26.x anytime soon (I absolutely hate liquid glass).

[adamflagg]

I wasn't able to download them with download missing, however after enabling photokit, it worked. Not sure if that is relevant to the troubleshooting of this issue?

[RhetTbull]

@mybizgeek @adamflagg @peedub I've created a script that will help collect data about shared albums so I can diagnose this. If you can run the following and email the "albums.txt" file to osxphotos.py@gmail.com that would be helpful.

osxphotos run https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos/refs/heads/main/examples/diagnose_shared_albums.py > albums.txt

[Ben-Voris]

For whatever reason, on my system, the inspect command displays what I expect for photos in shared albums. I emailed the output as a comparison point.

osxphotos, version 0.74.2
Python 3.13.11 (main, Dec  6 2025, 02:15:39) [Clang 17.0.0 (clang-1700.4.4.1)]
Python executable: /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.13/bin/python3.13
macOS 26.2.0, arm64

The "SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION" section of the output is:

  Albums with ZKIND=1505: 0
  Albums with Z_ENT=34: 0
  Albums with cloud owner: 0
  ZSHARE records: 81
  Invitation records: 0
  Share participants: 476

  FINDING: No traditional shared albums found, but share/invitation
  records exist. This suggests shared albums might be stored differently
  on this version of macOS.

  HYPOTHESIS: On macOS 26.x, shared albums might be:
  1. Using ZSHARE table directly instead of ZGENERICALBUM with ZKIND=1505
  2. Using a different Z_ENT value
  3. Requiring a join between ZGENERICALBUM and ZSHARE tables

[peedub]

@RhetTbull - email with output sent.

[mybizgeek]

@RhetTbull - email sent

[steverice]

If it's helpful, I have somewhat successfully grabbed photos from a shared album on macos 26. The key seems to be to use the ZSHARE table:

asset_table = _DB_TABLE_NAMES[photos_ver]["ASSET"]
album_share_table = 'ZSHARE'

# get details about albums
verbose("Processing albums.")
c.execute(
    f""" SELECT
            {album_share_table}.ZUUID,
            {asset_table}.ZUUID
            FROM {asset_table}
            JOIN {album_share_table} ON {album_share_table}.Z_PK = {asset_table}.ZCOLLECTIONSHARE
        """
)

# now get additional details about albums
c.execute(
    "SELECT "
    "ZUUID, "  # 0
    "ZTITLE, "  # 1
    "ZCLOUDLOCALSTATE, "  # 2
    "Z_PK, "  # 3
    "ZTRASHEDSTATE, "  # 4
    "ZCREATIONDATE, "  # 5
    "ZSTARTDATE, "  # 6
    "ZENDDATE, "  # 7
    "ZCUSTOMSORTASCENDING, "  # 8
    "ZCUSTOMSORTKEY "  # 9
    "FROM ZSHARE "
)
for album in c:
    self._dbalbum_details[album[0]] = {
        "_uuid": album[0],
        "title": normalize_unicode(album[1]),
        "cloudlocalstate": album[2],
        "cloudlibrarystate": None,  # Photos 4
        "cloudidentifier": None,  # Photos 4
        "cloudownerhashedpersonid": "foobar",
        "kind": _PHOTOS_5_SHARED_ALBUM_KIND,
        "pk": album[3],
        "intrash": False if album[4] == 0 else True,
        "creation_date": album[5]
        or 0,  # iPhone Photos.sqlite can have null value
        "start_date": album[6] or 0,
        "end_date": album[7] or 0,
        "customsortascending": album[8],
        "customsortkey": album[9],
    }

[RhetTbull]

@steverice very helpful, thank you!