Slideshow in Photos

Question

Slideshow in Photos

In the application Photos, I created an album of photos and videos, all of which I retrieved from my iPhone 8. After selecting all these items, I try to make a slideshow by selecting that option from the pulldown file menu. A small window opens that says it is downloading my photos. Why do the photos need to be downloaded? There are 388 and when that window is finished a small window opens that says,

"An internet connection is required to download larger versions of these items for creating a slideshow."

I am on the internet. I am never not on the internet.

When I click OK an error message window opens that says,

Error downloading slideshow photos.

An error occurred while downloading one or more photos for the slideshow. Please try again later.

I have tried this a half dozen times with the exact same result.

Posted on Oct 24, 2019 11:04 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,425 points

Oct 24, 2019 2:24 PM in response to Dennis Taylor

Yes. It would be quicker if you were to create a new, empty library and set it to be the System Photos Library. Also enable iCloud Photos but not Optimize Mac Storage. This will force a download of all of the full sized image file in your iCloud library to your Mac. There will be no comparing to exclude duplicates so it will go faster.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,425 points

Oct 24, 2019 11:22 AM in response to Dennis Taylor

It sounds like you have the iCloud Library enabled and Optimize Mac Storage enabled on your Mac and iPhone.

That will put only optimized (smaller) versions on your Mac. So anytime you need a photo to print, in a project or to share you'll need to download the full sized version before you can proceed.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

210,425 points

Oct 24, 2019 3:50 PM in response to Dennis Taylor

Launch Photos with the Option key held down and click on Create New button in the next window:

Once the new library is open open it's preference and in the General pane click on the "Use as System Photo Library" button. It will gray out indicating it's the system library.

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Answer 4

Oct 24, 2019 12:35 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for your help. Optimize iPhone storage was selected on my phone and optimize storage was also selected in my iCloud laptop settings. I changed them both. The phone is now set to Download and Keep Originals. So I guess now I have to reinstall the photos from my phone to my laptop right?

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Answer 5

Oct 24, 2019 3:36 PM in response to Old Toad

How do I create a new library on the mac and set it to be the system photos library? Is that done in the Finder under pictures? I see a folder called Photos library there now. I can create a new folder but how do I make it the System Photos library?

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Answer 6

Oct 25, 2019 8:44 AM in response to Old Toad

OK I did all that and now it is downloading over 3,300 items and it looks like this is going to take several days. It took 2 1/2 hours to download 20 items. It would be great if one could just download the 388 items I wanted for the slideshow. What if there is not enough room on my hard drive?

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Answer 7

Oct 25, 2019 3:35 PM in response to Old Toad

I think I will have enough room. It's down to 1900 items now. But I can move the old library onto my external hard drive if it doesn't. Once this is done I'll create a new album and slideshow and hopefully it will work. Thanks a lot for all your help.

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Answer 8

Oct 27, 2019 5:50 PM in response to Dennis Taylor

The downloading finished today but it did not help. I created a new folder of pictures but when I tried to make a slideshow, the exact same thing happens. It still wants to download photos and says I need an internet connection and that the procedure could not be done. I looked in my pictures folder and I have two photo libraries there, but they are both the same size, 24 GB. If one of them contained larger items, it should be a lot bigger than the other. This is pretty frustrating. I was skeptical of using the cloud and now I'm really regretting it.

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Answer 9

Oct 29, 2019 12:00 PM in response to Old Toad

The downloading took almost two days but it is finished. Unfortunately it did not help. I created a new folder of pictures but when I tried to make a slideshow, the exact same thing happens. It still wants to download photos and says I need an internet connection and that the procedure could not be done. I looked in my pictures folder and I have two photo libraries there, but they are both the same size, 24 GB. If one of them contained larger items, it should be a lot bigger than the other. This is pretty frustrating.

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Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

210,425 points

Oct 25, 2019 2:00 PM in response to Dennis Taylor

Make sure there is enough room. Move some large items, like your current library to an external HD. Also your music library.

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Slideshow in Photos

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