HT204264: iCloud Photo Library

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andrefrommadrid

Q: Cannot sync photo library

From my iMac I uploaded around 22,000 photos to iCloud. It took so long that after 2 weeks I decided to cancel and to only upload few hundreds pictures.

The pictures were uploaded correctly and I can see them from my iPhone but I have two problems:

1) it looks as if it is still trying to upload the rest of the 22,000 photos since I still have messages like "uploading 16372". If I turn off the iCloud automatic upload to photo library, then it goes back to "uploading 22,000". I have noticed I get new photos in the "Recently deleted" iCloud Album.

2) photos taken from my iPhone appear in iCloud but not in the photo library of my iMac.

I tried everything about turning off and back on icloud, photo library, wifi, computer...

Any idea to help me solve these problems.

Thanks

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jul 3, 2016 2:13 AM

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Q: Cannot sync photo library

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Jul 3, 2016 6:26 AM in response to andrefrommadrid
    Level 10 (105,801 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 3, 2016 6:26 AM in response to andrefrommadrid
    From my iMac I uploaded around 22,000 photos to iCloud. It took so long that after 2 weeks I decided to cancel and to only upload few hundreds pictures.

    How did you upload "Only a few hundred pictures"?  Did you create a new, smaller Photos Library?

    Did you empty the recently deleted album before you switched libraries?

     

    The long initial upload time is normal, if your internet connection is not very fast. 

    My own library, uploaded using the german Kabelmail network took 9 days to upload (for 40000 photos and videos).

    1) it looks as if it is still trying to upload the rest of the 22,000 photos since I still have messages like "uploading 16372". If I turn off the iCloud automatic upload to photo library, then it goes back to "uploading 22,000". I have noticed I get new photos in the "Recently deleted" iCloud Album.

    Are the photos still in the "recently deleted" album?

     

    2) photos taken from my iPhone appear in iCloud but not in the photo library of my iMac.

    I tried everything about turning off and back on icloud, photo library, wifi, computer...

    Any idea to help me solve these problems.

    Let the sync finish.  Don't interrupt it and start over.  Then all photos will upload agin to compare them to the photos in iCloud. If you do let the sync finish once you will waste bandwidth by repeating the upload for photos that are already in iCloud.

     

    Photos will first upload all photos from the Mac, compare them to the photos in iCloud, before it will download from iCloud to your Mac. That is why the new photos from your iPhone do not yet appear on the Mac. Let the upload finish first.

     

    If you need the iPhone photos on your Mac, download them directly fromwww.icloud.com, until the sync has finished.

  • by andrefrommadrid,

    andrefrommadrid andrefrommadrid Jul 3, 2016 6:39 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 3, 2016 6:39 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks Léonie!

     

    > How did you upload "Only a few hundred pictures"?

    From the iMac I exported the photos from another program (Lightroom) in jpeg from and imported them into Photos after having removed all the previously imported pictures in Photos.

     

    > Are the photos still in the "recently deleted" album?

    I remove them as soon as I see new photos in this album.


    > Let the sync finish.

    It never ends and get stuck.


    Is there a way to stop the upload of photos of my first library and restart the entire process from scratch?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jul 3, 2016 7:05 AM in response to andrefrommadrid
    Level 10 (105,801 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 3, 2016 7:05 AM in response to andrefrommadrid
    It never ends and get stuck.

    You may not be seeing any visible progress for hours.  It is really hard to tell if the upload gets stuck.  As long as there is a progress bar in the Photos > Preferences > iCloud, it is usually still uploading, even if nothing is changing for hours.

     

    If you want to start over, do what you have already done.

    Sign out of System Preferences > iCloud > Photos and restart the Mac.

     

    Create a new, empty Photos Library.

    Enable this empty library as your system Photos Library.

    Wait for deleted photos to appear in Recently Deleted and delete them.  Only when Recently Deleted in iCloud is empty, try to import your photos to the new library and to upload them.

  • by andrefrommadrid,

    andrefrommadrid andrefrommadrid Jul 6, 2016 11:21 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 6, 2016 11:21 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks to your answer Léonie I now have a perfect sync between my iMac and iCloud. It is smooth and rapid.

    The only problem is that I could not redirect my iPhone to this new Photo Library and it does not sync at all.

    Any idea?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jul 6, 2016 11:58 AM in response to andrefrommadrid
    Level 9 (70,061 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 6, 2016 11:58 AM in response to andrefrommadrid

    Did you make it the System Library?

  • by andrefrommadrid,

    andrefrommadrid andrefrommadrid Jul 6, 2016 1:22 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 6, 2016 1:22 PM in response to Eric Root

    Fro Photos in the iMac I did

       Photos > Preferences > General

       and selected  xxx/Pictures/New Photos Library/Use as System Photo Library

  • by andrefrommadrid,Solvedanswer

    andrefrommadrid andrefrommadrid Jul 7, 2016 10:14 AM in response to andrefrommadrid
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iCloud
    Jul 7, 2016 10:14 AM in response to andrefrommadrid

    After another restart it finally works fine.

    Thanks a lot