MacOS photos stuck at "uploading XXX items".

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Level 1

16 points

MacOS photos stuck at "uploading XXX items".

My photos app stuck with an "uploading 3554 items". Photos that I take on my iPhone or iPad are properly appearing on MacOS, but if I will edit any photos on Mac it's not uploading to iCloud, so I can't see changes on iPhone or iPad. Problem appeared few days ago. It was stuck at "uploading 560 items" for days so I turned off "iCloud photos" and deleted everything from Mac. Restarted a laptop, ran DiskUtility and then checked the box again. Photos app start to synchronise 20.000+ photos and did it for a day or so and now it stuck at "uploading 3554 items" for one more day and not moving further.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 28, 2020 3:05 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

cacaoboy Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 29, 2020 2:22 AM in response to léonie

Hello.

Thank you for helpful reply. I did this smart album and found two files that are not compatible. I deleted them but uploading still was stuck. So I just deleted the whole Photos library and created a new empty one (I did not have original photos on my Mac). So after creating a new Photos library I just checked-in for iCloud photos sync and now everything works.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,929 points

Jun 28, 2020 5:37 AM in response to cacaoboy

How did you restore the Photos Library, after you deleted everything from the Mac?

Your Photos Library may contain an image file or a video, that can no longer be processed by Photos 5 on Catalina.

Are there any items in your library, that have been added many years ago? Old videos, that are not in the HEVC or H.264 format? Are there any audio files in the library that you have used for slideshows? Or PDF files?

Does your library contain referenced image files? Photos that are stored and referenced outside the library and are not imported into the library are causing the upload to hang.

The iCloud upload can hang if Photos encounters an item that cannot be processed by Photos. So remove all audio files and PDFs.
Export video files, where your not sure, if Photos can process them. Then delete them from photos and try to reimport the exported version. If Photos signals an error, convert the video to a different format.

You may want to search your library systematically for problematic items using smart albums.

I have used a smart album like this to search for problematic items, that need covering to a different format. You may have to add the formats that your external editors are creating to the list.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,929 points

Jun 29, 2020 3:05 AM in response to cacaoboy

Downloading again from iCloud is a good idea. I have done that too after the Catalina upgrade. Some named faces have been missing however.

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MacOS photos stuck at "uploading XXX items".

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