Q: My Photo Stream is empty with iCloud Control Panel 3.0

I only have 25 pictures on my iPhone 5, none of them will load into my iCloud folder.

In my case I don't get different pictures, but the mostly the same pictures download each time except there's less of them.  The last time I did it it downloaded 515 where as the first time I turned off iCloud and turned it back on on my PC it downloaded 665.  At this point it simply stopped downloading new pictures. 

Other than going through and looking at all the pictures, I wouldn't know which ones to delete since they don't appear to be sequential at all.  For example it might download IMG_4997.jpg and then suddenly jump to IMG_5230.jpg despite being over 200 pictures between those two numbers.

It's completely unreliable.  At least on my PC.  It works fine on my iPad, but the iPad will only download the last 1000 pictures.  The PC is supposed to download all of them, but doesn't.  It's more reliable to hook my phone up and copy my pictures that way, which is what iCloud is supposed to not require me to do.

From what I've read, the only way to get Photo Stream to work correctly on a PC is to install the iCloud 2.1 version, but then I lose Shared Streams.

Not so....I tried 2.1 when the 3.0, etc. versions weren't working---didn't change anything.  a went back to the new versions....lead to sign in and out many times to get it to enable (work). Essentially, you need to see which pics have downloaded on your computer and then delete them on your iPad Photo Stream.....the 1000 pics is generally not the last 1000, but the last 1000 in 30 days.  After you delete the downloaded computer pics, others will show up on your Phot Stream....it's a pain.....but if you want new pics to download, you either have to wait  (re:30 day window) or get rid of the surplus by deleting ones that have downloaded....Yes it. is a pain, and yes, pics are downloaded randomly...a senior tech described it like boxcars on a train....pics are in different boxcars, and they arrive at the station at different times....And, I routinely hook up my devices to my computer and copy the camera roll folders on to my computer...just to play it safe.

@TCB64 I have tried countless times to rectify this problem and still no answer from Apple. It is frustrating!

I am still waiting for some sort of answer. Needless to say I am not happy. I depend on my photostream syncing to my PC. If Apple and Microsoft can't work out their issues then Apple needs to remove the ability for Window users to have the iCloud control panel.

Samsung is looking more inviting by the day. If I can't have the ability to sync my iPhone photos and docs with my PC then I won't need Apple.

I have the same problem, my photos from my apple devices are not being sync with the icloud control panel on my windows 8.1, my photo stream folder is empty, only the shared photos folder are active. I called apple (unprofessional) support team in my country but no help or feedback from them, they were telling me "we will check and call you back" and or "you need to have another user account on your windows devise to check if ICloud cloud panel will work" is this professional advise? I don't think so, coz I like to have everything on one windows user account for easy access. Anyhow no one could help me with this issue and its been from January 2014. (I HOPE SOMEONE FROM APPLE SUPPORT TEAM IS FOLLOWING UP THIS FORUM)

Honestly,  this issue has been going on for so long, without any acknowledgement by Apple, that I doubt they care much.

Might as well start moving everything over to Dropbox.

I Already moved to onedrive it even have 15GB free

Sync issue - I have an iPhone 5 running latest software 7.1.1. Since the update I noticed that my photos weren't syncing in My Photo Stream album on my pc.

Already loading my photos to Microsoft OneDrive!

Me too!

Hi Everyone,

I've been following and commenting on this support community since Oct. 2013.  From then until now, Photostream has stopped populating and started repopulating at least 3 or 4 times.  Why it stops and exactly why it starts again remains a mystery.  It stopped populating again over two weeks ago and as of last night is working again.  BTW I did download Google Drive.  I have dealt with a number of Apple Senior Advisers over the course of 10 months, including putting my account in test mode for a month last year, only to have the engineers say it was MY PROBLEM, MY COMPUTER, etc. I have deleted the iCloud panel and reinstalled it (several times)  and followed many "solutions" offered in this community.  This time, when Photo Sharing was enabled, very few Photo Stream pics loaded (none new).  When Photo Sharing was not enabled, many pics loaded, but none new.  I would have to sign in and out of the iCloud Panel numerous times just to have iCloud Photos show up on my PC.  I also shut and restarted my computer many times.   I also deleted many, many pics on "My Photo Stream" on my devices.  It has taken patience and perseverance, since I have signed out and signed in to the iCloud Panel at least 40 times. Sometimes new pics would populate, and sometimes they wouldn't.  I shut my computer for over 24 hours.....when I turned it on.....the gremlins were gone, the iCloud Panel is enabled, both "My Photo Stream" and Photo Sharing folders are working.....new photos are populating.  I still have no clue, why it stopped working and why it is working again.....  While Google Drive is nice, it does not fix the problem because it does not automatically populate new photos.  As a backup, I continue to save all of my photos two ways:  direct download into subfolders on my PC's My Pictures from my iPhone and iPad; and copying and pasting all Pictures/MyPictures/iClolud Photos/My Photo Steam into a separate subfolder.  Time will tell if IOS8 makes things better or worse by changing Photo Stream. The last Senior Adviser hung with me for the past two weeks.  His attitude was friendly, courteous, professional....and along the way I learned a number of new things about both the iPhone and iPad from him....albeit, none of the attempts on his end appeared to chase the gremlins away.  I have no idea how long iCloud Photos will continue populating new pics....the last time it worked for about 3 months.  BTW, is anyone having issues with " Photo Sharing" populating?  Each time I sign into the iCloud panel, the Photo Sharing Folders duplicate all of the folders......another Gremlin.....I just delete the duplicate folders.  I am not willing to go into test mode since my new pics are currently populating....

Same like you mine comes and goes with numerous problems.  I initially found that my work computer was having problems with the DNS servers we were using and I pointed it to Google's DNS servers and this fixed the problem for a while.  Now on both my work and computer at home iCloud My Photo Stream does not download any new photos.  Like yourself I've deleted, changed where the folder is located, uninstalled, re-installed, signed in and signed out and nothing has fixed the problem.  I don't plan to call Apple support as they'll probably just pass the buck like they did with you.  I am sure one day sometime maybe in the near distant future the iCloud syncing will just magically start working again.

I've had this problem with three computers over an extended period of time.

I just wanted to say that I fired up a virtual machine with a clean install of Windows 7 Pro and installed the iCloud Control Panel 3.1 and signed in, told it to sync the Photo Stream.  It also stops randomly at around 370 pictures.  At that point I cannot upload anything new from the iCloud Photos folder nor does it download anything new from my iPhone's Photo Stream.  I have been watching the two processes Applephotostreams.exe and Applephotostreamsdownloader.exe and I can see it downloading the photos and then it just eventually quits after looking at the network settings within the registry.  It's like it's timing out or something.  I've already set my antivirus to exclude the most common iCloud directories but it's still a no go.  It just stopped working on two PCs including this virtual machine I created today.

Yes, I did this last week one day!  Totally exhausted (mentally) by the end of it all!  But hey ho, went to photos today - nothing at all had uploaded and what do you know????  Photos greyed out again in the Control Panel!!!  Totally had enough and will install anything else that actually works tomorrow.....Just had enough of icloud which so clearly has glitches and causes so much hassle for everyone!!!!!

My Photo Stream continues to work (again)...for how long?  Who knows?  I have not found another program that automatically loads my camera roll pics to my computer.  So, even with its problems, until something better comes along, I will deal with Photo Stream (the good, bad, and the ugly)--since both Drive and Dropbox do not automatically populate camera roll pics.  As a back-up, I still plug my devices into my computer and copy the camera roll pics to a C drive Pictures Folder.

And BTW the Apple techs that I have spoken to acknowledge that iCloud Photo Stream has issues.