iCloud photos not syncing/ showing grey triangle with exclamation mark

Question

Level 1

4 points

iCloud photos not syncing/ showing grey triangle with exclamation mark

Basically every time I take a photo it syncs to my photos on my MacBook but then when I go to open it to full screen i get a triangle with exclamation mark.

I’ve tried

- restore and repair photo library

- I’ve moved my library to an external hard drive so there is plenty of space to download and keep originals

- upgraded iCloud storage so plenty of space

- turned iCloud off and on on MacBook

- managed to delete my entire iCloud Photo Library even though iCloud sync was turned off 🙄 I then thankfully restored them from the recently deleted file.

This all started it seems from when I upgraded to my iPhone 11 at Xmas previously working fine with iPhone 7.

MacBook Pro (early 2015) is on Yosemite 10.10.5 which I’m very reluctant to upgrade as it works just fine for my needs.

I can access my photos from iCloud on line and manually downloaded one which I then can drag into photos and it opens fine.

At a complete loss as of what to do.

MacBook Pro

Posted on May 7, 2020 12:55 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

May 7, 2020 5:38 AM in response to Forrey

I suspect that your new iPhone is taking the photos in the space saving High Efficiency format. The filename extension would be .HEIC.

MacOS 10.10.5 is too old to handle images in the HEIC format. You would need to convert the HEIC images to JPEGs or another format, so Photos for Mac can process them.

If you want to keep your Mac on Yosemite, change the Settings for the camera on the iPhone to "Most Compatible". Then new photos and videos will be taken in a more compatible format. But you will need twice as much storage on the iPhone.

To be able to work with HEIF on your Mac the system should be upgraded to High Sierra at least, see: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

You can convert the images you already have taken using the online converter: https://heictojpg.com

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

May 7, 2020 8:17 AM in response to Forrey

On the Mac you can upgrade selectively, depending on your current system version and hardware.

Try these links:

To get to macOS 10.13 High Sierra: How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra – Apple Support
To get to macOS 10.14 Mojave: How to upgrade to macOS Mojave – Apple Support
Catalina: macOS Catalina

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Answer 3

Forrey Author

Level 1

4 points

May 7, 2020 5:51 AM in response to léonie

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

I knew there must of been a simple explanation for all this. I always say with apple if it’s too complicated it’s wrong.

I’ve changed camera setting to most compatible for the time being and now need to decide then whether to stick with Yosemite and covert all photos from January or upgrade os. The later makes me very nervous.

Thank you though for posting, you’ve really made my day.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

May 7, 2020 7:41 AM in response to Forrey

Good Luck! 😊

Your "Early 2015" MacBook pro could be upgraded to macOOS 10.14 Mojave or probably macOS 10.15 Catalina as well.

Upgrading to Mojave would make the Photos.app much more versatile and compatible with you iPhone. You would be able to edit the Portrait Mode photos or Live Photo effects, for example.

Upgrading to Catalina will change Photos to a very different app, which you should test before you take the plunge. And Catalina will make all 32-bit applications incompatible. The upgrade would require making an inventry of your apps and drivers and check, if it will not break essential applications.