How can I find out which photos are still to be uploaded to iCloud Photos from Photos on my Mac?

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Level 1

11 points

How can I find out which photos are still to be uploaded to iCloud Photos from Photos on my Mac?

Hi, I have 20,000 photos and 1000 videos in my Photos library on my Mac, and Photos is configured to sync with iCloud. Nearly all the photos have been uploaded, but it appears to be "stuck" with 47 photos to go. I've tried leaving the upload to run for days, ensuring no other programs are running.

Is there a way to find out what these 47 photos/videos are? I would like to remove them from my library to unstick the process.

Here is a list of what I've done to try to unstick the upload.

Disconnected from iCloud and repaired the library. Result - No Impact
Disconnected from iCloud a second time. Result - No Impact (after speaking to apple support)
Creartd a smart album with filter Photos is unable to Upload to iCloud Photos - None listed
Used console.app to inspect all log messages related to photos, looking for a list of photos - No information
Inspected the "Open Files and Ports" that the Photos daemon process is using (Activity Monitor). I've looked at the open files and folders looking for temp files that might list these files. - No information
Opened a copy of photos database (Photo.db) in a SqlLite editor, inspecting relevant database table to find a column called "isSynced" that might indicate (with a 0?) that it hasn't been synced. - No information

The next approach I am thinking of doing is:

Create a separate account with a fresh photos library (Account B) , connect to iCloud, download all the photos (in optimise mode!). List all photos in that library (via SQLLite and extracting the database).
Compare all the photos in Account B with Account A, and find the delta.

If there are any shortcuts to doing that, I'd love to know!

(PS - recommendation to Apple - please make available the list of unsynced photos via the logs or the app itself!)

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 23, 2020 2:44 PM

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Answer 1

jayveeoz Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 25, 2020 12:04 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie, I did start down that route. I had iCloud open in one window and Photos in another and was trying to compare different batches of photos (by year initially). I ran into the snag that the I had removed some photos from the Mac, so it wasn't as simple as see the delta. Also your approach relies on the iCloud album syncing "back" to the Mac. Because the Mac was stuck uploading, it was not "downloading" anything new on iCloud ... as I guess the order is upload then download.

In anywise, booting into safe mode fixed it!

John

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Answer 2

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Mar 24, 2020 3:58 PM in response to jayveeoz

Hi jayveeoz,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you've been running into some issues uploading photos from your Mac to iCloud Photos. Being able to use iCloud Photos is great, and I'm happy to see if I can help out.

You've done some good troubleshooting so far. Thanks for sharing those details. While there's not a way to find a list of photos that have not been uploaded, there is a test you could try that may help.

Have you tried booting your Mac into safe mode yet? This runs a diagnostic/repair and does a few other things in the background, and prevents certain items from loading. It may be worth giving that a try to see if it helps: How to use safe mode on your Mac. Once you boot up into safe mode, check it out to see if there's any progress with those remaining photos. You can get back to normal mode by clicking Apple menu () > Restart.

If that doesn't make a difference, I recommend getting back in contact with Apple directly: Contact Apple Support

Kind regards.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,627 points

Mar 25, 2020 1:03 AM in response to jayveeoz

Safe Mode is really a versatile tool in many cases. I am glad it fixed it for you. 😊

Just for completeness sake - when the upload (for RAW files) seems to be stuck, I am frequently seeing jpeg previews of the current upload in this cache inside the library:

~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/resources/cpl/cloudsync.noindex/storage/filecache/

Searching this folder for "Kind: Image" will sometimes reveal the previews of the current upload.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,627 points

Mar 24, 2020 11:52 PM in response to jayveeoz

The first two steps you listed "disconnecting from iCloud" or "Repairing the library", will result in a complete new upload of the library into iCloud. All photos will upload and sync again. So you will see any effect only after several days. Do not try this to often. It will slow things down.

Have you tried to compare the photos you are seeing on www.icloud.com to the photos in your library? You could create a new album in Photos at www.icloud.com . name the album e.gg. "Already Uploaded Album". Than drag all photos you are already seeing there to this new album. The album will sync back to your mac and you can compare it the photos in your library with a smart album with the rule "Album is not 'Already Uploaded Album'".

Photos that need still uploading should be completely missing at www.icloud.com or showing white thumbnails. It may take a while to drag 20000 thumbnails to this album, but you can select several photos at once by selecting a range of photos while holding down the Shift key when clicking the last photo of the range.

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Answer 5

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Mar 24, 2020 11:11 PM in response to jayveeoz

Searching left over 47 pictures that are not synced to iCloud , from a photo library that is massive is difficult some reasons the iCloud storage is short https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204570

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/icloud/mm6e5a441fc7/icloud

If required deleted few photos and wait if rest of 47 photos upload , you can either reduce the space .

See some articles to reduce the data https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204247

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/macbook-air/apdb468896e0/2019/mac/10.14.5

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT206996

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/system-information/syspf5a64aa6/mac

Or if required purchase a new storage plan https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT201318

So that a space is created in iCloud for 47 photos .

Creating a new admin account in users and groups will not help as a single Apple ID and password is signed in and photos will also sync with second admin account in the same way as the primary one , they are just connected to server ( photo application is synced from system preferences > iCloud )

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Answer 6

jayveeoz Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 25, 2020 12:00 AM in response to MoonJ.

Hi MoonJ,

I booted into safe mode and it worked! Thanks a lot. I'm really interested in what safe mode did to the sync'ing.

So when I opened Photos in safe mode, I couldn't see the "Photos" item under the Library section (top left), which was weird, so I couldn't tell if it was trying to sync at all. I left it in safe mode for 10 minutes, then rebooted, and hey presto - it started downloading around 300 photos from iCloud, which is finished in a few hours, and didn't try to upload those 47 photos again.

I'm happy.

John

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Answer 7

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Mar 25, 2020 12:36 AM in response to jayveeoz

as I guess the order is upload then download.-- I am interfering in what format https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207022 the photos / videos were uploaded are the photos still in some other devices like iPhone , safe mode will also help to get a free flow of syncing also system caches are accumulated and it deletes them , the high network speed is essential to upload the photos https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264

Use most compatible feature to download from iCloud.com

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How can I find out which photos are still to be uploaded to iCloud Photos from Photos on my Mac?

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