Please change API method of accessing Apple Photos on Mac

[Paul Mudditt]

I have a very large photo album (>50'000) in my iCloud Photo album which I can access perfectly on my iPad version of AP but the API method that Affinity on the desktop uses is very poor and often times out and vanishes from the Finder like interface currently used.

If you take a look at the app 'Raw Power' it shows all my albums as easily as opening the photos app. I know Raw Power was written by an ex member of the Apple team but whatever inside knowledge he has needs to be transferred to the Serif team.

I use an 16GB M1 Mac Mini, an Intel Macbook and this has been like this on all macOS since I first changed over to Mac in 2016. Currently on macOS Monterey. I also have optimise storage turned on but even when I used to download all to my Mac the Affinity Photo interface to photos was very slow/unusable. 

Screen recording comparing Affinity Photos trying to access iCloud Photos and Raw Power app doing the same.

[uselessuser]

This behaviour is also reproducable in Affinity Publisher and a locally stored Photos library - I don't have a single image in the cloud.

Sometimes the pictures from the photos app show up, sometimes not.

Furthermore it seems like images which have been recently modified within the photos app disappear from the dialog.
Even with a reboot the modified pictures don't appear.

Edited September 27, 2022 by uselessuser