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Level 1

20 points

iPhone photos app curation

So after updating to iOS 13 on my phone, I noticed that photos has a feature where it curates your photos. On the photos tab, if you scroll all the way down it will give you the status.

so I’ve installed iOS 13 on launch on my xs max. And it’s still stuck on curating. The progress bar is almost complete. And it hasn’t finished.

I got an iPhone 11 pro three days ago and signed on to the same Apple ID and it’s stuck as well. My iPad Pro had oddly completed and on the photos tab it says citations complete.

all three devices signed into the same Apple ID. Has been connected to wifi and power.

Any one having this issue as well ?

iPhone XS

Posted on Sep 25, 2019 6:15 AM

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77 replies

Oct 2, 2019 11:33 PM in response to tliema5

Yep! Sorry to hear you have the same problem. I have let my iPhone connected to the power during the last nights and the curation process is still stuck at 80-90%. I installed Catalina Beta on my Mac and after rescanning all the faces (again?), the curation process is stuck at the exact same point.

I opened a feedback case to Apple (in the Feedback app provided with the betas), but I don't think they are going to read it or give me any answer :(. The only thing that I know is that no one opened a similar issue within that app.

tygs Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 3, 2019 7:18 AM in response to aitormagan

It’s still at 80 percent ?

I don’t know if me deleting the photos and then letting it sync again did the trick. But I did that for both phones and it eventually finished.

didn’t that too long but it wasn’t short.

but then again your photo size matters. So you could try doing what I did. From my experience. The citation goes pretty fast up until it hits the final 80 percent baha

Oct 3, 2019 7:29 AM in response to tygs

Yes. It's still stuck at the same point. I will try doing that, but the thing is that is also stuck in a completely different device: my Mac :(. That's why I thought it was useless disabling photos and enabling it again.

léonie

Level 10

195,207 points

Oct 3, 2019 11:26 AM in response to aitormagan

Curating seems to be a process that is always running. Whenever we add a new photo, delete a photo, or change the Favourite status, the curating seems to be happening again. It would be less confusing, if Photos simply would stop telling us, when it is curating the library.

Oct 5, 2019 12:35 AM in response to tygs

So finally I did what you recommended: disabling and re enabling iCloud. After doing that, and let the phone connected to the power, the curation process message has disappeared. In other phones I have seen a message that states “Curation Finished”. What’s your case? :)

Oct 6, 2019 2:49 AM in response to JonD

Of course you can use the photos app even if the curation process hasn't finished yet. The thing is that some of the pictures won't be categorized in the appropriate section under the photos tab until the curation process is finished :)

JonD

Level 1

9 points

Oct 6, 2019 9:36 AM in response to aitormagan

The mistake I was making (in case anyone else is doing this) is that they tell you to lock the phone and plug it in. For some reason it did not compute that the process would continue with a progress bar visible if you closed the phone down. So I left it open and it would not progress. I called Apple and after going through two levels of support, I found that out.

M13Z

Level 1

4 points

Oct 7, 2019 2:27 PM in response to tygs

update: the iPad is still processing along. two weeks now? it's finally about three quarters of the way done. In reading some of the posts, it appears that turning off and on iCloud seems to help? I tried that and it did not seem to change anything. I guess I am assuming at this point that it will finish. Eventually....when I get my medicare card in the mail (10 more years). My fear is that it will get to 80% and stop (like someone posted) but I see what the curation is about now (since most of my library is done) but the algorithms are way off and in my opinion not worth the wait of the curation. BTW...anyone know the limit of images apple has on the photos app? Thanks everyone!

tygs Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 7, 2019 7:46 PM in response to M13Z

hmm yeah it’s not much of difference. I mean the photos section seemed the same to me while the thing was curating.

hopefully yours finishes soon. Both of mine finished after I turned off iCloud and deleted all the photos and then turned it back on. Both for my new phone and old. Can’t say it’s official and that it will work for me but I mean if your photos are saved on to iCloud it won’t hurt to do. If I had to ball point it. It took the same time initially but it ended up finishing.

what do you mean limit of photos ?

it would depend on the size of your storage for both internal and iCloud ?

Oct 10, 2019 3:11 AM in response to tygs

Hi there!

So I got my iPhone 11 Pro 2 days ago and after backing up my old iPhone X, I reset everything on that phone. And so, I restored my new phone from the backup. However, I have noticed that most of my photos won't open. I have around 18000 photos and I can only see photos till 2018 November. And the Photos app has been stuck on "Leave device locked and connected to power" for the longest time ever.

I can see that I have all the photos but they appear as white thumbnails and so even when I click on those photos, it's just entirely white.

Also, I do not save my photos in iCloud. I've always been backing up my phones on my Mac so that's how it's been.

Now, can anyone tell me why I can't see any of my older photos? All those photos are extremely precious to me and since I already reset my old iPhone X, there is no going back.

Oct 10, 2019 5:57 AM in response to anika_1Dforever

Same issue here although my photos are optimized. it took 10-12 days fro the the thumbnails to appear and they appear slowly. in addition if you drill down to a more detailed view, the thumbnail should appear though this is too time consuming. i think there is a bug in ios 13 that makes loading images very slow. 12 days later and photos are still curating..... not normal.

tygs Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 10, 2019 6:54 AM in response to anika_1Dforever

I was gonna say if you were backing up photos through iCloud.

but you’d aid it was through Mac?

yeah give it some time like @gregdenver said but if none of the photos show up. Restore from the same back up again. Of course make sure that your photos are still there on the back up you are restoring from.

im guessing you have your photos synced with the photos app on Mac as well ? if not then try plugging it in and opening the photos app. If you can view it there then you know the files aren’t corrupted or anything

JonD

Level 1

9 points

Oct 10, 2019 8:50 AM in response to tygs

Not sure why anyone would not use iCloud to back up photos. It is so useful and cheap. But I suggest you call Apple support to resolve your problem with the photos. Since it is a new iPhone they would be able to resolve that quite quickly. Especially if you go to a higher level of support.

tygs Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 20, 2019 9:00 AM in response to janfrommentone

Worked for me when I turned off iCloud photos and deleted all my photos and turned it back on.

did it on my first phone and that worked and then tried it again on the second phone that was stuck.

cant say if it will work for everyone. But did for me

Oct 20, 2019 9:35 AM in response to tygs

For me that worked too. The curation process is over. But the faces analysis is still running (it started more than two weeks ago 😂) and ir analyses like 200 photos a day. Taking into account the amount of photos I have, it will have finished by the end of the year 😂😂😂

iPhone photos app curation