Why are there different amounts of photos in my iCloud Photo Library on different devices?
I am driven mad attempting to find out what the actual number of photos I own is.
I have iCloud Photo Library enabled on all my devices - MacBook Pro (mid-2012), iPhone XS and iPad Air 2.
The system library for Photos for Mac is actually stored on an external thunderbolt hard drive, to save on device storage (I download originals to the hard drive).
My three devices and iCloud.com give four different figures for the amount of photos in my iCloud Photo Library.
iCloud.com: 61,939 photos | 1,014 videos | 1 other item
Photos on Mac: 61,934 photos | 1014 videos | 1 other item
iPhone: 61,949 photos | 1,014 videos | 1 other item
iPad: 61,948 photos | 1,014 videos | 1 other item
I cannot understand why I am seeing four different figures for my photos.
If just one of the devices was different to the others, it would obviously be a problem with that device, but I've no idea where to begin with this. Which of the four numbers is correct? Do I have missing photos somewhere?
Why are there more photos on my iPhone and iPad than are at iCloud.com? Have photos from those devices not uploaded to iCloud? If so, how can I identify them?
Is iCloud.com the single source of truth for my photos? If so, why do my iPhone and iPad have more than what's at iCloud.com?
Why doesn't Photos for Mac reflect the same number from iCloud.com? Are there photos not downloading to Photos for Mac? How can I identify what they are?
I've been struggling with this for weeks. All my devices are fully up to date with the latest OS. I'm signed in to iCloud in all devices. There are no warning messages or narrative on my devices to suggest something is wrong with iCloud or with Photos. I have restarted devices, zapped PRAM, and turned iCloud Photo Library off and on again on all my devices - the worst being my Mac, which of course took a a full week, 24 hours per day, to 'upload' everything back to iCloud.
If anyone can shed some light, I'd be forever grateful. The perfectionist in me is slowly going mad with all this inconsistency!
