iOS Shortcut error: no permission to view my own photos?
October 22, 2022 2:06 PM Subscribe
Trying to make a GIF from photos to celebrate a friend’s wedding - would love to do it without having to sign up for Giphy or download a third-party tool. iOS has an option to create GIFs from photos in Shortcuts, but when I try, I get the error message, “The file XYZ couldn’t be opened because you do not have permission to view it.” Boo! All photos were taken using this iPhone SE, with the current version of iOS (15.6.1), with no changes to my Apple ID or sharing settings.
It should be noted that I am utterly ignorant of Shortcuts! I only have discovered it because of this niche interest in making a GIF for my dear married friend.
I’ve been able to successfully create GIFs with a handful of photos that are more than 6 months old, but there doesn’t seem to be a date before which the process works and after which it doesn’t, or a cutoff number of photos for which it works vs. doesn’t.
When I look up this error code message online, I mostly find issues with people doing file transfers and other big processes on laptops or desktops, nothing whatsoever on it showing up in Shortcuts for content created on that same device.
The Shortcut process I’m using follows the recipe in this video, but selecting multiple Images instead of Videos or Live Photos as the inputs.**
Receive Images** input from Share Sheet
If there’s no input, Stop and Respond (“No input” - not part of video instructions, but added because process would “run” without giving any error message at first, and just not produce anything)
Make GIF from Shortcut Input
Show GIF in Quick Look (have also tried without this step)
Save GIF to Recents
**I’ve tried it with Images only, Images and Media, and Images, Media, and Files.
Has anyone encountered and resolved an issue like this? I appreciate any and all advice.
It should be noted that I am utterly ignorant of Shortcuts! I only have discovered it because of this niche interest in making a GIF for my dear married friend.
I’ve been able to successfully create GIFs with a handful of photos that are more than 6 months old, but there doesn’t seem to be a date before which the process works and after which it doesn’t, or a cutoff number of photos for which it works vs. doesn’t.
When I look up this error code message online, I mostly find issues with people doing file transfers and other big processes on laptops or desktops, nothing whatsoever on it showing up in Shortcuts for content created on that same device.
The Shortcut process I’m using follows the recipe in this video, but selecting multiple Images instead of Videos or Live Photos as the inputs.**
Receive Images** input from Share Sheet
If there’s no input, Stop and Respond (“No input” - not part of video instructions, but added because process would “run” without giving any error message at first, and just not produce anything)
Make GIF from Shortcut Input
Show GIF in Quick Look (have also tried without this step)
Save GIF to Recents
**I’ve tried it with Images only, Images and Media, and Images, Media, and Files.
Has anyone encountered and resolved an issue like this? I appreciate any and all advice.
Did you create the shortcut yourself or copy it from somewhere? If the latter, can you share the link?
posted by terrapin at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2022
posted by terrapin at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2022
Response by poster: primethyme, I didn’t get a photo-access prompt, but thank you for reminding me of this angle! I couldn’t find any access/permissions-like settings (under Photos, under Shortcuts, poked around in General), but I’ll keep digging around to see if there’s something I can change there.
terrapin, I created it - there wasn’t copy/paste text of the actions, but I did follow along with the YouTube video linked in the original post.
(Also, thanks to you both - this is such a niche question!)
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:30 PM on October 22, 2022
terrapin, I created it - there wasn’t copy/paste text of the actions, but I did follow along with the YouTube video linked in the original post.
(Also, thanks to you both - this is such a niche question!)
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:30 PM on October 22, 2022
Just to confirm, because it wasn’t totally clear from how you described it: you did find the photos privacy settings, but you didn’t see Shortcuts listed there? Because if you didn’t even find that settings area, please check again (Settings app, the Privacy and Security, then Photos). There should be a bunch of apps listed there. If you found it but shortcuts is not listed there, then it has never requested access (but in that case it would surprise me that it still has access to some photos and I wonder if there is some special case for Shortcuts or something).
posted by primethyme at 1:12 AM on October 23, 2022
posted by primethyme at 1:12 AM on October 23, 2022
To adjust the privacy options for an individual shortcut:
posted by RichardP at 1:29 AM on October 23, 2022
- open the Shortcuts app,
- tap the icon of the circle with three dots on the shortcut in question,
- tap the icon of a circle with i in the toolbar at the bottom,
- and then tap the privacy tab.
posted by RichardP at 1:29 AM on October 23, 2022
Response by poster: Hi, all:
primethyme, sorry for the confusion. Shortcuts isn’t listed under Privacy —> Photos. (I poked around in the Shortcuts and Photos apps themselves because many third-party apps include info about their access requests under the individual app settings, and then because I thought Photos might have some special permissions case for iOS’ own apps - convoluted. My apologies.)
RichardP, I’m poking around here now! My shortcut is allegedly allowed to access Photos, with a second specific allowance to use Save To Photo Album to access Photos as well. I’ll play around with resetting and see what I can do.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:14 AM on October 23, 2022
primethyme, sorry for the confusion. Shortcuts isn’t listed under Privacy —> Photos. (I poked around in the Shortcuts and Photos apps themselves because many third-party apps include info about their access requests under the individual app settings, and then because I thought Photos might have some special permissions case for iOS’ own apps - convoluted. My apologies.)
RichardP, I’m poking around here now! My shortcut is allegedly allowed to access Photos, with a second specific allowance to use Save To Photo Album to access Photos as well. I’ll play around with resetting and see what I can do.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:14 AM on October 23, 2022
Response by poster: Sigh. Still a mystery. Doesn’t work when the shortcut *does* have access to Photos, doesn’t prompt me for access when I’ve reset privacy settings… doesn’t work when I delete previous versions of the Shortcut, restart my phone, and build it all again from scratch. I’ll keep investigating - thanks, all, for your help.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2022
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2022
Ok, I have no experience with Shortcuts, but had been looking to do this exact thing, so I decided to have a go.
1. Open Shortcuts in iOS.
2. tapped in search field and typed "gif"
3. Tapped the three dots on the "Make a GIF from Photos" shortcut found by search.
4. Added the action "Save to Photo Album" to end of the shortcut process. This added the "Save GIF to Recents" step at end, so I could figure out where the resulting GIF was.
5. Clicked done.
6. Ran "Make GIF from Photos" shortcut and a GIF from the 9 photos I selected had been made into a a GIF.
I was never prompted for access to Photos. But following RichardP's steps I checked and saw that Photos was already toggled to green for me.
RichardP's suggestion also helped me find how to add the Shortcut to my home screen so I can run it more easily (thanks!). If you plan to do this often, I suggest this.
Hope that helps.
I also tried to do this on my iMac and it was much easier to stumble through IMO.
posted by terrapin at 5:20 PM on October 23, 2022
1. Open Shortcuts in iOS.
2. tapped in search field and typed "gif"
3. Tapped the three dots on the "Make a GIF from Photos" shortcut found by search.
4. Added the action "Save to Photo Album" to end of the shortcut process. This added the "Save GIF to Recents" step at end, so I could figure out where the resulting GIF was.
5. Clicked done.
6. Ran "Make GIF from Photos" shortcut and a GIF from the 9 photos I selected had been made into a a GIF.
I was never prompted for access to Photos. But following RichardP's steps I checked and saw that Photos was already toggled to green for me.
RichardP's suggestion also helped me find how to add the Shortcut to my home screen so I can run it more easily (thanks!). If you plan to do this often, I suggest this.
Hope that helps.
I also tried to do this on my iMac and it was much easier to stumble through IMO.
posted by terrapin at 5:20 PM on October 23, 2022
Response by poster: I’m so glad this worked for you, terrapin! All of those are the exact same steps I’ve been following, but I am still running into this error of Shortcuts telling me I don’t have permission to view my own photos. Someday soon I will join you! I will figure this out somehow.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:54 PM on October 23, 2022
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:54 PM on October 23, 2022
I hate to ask but have you tried restarting the phone and trying again?
I have been having a hard time finding solutions to what you are encountering, but at least a few people have written that restarting the phone after making the permissions/privacy change helped them.
The only other immediate suggestion I have is to duplicate the shortcut, delete the original and see if that works. Or simply creating the shortcut from scratch (take a screenshot first if that is useful).
posted by terrapin at 5:15 AM on October 24, 2022
I have been having a hard time finding solutions to what you are encountering, but at least a few people have written that restarting the phone after making the permissions/privacy change helped them.
The only other immediate suggestion I have is to duplicate the shortcut, delete the original and see if that works. Or simply creating the shortcut from scratch (take a screenshot first if that is useful).
posted by terrapin at 5:15 AM on October 24, 2022
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posted by primethyme at 2:36 PM on October 22, 2022