Photos stuck on ‘downloading originals’ :(

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Level 1

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Photos stuck on ‘downloading originals’ :(

I’m trying to download my dads massive photos library for him after his machine wouldn’t start (was a total mess).

I estimate it’s around 300gb. I’m getting a bit stressed as he hasn’t backed it up anywhere else other than iCloud :-/. Everything’s viewable on his iPad though.

he’s got an old iMac late 2012 which I’ve fresh installed with plenty of space available. And I have a 100mb down connection.

currently photos has been stuck on ‘downloading x originals’ for countless hours with no change in the number.

I restarted in safe mode as someone suggested. This seemed to restart the process of syncing but then that paused for ages. I then restarted photos and it once again said ‘downloading originals’ with the same number as before.

I’m getting stressed to think I won’t be able to download his library again :-/

any help would be very much appreciated

many thanks

nick

Posted on Feb 23, 2020 4:46 AM

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Answer 1

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Nickholl Author

Level 1

48 points

Feb 23, 2020 6:03 AM in response to Nickholl

also, the hard drive space available doesn't appear to be lessening, which I would have expected it do if it was downloading thousands of photos and videos :-/

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

196,941 points

Feb 23, 2020 5:32 AM in response to Nickholl

currently photos has been stuck on ‘downloading x originals’ for countless hours with no change in the number.

Photos does not update the number in the download message frequently. It may appear to be stuck, but still be downloading correctly. Just let it run. You may want to check the number of the photos in "All Photos" occasionally to see, if there is some progress.

Which System version is installed on the Mac?

Can you see the iCloud Photos on the webpage www.icloud.com, when your dad logs into the iCloud account with his iCloud AppleID and you launch the Photos.app on this web page?

If all photos are there, you could download the photos directly from the webpage.

Once the photos are back on the Mac he should make a backup copy of the Photos Library on an external volume. Keeping the photos in iCloud is no backup, that can protect us in case of user errors.

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Answer 3

Nickholl Author

Level 1

48 points

Feb 23, 2020 5:44 AM in response to léonie

Hi,

perhaps I should just leave it for a few days and cross my fingers.

the number under ‘all photos’ has always displayed the entire library (that I can see on the iPad). It says..

42,122 photos, 2,300 videos

downloading 37,944 originals

and that downloading number hasn’t changed.

perhaps I’ll just leave it for the next week. Do you think I could let it sleep? I’m concerned having it on constantly wouldn’t do it any good.

thanks for the help!

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Photos stuck on ‘downloading originals’ :(

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