My simple system for viewing a folder of photos as a slideshow on TV, via Apple TV, no longer works:
Photos stored in iCloud > Open on iPhone > Mirror to TV.
The big snag now, with iOS 26.3, is that I can’t swipe through the photos, they won’t give way to the next.
Another possible solution is to copy the folder full of photos into an album in the Photos app and view directly from Photos on Apple TV (synced). That works except that in Photos, the Keep Sorted by Title option doesn’t work, it re-organises them.
Just be clear - swiping works with photos stored in the Photos app. It fails when I open photos stored in folders in iCloud, accessed through the Files app.
For mine it opens in Preview. Then you have to return to Files to get to the next image. If you hold down on the image, you can select Quick Look from the pop up menu, which supports swiping.
This is the solution!
In some brief experimenting I’ve found you have to be careful not to launch Preview by tapping the image. Once or twice I’ve had to resort to quitting Preview by swiping it up from the Home screen. But I think I’ve learned the technique now.
Many thanks!
If you want to disable the auto-launching of Preview from within Files, there’s a way to do that, but it’s non-intuitive, to say the least.
Select a file of the type (image, PDF, etc.) you don’t want Preview to open by default.
Press and hold that file icon until a menu pops up.
Choose the “Open With…” submenu.
Scroll to the bottom of that list and choose “Preview with Quick Look”
From now on, files of that type will default to Quick Look instead of opening Preview each time. Essentially, this restores the old Files behavior. You can now swipe through photos in Files.
(You can also delete the Preview app, but I sometimes want to use that, so this is a better option. You can also open an image in Preview manually – I just don’t like it to be the default, especially when I’m just trying to see which file it is.)