macOS Catalina problems: Photos does not sync via iCloud

I had the same problem, icloud photo library stuck on "updating" since updating to Catalina. Got mine to work again by creating a new photo library and then making the new library the "system library" instead of the old one.

I'm not a pro, so try at your own risk or back up your library/pc before. Your old library will remain for you to go back to if you choose to, I felt save enough knowing that.

Close photos app. Hold option and click on photos icon and create a new library. After photos opens, go to photos menu at top and click on preferences. In general tab select "use as System Photo Library". It will tell you that icloud photos will be disabled, click ok and go back in photo preferences afterwards and re-enable it. It will re-download all of your library into a second file which in my case is 80Gb, so make sure you have enough hard drive space. Afterwards you can keep your old library to go back to or delete it if everything seems okay with the new library. You'll see them both in your pictures folder, my two are named "Photos Library" and "Photos Library 2".

One thing I'm not sure of, my photos are still downloading but my albums are not showing yet. It's taking some time, I have 38,000 photos and videos. I'm assuming they will eventually because they show when I log into the icloud website. I'll come back and post an update when they are finished.

• I'm also not sure if this affects other apps like imovie that may have photos or videos from your library.