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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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léonie

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Posted on Sep 25, 2019 8:18 AM

iCloud might be interfering, if you are using iCloud Photos on your devices with "Optimize Storage". I noticed that the scanning of the library for face recognition and object recognition takes much longer, if the photos are not stored locally on my iPhone or iPad. After I disabled "Optimize Storage" the scan finished much faster. The curating requires the previous face detection and object recognition. Can you afford to have all photos and videos stored locally on your devices?

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77 replies

Sep 25, 2019 7:52 AM in response to léonie

I am the OP using a second account as I am not allowed to have phones and logging in requires me to get a code.

I have around 853 phots and videos.

It is weird because the iPad has finished the curation and it has the same amount of photos.

I did update to 13.1 and hoped that it would fix it.

I have recent back up of my phone, I just don't want to restore it via recovery mode/itunes.

I guess I will wait till the end of the week and see if it finishes.

Compare to how much photos you have mine shouldn't take more than a week considering that the iPad has finished

M13Z

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4 points

Sep 28, 2019 3:49 PM in response to tygs

So glad I came across this user community when I searched "Mac photo curation". I have about 15 apple devices. I love apple. It has never really let me down. My iPhone X finally finished after about one week. (I have 78,000 images in photos), but the iPad is still processing along. After reading the posts here, I am going to try be patient and just wait on the iPad. The iPad is an older one and iPhone X xms. So, the iphone finishing before the ipad makes sense. But I hate the "waiting" game when it comes to devices and their wait times from processing and such.

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.

léonie

Level 10

200,531 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.

tygs Author

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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

Feb 16, 2020 3:18 PM in response to tygs

On my iMac I've tried this a couple different ways on a Solid State drive and on the Mac's hard drive (I delete the Photos library and make a new one each test). I can load about four photos, and get "Curation Complete" except there's a message underneath that says something like "Curation will start when your device is connected to power."

When I load the fifth photo the endless curation starts. If I delete that fifth photo (and I've tried loading different images) the curation stops, but starts the next time I load an image. If I delete the third or fourth photo the curation continues.

I get same results whether or not the Photos library is a System library. I've been logged into iCloud with Photos selected for all of these tests.

One more round, then I look for a different piece of software.

Oct 13, 2019 7:32 AM in response to léonie

It will start the process over once it's complete. My 6S has been doing this for a month.

Nov 1, 2019 1:46 AM in response to tliema5

I updated to 13.2 and the curation process stopped. However, 80% of my photos are missing. Has anyone else faced this issue?

tygs Author

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Dec 15, 2019 7:38 PM in response to anika_1Dforever

try calling support they may be able to help.

But I wouldn't get my hopes up lmao; worth a shot though

Sep 25, 2019 1:17 PM in response to xxxibygnn

I am having the exactly same problem. I installed iOS 13 on the keynote day and it has been curating photos since then (two weeks ago). Yesterday, I installed iOS 13.1 but it is still curating photos :(. I do not know what to do in order to unstuck the process.

I have 11k photos and 500 videos. My iPhone X has 64 GB so for me it's impossible to download all the original photos into my device. I have also been checking the face recognition process and it finished last week. However, even that process is over, the curation process have been stuck at the same point for days :(.

Sep 26, 2019 3:25 PM in response to tygs

I only have 2000 photos and about 30 videos and my iphone which is an Iphone X on IOS 13.1 is still after hours of being plugged in and locked only about 25 percent of the way done and no movement at all. Don't know how to fix this or why this is happening!

tygs Author

Level 1

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Sep 26, 2019 9:04 PM in response to aitormagan

so the second which i left plugged in the whole day is still curating its almost at 80 percent... or so

It was at like 40 percent when i left which was at like 11. so like 12 hours passed by and with only 853 wish photos it should really take this long

tygs Author

Level 1

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Sep 27, 2019 6:59 AM in response to aitormagan

Didn't work or at least it is still on the progress bar , catching up with my new phone lol

i guess ill just leave it and wait it out or something
all its doing is organizing photos but it seems like all the photos are organized
maybe there is something wrong with my media that the phone is having trouble reading
since it only curated when its connected to wifi, locked and, and connected to a power source its not too concerning lmao

tygs Author

Level 1

20 points

Sep 27, 2019 7:52 AM in response to aitormagan

I had photos turned on for Mac once and then realized that most of my photos on my Mac are raw formats and JPEGs since I take photos. So I turned it off.

cant be sure if it’s a big since it’s too early but it shouldn’t be normal.

im speaking for my self here where 853 should take a long time under normal conditions.

maybe all of our wifi sucks lmao. 😂😂

tliema5

Level 1

26 points

Oct 2, 2019 7:24 PM in response to tygs

I have the same issue on my XSMax after update to iOS 13, it was completed on my old phone, the 6S but seem like it takes forever to complete on the XSM (around 11,000 pics). I am glad I found this thread because I could not find the discussion about this issue anywhere else. Still really bugging me seeing that progress bar :(

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iPhone photos app curation