iCloud Photos Could Not Be Turned On

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Level 1

36 points

iCloud Photos Could Not Be Turned On

I am trying to turn on iCloud Photos for my iPad, but get the message in the post title, with "try again later". I have a lot of photos sync'd to the iPad from my iMac, which already has iCloud Photos turned on and the library is fully up loaded from the iMac.

When I toggle iCloud Photos on, on the iPad, it says "Photos Synced from iTunes will be Removed ... 28,209 photos will be removed". So I grit my teeth and select "Remove Photos". And just get the message above. I have seen others raise this issue, but no successful answers.

I recently changed the iTunes sync from USB to sync over wifi. I thought it might be a causing a conflict, so I turned it off, but I still can't turn on iCloud Photos.

Anyone found a solution to this problem?

iPad Air 2, 12

Posted on Apr 19, 2019 12:08 AM

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Answer 1

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rjp123 Author

Level 1

36 points

Apr 19, 2019 4:50 AM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie.

When iCloud Photos is turned on on the iPad the warning is shown that I can't have iTunes synced photos on the iPad and have iCloud Photos turned on at the same time, and I am given the option to "remove the photos". I had assumed that by selecting the option "remove the photos" I was launching an IOS action to do the removing, but maybe it is just like me saying "ok, I will remove the photos and try again later". Kinda funny really if that's what it means. I will turn off photo sync in iTunes via USB and try again and post back here if that works.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,019 points

Apr 19, 2019 1:44 AM in response to rjp123

Are the iTunes synced photos still on your iPad, or have they been removed? If you still have iTunes synced photos on the iPhone, sync again using USB, but deselect all photo albums, so the iPad will be erased.

Connect the iPad to Wi-Fi, then try again as described here: https://help.apple.com/ipad/10/#/iPad3d83fbbb

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Answer 3

rjp123 Author

Level 1

36 points

Apr 19, 2019 9:30 PM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie,

That worked. Took iTunes about half an hour to finish the sync (there were 30,000 plus photos synced) and then a restart to get iPad Photos to recognise that it really had no photos. iCloud Photos then turned on and working as expected.

You are the most knowledgeable and helpful person I have found here. Hope you don't mind if I re-direct to you questions that I had posted under other headings where I haven't had any helpful responses?

I had another unanswered question posted, about what actually happens if iCloud Mail is turned on. Not sure if this is in your area of knowledge. Just ignore if not your thing.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250303485

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Answer 4

Apr 30, 2019 8:24 AM in response to rjp123

I connected the iPad to the iMac via USB, and opened iTunes.

Selecting my iPad in iTunes, it came up with the Summary screen. Syncing with the iPad over Wi-Fi was on, so I turned it off. This didn’t help.

I then selected Photos in iTunes, and found that Sync Photos was enabled. I turned this off.

I thought this had failed as well, but then noticed an hourglass symbol rotating. Once this had stopped, I could at last turn on iCloud photos on the iPad, accepting the warning about deleting synchronised photos.

Wouldn’t it be good if Apple’s own help told you about this?

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iCloud Photos Could Not Be Turned On

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