iCloud Video Upload Delay

Question

Level 1

19 points

iCloud Video Upload Delay

I regularly sync videos and photos among iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. I have noticed that on all devices, there is a substantial delay before the video even begins uploading. For example, I took an 11 minute video (4k60) and it waited over two hours before it actually began uploading. I was monitoring the network use to see when the upload would begin.

I needed the video from the iPhone to be on the iPad. I had considered just airdropping the video to the iPad, but then I would have two copies eventually on iCloud. I have had videos wait much of the night before uploading, even though Photos claims that it is synchronizing. A stalled uploading video delays synchronizing not just the video, but all subsequent content.

Why does the device (iPhone, iPad, MacBook) sit and spin for several hours on larger videos? Is it transcoding them before sending to iCloud? Is there anything I can do to avoid this?

In case you are going to the easy answers:

All devices are running the latest version of the operating system
All devices have plenty of free space
- iPhone has 734 GB free on disk
- iPad has 549 GB free on disk
- MacBook has 1.4 TB free on disk
- iCloud has 600 GB free
All devices had 80% or more of battery remaining and were plugged into power
Internet speed is 1200 mbps down (600 usable on WiFi) and 40 mbps up
MacBook is running content caching services

iPhone 13 Pro Max, 15

Posted on Dec 18, 2021 8:04 PM

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Answer 1

martyscholes Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 20, 2021 9:20 AM in response to SnickZ.

Thank you for the feedback. I was probably unclear. The phone can spend hours seemingly doing nothing while it is claiming that it is uploading. It will not use any internet connectivity during that time. Once it finishes doing whatever it is doing, only then will it consume internet bandwidth and actually upload the video.

What is it doing during that time? How can I improve it?

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Answer 2

martyscholes Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 6, 2022 7:57 PM in response to MichelleT18

Thanks for the response. I am truly confused by the responses, none of which addressed the question of long delays before a video is uploaded — stated in the title of this thread and repeated on each of my posts.

I was really hoping for something along the lines of, “Yeah, iOS does XYZ before it actually starts uploading and there is nothing you can do and no way to estimate when the file will really start uploading to iCloud.” Even better would be, “Yeah, iOS does XYZ before it actually starts uploading but there are steps you can take to minimize it, such as A, B, or C.”

I find it difficult to comprehend that out of the millions of iOS users out there, only I have perceived this issue.

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Answer 3

martyscholes Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 1, 2022 7:07 PM in response to Chris_D13

Chris_D13,

Thanks for getting back to me. I did contact Apple Support. The proposed troubleshooting steps involved following the below instructions:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201302

To follow those instructions, I would need to transfer over 1 TB of photos from my MacBook to my iPhone, as shown in the image below.

If my math is right, under ideal conditions with the Lightning cable being the sole limit to performance, this would complete in about four hours. Any deviation from ideal conditions would render my phone unavailable potentially for several days.

I asked the support representative:

Why would I transfer content from the MacBook to the iPhone when that content already exists on the iPhone?
How would this transfer shed any light whatsoever on delays in the iPhone uploading video?

The representative told me that he could not help me further until I performed those steps. At that point, I decided this was no longer worth it to me, so I requested that the representative close the ticket. After closing the ticket, the representative assured me that Apple Support is there 24/7 to help me, which seemed rather ironic considering that the hour I spent with support provided no help at all.

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Answer 4

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Dec 23, 2021 7:30 PM in response to martyscholes

Hello martyscholes,

Tanks for following up with us. We understand wanting to speed up the process of syncing photos and videos between your devices. Let's continue working on this together.

Do you edit or crop your photos and videos before syncing them between your devices?

"Your photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats at full resolution. This includes HEIF, JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEVC, and MP4 as well as special formats you capture with your iPhone or iPad, like slo-mo, time-lapse, 4K videos, and Live Photos. The photos and videos you capture with these devices are in HEIF and HEVC format. When you edit or delete photos or videos, it's reflected across all of your devices.

Edits show up on all of your devices

When you make edits in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch or on your Mac, the photo automatically updates across all your devices, including your Apple TV. So when you crop or enhance a photo from your iPhone, you see the changes when you access your library from your Mac. Your original photos and videos are stored in iCloud and you can go back to them at any time, and revert any changes you made."

Set up and use iCloud Photos

That could be also, due to encryption. Check this out:

iCloud security overview

Let us know if that helps. Cheers!

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Answer 5

Jan 6, 2022 5:38 PM in response to martyscholes

Hello martyscholes,

We're be happy to get your questions answered regarding uploading your photos and videos to iCloud.

"iCloud secures your information by encrypting it when it's in transit and storing it in iCloud in an encrypted format. "

iCloud security overview

For encryption in transit, the data is encrypted before transmission; and the data is decrypted and verified on arrival.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Have a nice day.

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Answer 6

Chris_D13

Community Specialist

Feb 1, 2022 6:52 PM in response to martyscholes

Hello martyscholes,

Thanks for back to us. We'd be happy to get you pointed in the right direction to get some help regarding the delay you're experiencing when you upload your photos, and videos to iCloud.

At this point, we'd recommend reaching out to Apple Support to investigate this issue further. You can reach out to them here: Get Support

Kind regards.

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Answer 7

martyscholes Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 25, 2021 9:16 AM in response to Eric--F

Eric,

Thank you for the reply. The videos are not edited. If I understand you correctly, disabling encryption will allow videos to start uploading immediately, is that correct?

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Answer 8

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Dec 20, 2021 6:40 AM in response to martyscholes

Hello martyscholes,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand your concern about syncing videos between all your devices using iCloud taking longer than expected, and we'd be happy to provide some guidance.

The amount of time it will take to sync your photos and videos depends on their size, and the speed of your internet connection. You can also, try to have your devices connected to power and see if that makes any difference.

For more information, please check out these helpful links:

Set up and use iCloud Photos

Get help with iCloud Photos

Is iCloud syncing generally very slow?

Under: "Apple recommended"

We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.

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iCloud Video Upload Delay

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