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I've taken photos on my iPhone and it shows they've completed uploading to iCloud, but the Photos app on my MacBook still doesn't show them. It says it last updated about 8 hours ago - how can I force it to check and update again?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.5
I took 7 new photos on the iPhone. The phone then after a few minutes said "7 of 7 uploaded".
I'm not sure what you mean by "just means it has uploaded all items it can upload, not necessarily, all items from the library". Why wouldn't those be the same thing? I have plenty of iCloud storage, and the iPhone was on a working wifi network with internet access the entire time, as was the laptop.
I've been on MacOS 11 for a very long time now and have used iCloud photos back and forth many times before this issue started happening. I do not think incompatible files are the issue here. There was also no indication from Photos on macOS that any items were pending: it simply said it last updated about 8 hours before. I just ended up airdropping the photos so I could use them since iCloud/Photos wasn't working.
My question is: if all indications are that the photos have been successfully uploaded to iCloud, how can I tell Photos on macOS to check for new photos and download them? There should be some sort of sync button or something, but that might make too much sense for Apple.
I took 7 new photos on the iPhone. The phone then after a few minutes said "7 of 7 uploaded".
I'm not sure what you mean by "just means it has uploaded all items it can upload, not necessarily, all items from the library". Why wouldn't those be the same thing? I have plenty of iCloud storage, and the iPhone was on a working wifi network with internet access the entire time, as was the laptop.
I've been on MacOS 11 for a very long time now and have used iCloud photos back and forth many times before this issue started happening. I do not think incompatible files are the issue here. There was also no indication from Photos on macOS that any items were pending: it simply said it last updated about 8 hours before. I just ended up airdropping the photos so I could use them since iCloud/Photos wasn't working.
My question is: if all indications are that the photos have been successfully uploaded to iCloud, how can I tell Photos on macOS to check for new photos and download them? There should be some sort of sync button or something, but that might make too much sense for Apple.
They’re both logged into the same iCloud account. I’ve been using iCloud photos for a long time, on all my devices. My question is less “how do I use it” and more “why isn’t it syncing, how can one force it to sync”.
To repeat Tony's question - have you checked, if the iPhone photos are already in iCloud? You can check this by looking at your iCloud Photos Library at www.icloud.com. Are the photos already in iCloud? This will tell you, if the iPhone is the problem or your Mac. If your iPhone has finished uploading, it just means it has uploaded all items it can upload, not necessarily, all items from the library.
Your Mac will start downloading new photos from iCloud Photos, only once it has finished uploading all local photos from your Mac to iCloud. You may want to check if your library contains items that are no longer compatible with Photos after the upgrade to macOS 11. Such items can block the upload to iCloud and prevent new photos from being downloaded. Look for old videos, that are not using the HEVC or H.264 format. Or audio files, or graphics files, like PDF. When in doubt, if an item is compatible with your current version of Photos, export the original image file and try to reimport it to different Photos Library. Remove and convert all items from your Photos Library, that can no longer be imported to photos. My Photos Library started to sync again properly, after I converted most of the older videos to HEVC.
Are you sure phone and mac are signed into the same account? Have you checked the photos are visible at www.icloud.com?
If they are, then go into photos preferences on the mac - check the circled button is greyed out. If not, click it. Check the icloud tab is as shown.
How can I force Photos app on Mac to sync?
