System Freezes when I select Photos for screensaver

This was happening to me, too, after installing Ventura.. None of the suggestions others have offered seem to work for me, but one of them gave me an idea to try. After a little investigation I found that the photo files I wanted to use were in a folder in my "User" folder and was not in the Photos app. I saw that "Ken Burns" would accept photos from "My Albums" in the photos app, so I moved the folder I wanted to use into the photos app and that seems to have worked.

That's not a very easy work around but it seems better than what I had. For some reason the minds at Apple (who I am convinced are the same people who ruined Microsoft) decide that they should screw up at least one useable app every time they update the OS. It's like they have a quota of apps that can work in a new OS and when they reach that quota they have to ruin some apps.

So my suggestion is to look at the "Options" for the Ken Burns screensaver, look at "Photo Library" to see what folder it will use, then import the folder you want to use to the folder in "Photos," then go back to choosing "Ken Burns" and choosing the folder from the "Photo Library." And cross your fingers that it will work even after the next system change.

Hello frostypauly,

If your screensaver is using 46GB, that is quite a large number so that could definitely cause the system to become unresponsive or crash. Did you restore a backup from a previous computer to this one? If you did it may take a day or two after restoring for the computer to reach optimal performance. It will reindex information in the file system after restoring, which can cause things to run slower.

If you didn't restore a backup, or you did and it's already been a few days and the screensaver is still using such a large amount of memory, make sure the system software is up to date.

Update macOS on Mac

You can also try starting the computer in safe mode to see if the same thing happens with the screensaver there: Start up your Mac in safe mode

The last isolation step would be to test out another user account on the computer to see if the issue is system wide or if the issue is specific to one user account.

Add a user or group on Mac

Once you've determined if the issue is system wide or user account specific, you'll want to contact Apple to report it: Get Support

Cheers!

Hey Frosty were you ever able to solve your issue? I'm getting this problem as well. Would like to fast track support for myself with your findings if possible.

Agree, something about trying to access / load all those photos (rewrite that code!).

I tried this little work-around, which did the trick for now. Before opening settings and wall paper, just go into photos and create a folder with the images you'd like to use for wall paper. Drag that folder into its own Finder folder. Then when you open Wall paper, use "Add Folder", drag over the one from Finder. Then select your monitor, choose your image and there you have it.

(I was getting irritated by the excessive orange palour of the Ventura default wallpaper that my monitor was casting over my face when I used video conferencing apps.... replaced that with image that had more even, neutral over all colours.... now I don't look like some kind of fire-demon)

Yeah. I'm definitely thinking its the integration with photos that's breaking it all. Thanks for the pointers at least.