Camera photos won't upload to iCloud in Catalina

Question

Level 2

194 points

Camera photos won't upload to iCloud in Catalina

I finally got around to uploading my large Photos library to iCloud

When finished photos had a folder called "Unable to Upload"

I have plenty of space in iCloud (90 of 200gb used).

The pictures are the oldest in my library, they are jpegs and they were imported into iPhoto at the time from a digital camera. When required I transferred from iPhoto to Photos

In the "Unable to Upload" folder the very oldest pictures are just blank rectangles. In the photos library they are there.

How do I upload those pictures to iCloud?

I m running Catalina 10.15.7

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 21, 2021 9:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,645 points

Feb 21, 2021 10:07 AM in response to tommmy

In the "Unable to Upload" folder the very oldest pictures are just blank rectangles. In the photos library they are there.

Have you tested, if the photos in "Unable to upload" are the sam photos as you are seeing in the "All Photos" album?

Select one photo in "Unable to Upload", then ctrl-click it, and use the command "Sow in Photos". Does it show a photo in the All Photos view with a correct thumbnail, or a different photo?

If this test is only revealing broken photos, select all photos in "unable to upload" with the shortcut ⌘A, then use "File > Export > Export unmodified original" and save them in a folder outside the Photos Library. The procedure is descried here: About the status bar in Photos for macOS - Apple Support. Once the original image files have been saved outside the library, delete the photos from "unable to upload" from your Photos Library and "Recently Deleted". Once they are gone, reimport the saved versions. Usually the photos will be able to upload after this. If you are getting a message about incompatible files, you need to convert the photos to a different file format, before you can reimport them. Try to open them in preview and save them in a different format.

Reply

Answer 2

tommmy Author

Level 2

194 points

Feb 21, 2021 11:44 AM in response to léonie

Many thanks. That worked.

When going through the pictures in the exported folder on my desktop there were a few that were just generic icons.

After importing, there were again 152 photos in the unable to import folder, down from 169. However, as far as I can tell, those were uploaded.

Is there a way to compare the number of photos on my Mac and those on iCloud?

Reply

Camera photos won't upload to iCloud in Catalina

Similar questions