Jerome Del Ray

Q: Your internet on life support?  Blame Photos app.

Unbelievable.

 

This morning my internet slowed down to a crawl.  Noticed that iMac, iPhone, and iPad all crawling.  So I turned on my iPhone hotspot and waited it out.  (That works sometimes.)  It didn't this time.  Reset modem, airport, and such three times.  Broadband would come, then go.

 

Then I had a theory.  Maybe it was the iMac bringing the network down, since other devices were not really being used.  Turned off iMac.  Broadband explodes to 50 Megabit and stays steady.  Turned iMac back down, internet is crawling on it's knees.

 

So I open up Activity Monitor.  Under the network tab, something called 'nsurlsessiond' is sending packets everywhere.  I Google this process and learn it's buddies with iCloud. 

 

Then it hits me.  That weird 'pause for a day' button in Photos preferences.  I mean why not STOP AND START?  I'm like, "Did this thing turn on by itself?"  Opened up preferences, and yup -- Photos is trying to sneak upload what is still THOUSANDS of photos.

 

The problem here is that this isn't in the spirit of 'doing something in the background'.  Because it decimates what a user is doing in foreground.  This would be like if 'repair disk permissions' happened in the background... with no warning... for hours on end.

 

Again, unbelievable.  Hope this helps someone.

Posted on Apr 13, 2015 3:16 PM

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Q: Your internet on life support?  Blame Photos app.

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  • by Jerome Del Ray,

    Jerome Del Ray Jerome Del Ray Apr 14, 2015 11:06 AM in response to SC::UK
    Level 1 (73 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 14, 2015 11:06 AM in response to SC::UK

    SC::UK wrote:

     

    There is an upload progress indicator, why do you say there is not?

    Where is the progress indicator, have I missed it? All I can see is 'uploading xxxxx items'. Most of the time that number stays the same.

    That is the progress indicator.  My one does not show a progress bar, only a count.  You can also see that from the Preferences by looking at the iCloud tab.  What you (and others) may be looking for is a "Time remaining" progress indication, and that is not there.  Unlike iPhoto, iMove or Aperture, you also can't click on the progress indicator to see more detail.   All part of the dumbed down experience I'm afraid.


    Well Apple is trying to make it easier.  I don't need a guesstimate of when my remaining 9000 items will be uploaded -- because it would be hogwash at best.  What would be nice is an iCloud icon in the menubar indicating activity.  Or a way to see Photos to only upload between certain hours.

  • by Jerome Del Ray,Solvedanswer

    Jerome Del Ray Jerome Del Ray Apr 14, 2015 11:14 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (73 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 14, 2015 11:14 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Thanks Drew Reese.  Take some cigars out of petty cash.

  • by micromagic,

    micromagic micromagic Apr 14, 2015 11:42 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 11:42 AM in response to Csound1

    Csound1 wrote:

     

    Screenshots of it have been posted more than once in this thread, please start at the beginning until you find it.

    I've been reading the entire thread, sounds like you haven't. There is no progress bar other than the 'uploading xxxxx items' at the bottom on the all photos tab. What I would like specifically is a progress bar on the photos it is currently uploading. That would be a start anyway.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 14, 2015 12:05 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray
    Level 9 (51,196 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 14, 2015 12:05 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray

    What is it you want us to do, it will upload at the rate determined by your connection, and you won't get coherent status readings until it is done. It' not magic, tell me how much and how fast and I'll tell you how long (minimum time) it doesn't matter whether you like the answer.

     

    Read the many threads on the site from people who stopped complaining and provided real info, and have successfully uploaded their libraries,

     

    If you want a faster upload, get a faster connection.

  • by Jerome Del Ray,

    Jerome Del Ray Jerome Del Ray Apr 14, 2015 2:26 PM in response to micromagic
    Level 1 (73 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 14, 2015 2:26 PM in response to micromagic

    micromagic wrote:

     

    Csound1 wrote:

     

    Screenshots of it have been posted more than once in this thread, please start at the beginning until you find it.

    I've been reading the entire thread, sounds like you haven't. There is no progress bar other than the 'uploading xxxxx items' at the bottom on the all photos tab. What I would like specifically is a progress bar on the photos it is currently uploading. That would be a start anyway.

    You are correct in stating that provided screenshot reveals information that  1.) is essentially hidden to the user and 2.) that it is not a progress bar.  I'll add it's also not an ALERT or DIALOG BOX.  So this means two individuals have been soiling themselves silly providing irrelevant information.

     

    Technically Photos does have a progress bar.  It's in preferences, under the iCloud tab.  So a progress bar being available isn't the specific issue. 

     

    The issue is that once a user initiates uploading of a large library, it will likely take several tries.  While it is uploading it will likely cause a typical home internet situation to slow down or sporadically jam up.  There's nothing that can be done about this except 'pausing for a day'.   The problem there, again --

     

    -- is that Photos FAILS to alert the user that a bandwidth MUNCHING upload is in effect.  All that is needed is some sort of indication.  I think the most elegant would be tiny Cloud icon appears in the menu bar and an animation within it indicates lines moving up.  That is:  upload.  Maybe if you click it open, it gives some indication of how MUCH is being uploaded and an option to pause.  This would be smart marketing because it would show you every time your iCloud is working.  "There's that thing I paid for working for me, cool."

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 14, 2015 2:33 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray
    Level 9 (51,196 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 14, 2015 2:33 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray
  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Apr 14, 2015 2:36 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray
    Level 9 (51,196 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 14, 2015 2:36 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray

    Jerome Del Ray wrote:

     

    "You enable iCloud Photo Library. You have 200 GB of photos. How do you think they get up into the cloud? Fairy dust?"

     

    Yeah.  This snarky tone from you and others isn't really necessary. 

    Then what do you think was going to handle the upload transport if not your internet connection?

  • by Laddie,

    Laddie Laddie Apr 14, 2015 7:48 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 7:48 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray

    My experience — on a very slow throttled connection — is that I have what looks like frequent 'stalls'.  In fact, what's happening is that movies can be very large files and they take hours to upload for me.  Using Little Snitch, I can see that the upload is proceeding full tilt, despite nothing appearing to change in Photos. 

     

    Using Little Snitch's Network Monitor function, I see the uploading process being done by either 'cloudd' or by 'nsurlsessiond'.  Either one, or the other, but not both.  Furthermore, both are reaching out to what seems like the same servers.  I'm wondering if one of the processes is dealing with large videos (some of mine are 300+mB) while the other one (my guess:  cloudd) is dealing with photos.

     

    In my case, since I'm on a ridiculously-severely throttled connection, the whole process is very very slow …

  • by Pablo Kent,

    Pablo Kent Pablo Kent Apr 14, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Winston Churchill

    It's happening to me for sure. I couldn't figure out why my internet is at a crawl. Pages that used to load now load really really slow. I have to agree with Jerome. This all started with the install of Photos, the purchase of 200 GB of storage, and the start of the (now stalled0 upload into iCloud. No Photo Stream has uploaded for days.

  • by Mr. Apple101,

    Mr. Apple101 Mr. Apple101 Apr 14, 2015 8:51 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray
    Level 1 (134 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 8:51 PM in response to Jerome Del Ray

    Just going to post this link here. If anyone is serious about there desire to provide Apple with feedback or to vent here is the best place to do it.

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Apr 15, 2015 2:00 AM in response to Jerome Del Ray
    Level 10 (104,363 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 15, 2015 2:00 AM in response to Jerome Del Ray

    If you are going to be silly enough to try and tell us that you don't know what loading so many items means just because it doesn't have a progress bar, then you are really wasting our time.  And also remember this wasn't what the post claimed to begin with, it was that photos is to blame for everybody's network coming to a standstill, which just is not the case,  This nonsense about a user not being told that there is some uploading/downloading going on has been raised as a Distraction.

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 15, 2015 2:16 AM in response to Mr. Apple101
    Level 6 (19,593 points)
    Apr 15, 2015 2:16 AM in response to Mr. Apple101

    Good spot - when did that appear?

     

    Mr. Apple101 wrote:

     

    Just going to post this link here. If anyone is serious about there desire to provide Apple with feedback or to vent here is the best place to do it.

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

  • by Colin.Harrison,

    Colin.Harrison Colin.Harrison Apr 15, 2015 2:18 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 2 (255 points)
    Apr 15, 2015 2:18 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    But knowing about these things apple just might have built in a package system that allow background working .

    after we all have large collections with large file sizes .  Their testing must have discovered this?

  • by Colin.Harrison,

    Colin.Harrison Colin.Harrison Apr 15, 2015 2:23 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 2 (255 points)
    Apr 15, 2015 2:23 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    But we expect better of Apple.  We are not Windows we paid and chose Apple because they normally provide a better quality of product.  It should NOT grab all bandwidth, we ought to be able to exclude video uploads.

     

    In the UK many of us are limited to ASDL broadband often running as slow as 1 mbps  so of course we know it will take time but Apple are better than this!

     

    Small packages are the answer not great lumps!

     

    Apple staff also told me that there may be issues in USA where servers are under pressure to volume.

  • by Alley_Cat,

    Alley_Cat Alley_Cat Apr 15, 2015 2:40 AM in response to Colin.Harrison
    Level 6 (19,593 points)
    Apr 15, 2015 2:40 AM in response to Colin.Harrison

    Colin.Harrison wrote:

     

    But knowing about these things apple just might have built in a package system that allow background working .

    after we all have large collections with large file sizes .  Their testing must have discovered this?

    Personally I think the whole thing has been primarily driven by iPhone/iPad user photo needs - in most cases users who have opted to enable the iCloud Photo Library beta on their devices when iOS 8 will have been gradually getting things uploaded over several months as they have used their iOS device cameras.  (I never enabled this).

     

    With categories such as iOS specific Slo-Mo, Panorama, TimeLapse groupings in the app it will I think be handy for managing images from those sources.

     

    Even if Apple did consider users with several hundred GB of images from other sources/built up over the years, I think chances are (as say with some aspects of AppleTV - streaming only Extras, no real local storage to save a rental/download) they will have tested with highly optimised networks not real-life scenarios where people have limited/capped/poor or variable internet which will cause practical difficulty using iCloud Photo Library for more than a handful of images.

     

    Individuals internet connections/speed/quality are not Apple's responsibility of course, but many things Apple produce now rely on moderately good connections which a large percentage of people still do not have or simply cannot have.

     

    I think it's largely irrelevant if uploading is a background/foreground process, though for some people an ability to control upload bandwidth used would be helpful.  Perhaps their routers offer some QoS options which could be configured during large library uploads if there is no in-built solution.

     

    We also don;t know how much of this is massive amounts of data being uploaded in the first few weeks while people are starting up with the new system.

     

    For me personally I don;t think the cloud library will be much to organise all my images but will be used for a small subset of things I'd like access to on the move.

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