macOS Catalina problems: Photos does not sync via iCloud

Hiya! It maybe that behind the scenes the service which manages this has "got stuck". It is called Photos Agent and can be closed via the Activity Monitor application.

1. Close Photos completely via the menu or the right-click on the Dock icon.
2. Open the Activity Monitor application e.g. via Spotlight Search.
3. Search for "Photos" (in any of the tabs).
4. Select the Photos Agent service and click the black X icon to force it to close.
5. Reopen Photos and see if it starts syncing (try deleting a foto if it isn't obvious...).

If this hasn't worked repeat this process for the two processes that start with “com.apple.photos…” and the one that starts with “com.apple.CloudPhotos…”

This advice comes from : https://www.groovypost.com/howto/macos-photos-app-wont-sync-photo-stream-solved/

Good Luck!

Mike

I think the resolution to this whole Photos problem on Catalina is in the recent update for iMovie - it says that there was an issue in iMovie stopping Photos from updating from iCloud under Catalina. Since I put in the iMovie update (see pic below), I would say that my (fourth!!!) Photos library is now working pretty much as it should.

I have been through the whole library recreation saga several times with help from Dave at Apple Creative Media, which has been very helpful, but I think the issue was the iMovie interaction with Photos and Catalina all along.

Watch this space for more. I'm now on iMovie 10.1.14 build 358560. I'm on Photos Version 5.0 (121.17.170). I'm on Catalina 10.15.2 (19C57).

I am adding the comments that the iMovie update has in the App store for the latest update I refer to above that I installed.

I have mentioned before a solution that I discovered for this problem that I had for quite a while from the moment I installed Catalina. Apple creative Media folks were really helpful but couldn't resolve anything.

Only when the iMovie version 10.1.14 was released did I see the hint needed - one of the iMovie release statements said that if fixed an issue with Photos not synchronising.

I assume that just as Catalina doesn't work with 32 bit apps (including all my adobe 5 software!) I guess it has some kind of issue with Apple's own iMove version that was current when I installed Catalina.

Since I updated iMovie, all has been well.

I think I might have been the first person to report the iMovie solution here. I had been though other fixes with the help of Apple Creative and media support, and one which temporarily helped was creating a new library, but after several cycles of doing that, it became clear that after a few days the syncing stopped again. Photostream on or off made no difference. I have it ON.

Updating the iMovie version was the only permanent fix and my Photos has been syncing ever since. I have added my OSX App store screenshot showing the iMovie version I have which is 10.1.14, and it tells me I did that upgrade 4 months ago, so it's been working since then.

Just to say it WAS Catilina upgrade from an earlier version of OSX that stopped the syncing - it happened the same evening I did the upgrade, back in October. It took Apple support quite a while before they were convinced, but eventually they agreed and asked me to send frequent and specific error diagnostic reports that they gave me an app and a web link to upload the reports.

They eventually stopped answering my emails when I told them, and this page community, about the iMovie solution, although they had been very attentive up till then. I guess they had made the iMovie update partly for the Photos syncing reason, and saw no reason to continue the conversation, but it wasn't very user friendly of them, was it?!

iPhone and iPad were fine, and everything was there on iCloud, it was just the Catilina that was the issue.

Hi fasol,

Thanks for getting back to us with the additional information. While connected to a strong, reliable internet connection, try going to System Preferences > Internet Accounts next. If you're prompted to accept the iCloud Terms & Conditions, sign in with your Apple ID and attempt to accept them from there. You may need to repeat this step for any iCloud services that are enabled for your account.

If you're still unable to accept the iCloud Terms & Conditions, I suggest reaching out to Apple Support next:

Apple - Support - Product Selection

Take care.

I’ve got about 60,000 photos and videos in my library. iCloud Photos turned off during the upgrade to Catalina. When I tried to turn it back on it wouldn’t because I’m using more than half of my drive. I’ve spent about 4 hours on the phone with Apple. Bottom line is I had to delete my library and let it download again. It’s been 6 days and I’m halfway there on a 400MB connection. The background process (called urlsessiond) is VERY sporadic, but works best when the Photos app is closed.

I have a 2013 iMac Quad core and a 2018 MacBook Pro. No problems w the MacBook. W/the iMac, Photos is doing the same as the above. Library updates to roughly 18%, then asks me to select another Library. The Library is on iCloud. I can't select Photos in iCloud - everything else is selected but it will not allow me to select Photos - says Checking Library. The Library is intact, showing on the MacBook. I'm going to wait for a software update. Disappointing. +30,000 photos & videos.

https://youtu.be/ElIQGHMaEck

Forgive my amateur video. However, it does work. Get your photos back on you iOS device now. Super easy. Time consuming for those of us with thousands of pics... But easy. No non-apple software required. Give my video a look. It's 4 minutes well spent.

Matthew

I watched your video and after you created a phone album, did you sync back up with laptop. Sorry I was not clear on that. All my pics are on phone and iCloud, but now after update any new pics are not synching to MacBook Pro.

Hi,

I am using my Apple Id on two different MacBook Pro 2017 laptops. I upgraded both machines to Catalina at almost the same time.

Photo sync to iCloud works just fine on one of them, but the other one, photo sync to iCloud does not work either upload or download.

I have tried everything I can think of (and also everything other people have thought of, and still I cannot get the sync to work).

Since I have the luxury of running both laptops side by side I was able to compare the console log when opening the photo app on both machines and there are a lot more errors on the machine where the sync does not work.

Something is obviously wrong, but I don't have enough knowledge about macOs to make anything from the log entires. Can anyone guide me in a direction to find the reason for these errors?

error 22:09:11.501096+0200 photoanalysisd Unable to create manager for library URL <private> in invocation setJobProcessingConstraintsWithValues:mask:context:reply: from client com.apple.photolibraryd

fault 22:09:11.501411+0200 photoanalysisd PHAServiceClientHandler: no target for selector <private>, contextInformation=<private>)

error 22:09:12.153795+0200 photoanalysisd Unable to create manager for library URL <private> in invocation loadGraphWithContext:reply: from client com.apple.Photos

fault 22:09:12.153892+0200 photoanalysisd PHAServiceClientHandler: no target for selector <private>, contextInformation=<private>)

error 22:09:12.274046+0200 Photos Unsupported sample count:1

error 22:09:12.560314+0200 apsd <private>: Preferences may have changed, checking for any relevant changes

error 22:09:13.283121+0200 cloudphotod Query for CPLAssetChange failed with error: Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=20 UserInfo={CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbb218464d0 {Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=131 UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbb2185ec50 {Error Domain=CKInternalErrorDomain Code=1026 UserInfo={CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>}}, CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSDebugDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>}}}

error 22:09:13.285038+0200 cloudphotod Sync session did fail with error (foreground): Error Domain=CloudPhotoLibraryErrorDomain Code=257 UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=<private>, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbb2074a6d0 {Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=20 UserInfo={CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbb218464d0 {Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=131 UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbb2185ec50 {Error Domain=CKInternalErrorDomain Code=1026 UserInfo=0x7fbb21851a50 (not displayed)}, CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSDebugDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>}}}}}, underlying error: Error Domain=CKErrorDomain Code=131 UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x7fbb2185ec50 {Error Domain=CKInternalErrorDomain Code=1026 UserInfo={CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>}}, CKErrorDescription=<private>, NSDebugDescription=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=<private>}

error 22:09:15.089235+0200 photoanalysisd XPC connection was invalidated

error 22:09:15.091295+0200 photoanalysisd Not caching moment node because no UUID for input moment: <private>

error 22:09:15.137439+0200 photoanalysisd No placemark found for location {58.277711, 12.326489}

error 22:09:15.138184+0200 photoanalysisd No placemark found for location {58.280147, 12.290658}

error 22:09:15.154617+0200 photoanalysisd Moment node has no highlight node: <private>

error 22:09:15.155502+0200 photoanalysisd Date Node <private> is not linked to any season node

error 22:09:16.752458+0200 photoanalysisd directory services are not configured

Have this issue on my MBP running latest Catalina. Photos sync across my phone and iPad correctly but now no longer sync to photos on my laptop. Tried killing the app , signing out/in Apple ID and quitting the photos processes in activity monitor.

This worked once but no longer. Very frustrating and worked perfectly prior to the update which I now regret doing.

LAST WEEK A INSTALLED CATALINA ON MY DESK TOP MAC.. SINCE THAT TIME I AM HAVING ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS TRYING TO UPLOAD PICS FROM MY IPHONE TO MY MAC OS. (PHOTO FOLDER) )IVE TRIED ALL THE THINGS I KNOW WITH NO LUCK. OK HERES WHATS HAPPENING. WHEN I CHOOSE WHICH PICTURE FILE I WANT TO PUT ON EBAY PHOTOS, SOME TIMES IT WILL UPLOAD THEM THERE AND SOMETIMES IT WON'T. OTHER TIMES IF I WANT TO UPLOAD MORE THAN 1 FILE, IM APT TO GET 1 FILE 2 FILES OR 3 FILES OR NO FILES. I TALKED TO E BAY AND OF COURSE THEY TOLD ME ITS MY NEW CATALINA OPERATING SYSTEM. THIS TIME I THINK I BELIEVE THEM. ONE OTHER THING IS IVE CONTINUED TO UPGRADE ALL THE OPERATING SYSTEMS OVER THE YEARS AND NEVER HAVE HAD ANY PROBLEMS UPLOADING THEM ONTO MY COMPUTER AND IVE BEEN DOING IT THIS WAY FOR OVER 19 YRS.. I HAVE AN E BAY BUSINESS AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME. THANKS FOR THE HELP. DADSDOWOP

My issue seems to be fixed. I used the iCloud sync repair tool to update my library. It took several hours to rebuild the library but it seems to have worked. Hold down the option and command keys while launching the photo’s app and follow the prompts. It takes a while but seems to have worked.

Mine doesn't seem to have synced any more photos since the repair (October 13th 2019). It says it is restoring from iCloud but nothing new has appeared. IE nothing new since the date and time of my Catalina installation from an older version of OSX. Also, I noticed before it has a new category of photos "unable to upload" and overnight this has expanded to a very large number of them (over 1000), although I haven't checked their status with iCloud. My iOS devices are fine. The numbers of photos and videos in iCloud and the iOS devices are very similar and don't differ by anywhere like the number of recent missing photos on Catalina. There are 105000 altogether. It's really disappointing as my main reason for updating was to use more of the memories functionality in Photos in Catalina -although I see no way to save or export the memories created there, which are better than just the old slideshows. I should have gone with Mojave, al little more mature!