Unable to solve "Error downloading photo"

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Unable to solve "Error downloading photo"

A couple of days ago I started to get that white circle with the exclamation mark in the lower right corner on most of my photos in my MacBook Pro's Photos app. Since then I have been unable to download any photos from iCloud on that device.

Now, I know that many people have asked this before and I have tried various solutions from other threads, but nothing seems to work.

So far I have repaired and restored the photos library, checked in safe mode, disconnected the MacBook Pro from iCloud/Apple ID altogether, even deleted the original Photos Library file on my Mac, created a new one and "downloaded" everything again from iCloud.

Yet, the error continues to show up, with only thumbnails/low-res pictures being available across the board. I only have this problem on my MacBook Pro, everything works just fine on iCloud and all of my other devices.

Does anyone have an idea what else I could try to fix this? Thanks in advance!

PS: I am using a MacBook Pro (early 2015) with macOS Catalina 10.15.1

MacBook Pro

Posted on Dec 4, 2019 6:17 AM

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Answer 1

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Dezhong Author

Level 1

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Dec 10, 2019 7:12 AM in response to Dezhong

So, I finally went with the nuclear option and did a clean re-install of macOS Catalina. It's all good now - just cost me about four hours of my life.

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Answer 2

Dezhong Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 4, 2019 6:54 PM in response to cjmildenberg

Thanks for your reply! I don't have an iPhone 11, but yes, I have "Optimize Mac Storage" enabled.

Unfortunately, I cannot use the "Download Originals" setting on my MacBook Pro, because I "only" have about 130 GB (out of 250) left on my SSD (my whole Photos library in iCloud uses about 190 GB). But that would explain why I don't run into this problem on my iMac to which I always download the originals.

So, I guess it's a bug related to the "Optimize Mac Storage" setting then? Because I am forced to pick one of the two in Photos settings when "iCloud Photos" is enabled.

Still strange that this never used to be an issue on my MacBook Pro until a few days ago.

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Answer 3

Dezhong Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 4, 2019 7:21 PM in response to cjmildenberg

I am quite sure that the problem was originally limited to older photos only (I found out about it when trying to download some 10 year old photos for a new background picture). But since I deleted the original Photos library file and created a new one/reconnected that Mac to iCloud again trying to solve this problem, the white circle now shows up on every single photo.

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Answer 4

Dec 4, 2019 12:49 PM in response to Dezhong

Do you have "capture outside the frame" enabled on your iPhone 11?

Are you also using "optimize Mac storage" on the Mac?

I can reproduce your issue 100% of the time under these conditions.

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Answer 5

Dec 4, 2019 2:20 PM in response to cjmildenberg

This issue will NOT happen if you select "download originals"

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Answer 6

Dec 4, 2019 7:11 PM in response to Dezhong

Is it all of your photos, or just a select few? What about old photos? The only ones I can get this to reproduce on are the "outside the frame" photos.

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Unable to solve "Error downloading photo"

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