morceg@o

Q: Photos stopped syncing with iCloud

Dear community members, I use iCloud to sync Photos on three Macs and one iPhone. Suddenly, my photo library stopped syncing on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, early 2015, OS X El Capitan 10.11.4). I tried adding and removing some photos, but nothing happened. I tried repairing the library, but it didn't work neither. Could you please suggest me a solution? Thank you very much!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 12, 2016 1:37 PM

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Q: Photos stopped syncing with iCloud

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 4:36 AM in response to morceg@o
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 4:36 AM in response to morceg@o

    What happened before the syncing stooped? Did you move your Photos library to a different drive?

    I take it, you checked if the library on your MAcBook pro is enabled as your system photo library and as your iCloud Photo Library in the Phots Preferences?

     

    Does the Photos Preferences panel > iCloud show a progress bar? What is the status message for the iCloud sync?  And what message appears at the bottom of the Photos > Moments view?

  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 12, 2016 2:01 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 12, 2016 2:01 PM in response to léonie

    Thank you very much for your reply. I did no changes in configuration before this problem happened. Yes, the library on my MacBook Pro was enabled as my system photo library and as my iCloud Photo Library in Photos. Yes, a progress bar is shown, but it does not change.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 1:09 AM in response to morceg@o
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 1:09 AM in response to morceg@o
    Yes, a progress bar is shown, but it does not change.

    It may be hanging without any visible progress for days, if your library is large.  My Photos Library needed a full week for uploading (40 000 photos).

     

    Try a smart album to identify items that cannot be uploaded to iCloud Photo Library:

     

    File > New Smart album:

    Screen Shot 2016-04-13 at 10.07.56GMT.png

     

    Is this album empty? If not, what kinds of photos or videos are in this album? What is the file format of these items.

  • by dirkfrb,

    dirkfrb dirkfrb Apr 13, 2016 1:36 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 13, 2016 1:36 AM in response to léonie

    I have a similar problem. 8000 out of my 15000 photos show up in this smart album "unable to upload" and I have no idea why.

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 4:36 AM in response to dirkfrb
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 4:36 AM in response to dirkfrb

    There are three possible reasons:

    1. Your photos or videos may not be stored in your Photos library but be referenced outside the library. That will happen, if you disable the Photos preference "Importing. Copy items into the Photos Library". These items cannot be uploaded to iCloud Photo library.
    2. The originals of your photos may be missing completely or cannot be found. The most common reason is having used a cleaning application, that modifies directly your library, like CleanMyMAc.
    3. Or the file format of the items is not compatible with iCloud Photo Library,because it cannot be converted. This can be some graphics format, BMP files PICT files, TIFFs with higher bitesize than 8bit, foreign video codecs. iPhoto or Aperture allowed to import these items, but the Photos.app at www.icloud.com cannot handle them.

     

     

    • If you have referenced files in your library, you can turn them into managed files by selecting them and using the command "File > Consolidate".  That will move them into your Photos library and they can upload.
    • If you have items with an unsupported file format, convert the format. Export the item to convert it to a JPEG, then reimport it and delete the original version from your Photos library.
  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 13, 2016 4:36 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 13, 2016 4:36 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you very much again. The three reasons you mentioned did not apply to my case, unfortunately. So I brought my MacBook Pro to my lab (where the connection is much faster), deleted the photo library from Photos, and started a new library linked to my iCloud Photo Library. It was a radical solution, but worked.

  • by léonie,Apple recommended

    léonie léonie Apr 13, 2016 4:46 AM in response to morceg@o
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 13, 2016 4:46 AM in response to morceg@o
    deleted the photo library from Photos, and started a new library linked to my iCloud Photo Library. It was a radical solution, but worked.

    That is a very good solution.   Only be aware, that any faces albums or project will now be missing, because they are not stored in iCloud.

    It will be like described here:  Use Photos and iCloud Photo Library on multiple Mac computers - Apple Support

     

     

    Have you checked, if the number of photos in your library is the same as before after the download from iCloud? 

  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 13, 2016 4:49 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 13, 2016 4:49 AM in response to léonie

    Yes, the number of photos is now the same on all three Macs. Thanks!

  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 15, 2016 5:15 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 15, 2016 5:15 AM in response to léonie

    Hi léonie, I thought the issue was solved, but that's sadly not true. When I deleted my photo library and started a new library linked to iCloud Photos, all photos were added but not really dowloaded to my MacBook. The config is right, as I selected the option of transferring all originals. Nevertheless, Photos is trying to download my photos for three days without success. Only the photos that I click on and open are truly download. How could I solve this problem? Thank you very much,

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 15, 2016 5:24 AM in response to morceg@o
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 15, 2016 5:24 AM in response to morceg@o

    Do you have enough free storage on your system drive to hold all Photos?

    How large is your library? my library with 40000 photos needed more than a week to download from iCloud.

  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 15, 2016 5:39 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 15, 2016 5:39 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for your reply. On my MacBook I have 630 GB free on the system drive and the size of my iCloud Photo Library is 149 GB (47,941 photos). I'm trying to download it for three days in my lab, where the Internet speed is 90 mbps. That's really odd. I did the same procedure four months ago, when I bought this new MacBook, and it needed less than a day to complete, if my memory serves me.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Apr 15, 2016 6:26 AM in response to morceg@o
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Apr 15, 2016 6:26 AM in response to morceg@o

    It does not only depend on the speed of your internet, but also on the traffic at Apple's cloud servers.

     

    Only the photos that I click on and open are truly download.

    Then do just that. Select 1000 photos or so at a time from your moments and use the key combination ⌘R to rotate them, then ⌥⌘R to rotate them back.  That should force the download.  Continue 50 times.

     

    Your Photos Library is behaving, as if the flag "download originals" were not set. You might try to start your Mac in Safe Mode to clear all system caches. Then restart normally again.

    See:    Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode

  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 15, 2016 7:07 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 15, 2016 7:07 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you very much, I'll try that! Afterwards, I'll come back here and report on the experiment.

  • by morceg@o,

    morceg@o morceg@o Apr 16, 2016 4:38 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2016 4:38 AM in response to léonie

    Hi léonie, I restarted in Safe Mode and manually deleted all caches, but it didn't work. Do you have any other suggestions, please?

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