Photos stopped syncing with my photo stream

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Level 1

4 points

Photos stopped syncing with my photo stream

Photos stopped syncing with my photo stream sometime in 2019 or 2020 (there are a few random photos from 2020). I had a Macbook Air from 2013 and did not want to bother with trying to fix the issue, so I ignored it. I replace my computer a few weeks ago with a Macbook Air with the M1 chip. Photos on my new computer worked great and when I would take a pic on my iPhone, it would (eventually) show up on my computer, just as I wanted.

But I finally got around to migrating my data from my old computer to my new computer, and Photos is broken again. I'm back to only a couple random photos from 2020 and none of the photos that showed up before I migrated my data.

Any ideas how to fix Photos? My preferences are set to My Photo Stream and not iCloud Photos. My Photo Stream tab is just completely empty.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jun 27, 2021 9:59 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,077 points

Jun 28, 2021 1:13 AM in response to namyenoh

I suspect, your old photos Library from the old Mac contains images or videos in a legacy format that is no longer supported on your new system version and need removing, because they can block the syncing.

If your library is already in iCloud, create a new, empty library on your new Mac. Make this new library your System Photos Library. Then enable iCloud Photos for it. See:

Create additional libraries

Then wait for the library to download from iCloud Photos Library.

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Answer 2

Jun 27, 2021 10:12 PM in response to namyenoh

Probably the migration has also migrated your old photos library and started opening that.

Try holding down the option key when starting photos, and see if more than one library is present. If it is, open them in turn until you find your recent photos.

You will then need to set that library to be the system library in preferences.

Regarding iCloud settings, you need to check both in iCloud preferences, AND in system preferences, and make sure iCloud photos is disabled in both.

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Answer 3

namyenoh Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 27, 2021 10:38 PM in response to TonyCollinet

There is only one library shown when I open it holding down option.

The library I have in iCloud is what I want on my computer, but I can't figure out how to get it there. I've tried the Photo Stream and the iCloud options and neither seems to do it.

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Photos stopped syncing with my photo stream

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