Mac Photos does not sync with iCloud

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Level 1

7 points

Mac Photos does not sync with iCloud

My Mac does not sync with my photos on iCloud.

The pictures that I take with my phone and my iPad are uploaded on iCloud (I can see them on the iCloud.com site). The synchronization happens seamlessly between the iPad and the iPhone.

The issue seems related to the Mac.

All boxes are ticked and I am logged on with the same Apple Id profile on the Mac as on the phone and Ipad.

On the Mac, Photos states "uploading 5658 items" when I scroll down to the bottom of the Library. It offers to "pause" the uploading process. I tried to pause and resume with no effect.

It seems "stuck" in the uploading process and it doesn't download anything.

Help would be appreciated !

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jan 4, 2022 1:49 AM

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Answer 1

Monsieur___ Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 4, 2022 8:36 AM in response to Monsieur___

Thanks a lot !

The upload seems to be "unstuck". I am down to 5,140 items to upload. It's coming down very slowly.

The Download from the Cloud to the Mac seems not to be happening for now but I'll wait yo see what happens next.

Thanks A LOT Tony.

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Answer 2

Jan 4, 2022 8:12 AM in response to Monsieur___

Export them from the library to a folder using file>export, or file>export unmodified original - depending on what you want.

Then after you have confirmed they are saved correctly you will need to delete them from photos.

If that allows the sync to complete, you may find that it is possible to re-import those images and have them sync.

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Answer 3

Monsieur___ Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 7, 2022 2:26 AM in response to Monsieur___

Hi Tony,

I am coming out of a long process but now everything is working !

Your help has been instrumental in helping me.

Ultimately, the issue has been resolved by removing the largest videos that I had on my Mac from the Library. I had some old format videos that were larger than 750 MO. I removed a lot of the largest Videos and also converted RAW pictures in JPEG.

In order to do that, I ended up using PowerPhoto. It also helped me find a significant amount of duplicated videos.

My library is smaller but now is sync'ing finally.

Anyway, I meant to say thank you !

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Answer 4

Jan 4, 2022 4:09 AM in response to Monsieur___

Hi

How long have you left it? Syncing a full library is very slow - for reference, my 5000 item 50GB library took a full 48 hours, and photos has to be open all the time for that to take place. Also the mac needs to be "awake"

Leave your mac on 24/7, connected to power, and with sleep disabled.

And how big is your library.

Where is your library stored? In your pictures folder? Or somewhere else. If on an external drive, what is the format?

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Answer 5

Monsieur___ Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 4, 2022 4:18 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Hi Tony,

My Library is in "My Pictures" on the hard drive of my Mac Mini. Thanks in advance for the help !

My Library 134 GB large.

The formats of pictures and movies are HEIC, PNG, JPEG, MPEG, RAW, ....

Since earlier today, I went on iCloud.com and downloaded a photos. It came as a zip file that I imported in Photos on the Mac.

The number of photos that Photos wanted to upload has increased at first and then reduced to 5824 photos. It's stuck again... And I am afraid to create duplicates. But I'll deal with that later.

I am wondering if there is a large file (a movie) on which the upload is getting stuck...

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Answer 6

Monsieur___ Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 4, 2022 6:21 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks again Tony.

I left my Mac on for 2 weeks. But I think it went on sleep mode.

I will change the settings to prevent it to get into sleep mode.

In the last 2 hours, it has been on and the number of items to sync has not moved down : it says is is uploading 5,801 items.

It's not downloading anything from the cloud.

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Answer 7

Jan 4, 2022 6:27 AM in response to Monsieur___

If you donwload manually and import, you won't solve the problem, you'll just create duplicates. I'd not reccomend this way.

It is normal for the status indication to not move for long periods of time.

It might be a case of just waiting, or it might be stuck if (for example) there are items in your library that are not compatible with iCloud. Do you have an "unable to upload" folder in the left hand sidebar? Or if you create a smart album with the condition "photo> is unable to upload to iCloud" does it show anything?

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Answer 8

Monsieur___ Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 4, 2022 6:54 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Wow... I learnt something today !

Indeed, I created the smart Album with the recommended condition with it found 123 photos and 6 videos. There is nothing that strike me as weird about these pictures in terms of dates or format. They were not shot with an iPhone.

I will move them away from the library and see if something happens.

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Answer 9

Jan 4, 2022 9:57 AM in response to Monsieur___

Welcome 🙃

icloud to mac probably won't happen until sync is complete.

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Answer 10

Jan 7, 2022 8:52 AM in response to Monsieur___

Good news - thanks for letting me know.

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Mac Photos does not sync with iCloud

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