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Syncing A New Photo Library

Hi and sorry if this is a bit long! Any help / advice would be SO appreciated.


I've been trying to update and combine x3 Photo Libraries on my MacBook Pro 13" 500gb (Early 2015), but I'm having trouble getting iCloud to sync the new Photo Library I've created.


I had a Photo Library (2017-2021) as the Source Library on my MacBook Pro which was synced with iCloud and working absolutely fine, but I didn't have enough storage to "Download originals to Mac", and also wanted to combine this library with two older libraries stored on an external HD (2004-2012 and 2013-2016).


I managed to clear my Mac HD enough to download the 2017-2021 originals to my Mac, then move it to the external HD with my other two libraries. I then used PowerPhotos to successfully combine all 3 libraries as a brand new library (in hindsight, I should have merged the older two into my current one, but for some reason, like an idiot, I didn't).


I now have a downloaded 2004-2021 Library on an external HD (what I wanted), and would like to use this as the Source Library, and sync it to iCloud (I'm happy to have low-res images on my iPhone / iPad, but would prefer to access high-definition photos from the external HD when viewing on my Mac. It also ensures I have a fully backed up copy of the photos as well as stored on iCloud).


I clicked on the "Download originals To Mac" and ticked the "iCloud Photos" box, and a large countdown started saying it was syncing photos to iCloud (26,000+ photos and videos) and slowly decreased to 13,000 photos (ish) over about a week. It didn't make it the rest of the way, but seemed to get stuck. There was some sort of error (I can't remember exactly what it was now, which I seemed to sort out), then it then switched to "Restoring from iCloud" at the bottom of the screen and has been stuck ever since. It's been about 3 days on this now.


On iCloud.com all my combined album folders for 2004-2021 are there (with the 2017-2021 folders duplicated because of the creation of a new library 🤦‍♂️), but only a couple of photos have appeared in the duplicate folders / albums. A fair few random older photos have been downloaded at the start of the stream, but not all of them, and they are not appearing in the designated albums yet either. For the last few days, absolutely nothing has appeared on iCloud.com apart from any photos / videos I take currently (it's updating as normal).


I don't mind having everything wiped and just re-upload my main Library again (I'm happy to wait), but I wouldn't know how to safely do that. I'm a bit concerned I've messed things up by trying to sync a whole new library to iCloud almost over the top of my old one!


I've also tried "Repairing" the new 2004-2021 Library, but this hasn't changed anything (it errored halfway through the first time I did it saying that it was corrupt, but did a successful repair after I restarted my Mac).


I have considered trying to re-sync my 2017-2021 Library with iCloud again, then combine the old libraries with this again and try once more, but don't want to create a load of doubles or overwrite all my photos somehow.


Can anyone suggest what I should do?


Thanks so much!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 6, 2021 10:34 AM

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Posted on Apr 6, 2021 11:18 AM

I would wait. Your library is large, and it normal that you will to be seeing any progress for days. Any attempts to speed it up may just cause a new upload to iCloud. For example, if you repair your library, all photos need to be uploaded again and merged into the existing library, which may take a full week or more. And then the merged library will download to your Mac, which will also take several days of "restoring from iCloud", without seeing any progress.


What you can do, is checking if the external volume you are using is compatible with Photos, as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

And check, if your merged Photos library is showing any items as "Unable to upload". Such item need to be removed from the library and converted to a different format. (Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support)


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 6, 2021 11:18 AM in response to jjoiner1000

I would wait. Your library is large, and it normal that you will to be seeing any progress for days. Any attempts to speed it up may just cause a new upload to iCloud. For example, if you repair your library, all photos need to be uploaded again and merged into the existing library, which may take a full week or more. And then the merged library will download to your Mac, which will also take several days of "restoring from iCloud", without seeing any progress.


What you can do, is checking if the external volume you are using is compatible with Photos, as described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

And check, if your merged Photos library is showing any items as "Unable to upload". Such item need to be removed from the library and converted to a different format. (Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support)


Apr 6, 2021 12:07 PM in response to léonie

Thank you for this. As I had to run a repair on the library, will that have restarted the whole process again? I am fine to wait for the sync to complete, but surely I would progressively see photos appearing on iCloud.com? It's a bit crazy that the old ones wont appear, but any photo I take right now will immediately appear.


Thanks for referring me to those pages. I checked the external volume, which is formatted correctly - MacOS Extended (Journaled), but I did have to click on the lock to tick "Ignore ownership on this volume". Will that make a difference now that I've ticked that? It also goes back to locked again every time I click on "get info". I checked the status of the photos library by making the smart album, and there doesn't seem to be any files unable to upload to iCloud, which is good.


Seeing as I'm trying to sync a whole new library with everything 2004-2021, will my current library (2017-2021) be "deleted", but then added again with the new photos? - I'm a bit worried about this process and also losing any new photos I take.


Thanks for your help.



Apr 6, 2021 2:01 PM in response to jjoiner1000

Hi


Yes - a library repair will restart the sync process. It is not unusual for things to seem not to be happening, because it is not only uploading/downloading, but also spending a lot of time comparing libraries, and other background processing.


It just takes a long time. For reference, my 5000 image 50GB library took 48 hours full time. Your library looks to be about 5 times that size - so two weeks, or even more wouldn't surprise me. And that is with the Mac on - connected to power, and photos open 24/7.

Syncing A New Photo Library

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