Photos from MacBook won't upload to iCloud

Question

Level 1

8 points

Photos from MacBook won't upload to iCloud

I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch (2011) running MacOS High Sierra and I have a few thousand photos on the Photos app that I want to upload to iCloud. I bought enough iCloud storage, turned on iCloud in the settings, and waited for them to upload for about a week. When I go to iCloud.com and look at my photos, all my albums from the Photos app are there, but none of the photos. They're just empty albums. There's no progress bar or anything either.

Photos from my iPhone uploaded to iCloud just fine, it's just the ones from my computer that won't work. I had a new hard drive installed on my computer a few years ago, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Any ideas why they won't upload? Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Apr 9, 2020 2:36 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,919 points

Apr 12, 2020 11:35 AM in response to sophieloaf5

Try going to System Preferences/iCloud (Apple ID for Catalina) and stop Photo syncing by unchecking the box. Wait a couple of minutes, then check syncing. Allow time for the sync to complete. The photos sync is very, very slow.

Last resort - have you tried signing out of iCloud and then sign back in?

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Answer 2

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Apr 12, 2020 10:59 AM in response to sophieloaf5

Hello sophieloaf5.

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. If I'm understanding correctly, photos from your Mac are taking a while to upload to iCloud. I will be glad to assist. I would suggest pausing the upload, then resuming to see if that helps. See below from: Set up and use iCloud Photos

Pause library uploads to iCloud

When you turn on iCloud Photos, the time it takes for your photos and videos to upload to iCloud depends on the size of your collection and your Internet speed. If you have a large collection of photos and videos, your upload might take more time than usual. You can see the status and pause the upload for one day.

On your Mac, open the Photos app. Select Photos in the sidebar, then click All Photos in the list of tabs in the toolbar. Scroll to the bottom of your photos and click Pause.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers.

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