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Photos app on Mac won't update!

My photos app on my Mac says its updating the photos, but it isn't. Its now January and I don't have any pictures on there from my iCloud stream since September. I can view my most recent pictures on my iPhone and iPad but not on my MacBook.


I don't know how to fix this. It says its updating but its not doing anything.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 30, 2022 5:39 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 6, 2022 8:00 AM

The two items in "Unable to upload" are probably damaged or incompatible and blocking the upload. Try to export them from Photos with "File > Export > Export unmodified Original". Once you have them saved somewhere else, delete them from Photos and empty Recently deleted again.

Quit Photos and restart your Mac. Now check, if Photos is making progress with uploading the library again. It may take still some time, before Photos will be ready to download new photos. It first has to merge the current photos from your Mac into iCloud, before it will download and import the new photos.

Watch the sidebar, if more "unable to upload" items will occur.




9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 6, 2022 8:00 AM in response to jadenic0le

The two items in "Unable to upload" are probably damaged or incompatible and blocking the upload. Try to export them from Photos with "File > Export > Export unmodified Original". Once you have them saved somewhere else, delete them from Photos and empty Recently deleted again.

Quit Photos and restart your Mac. Now check, if Photos is making progress with uploading the library again. It may take still some time, before Photos will be ready to download new photos. It first has to merge the current photos from your Mac into iCloud, before it will download and import the new photos.

Watch the sidebar, if more "unable to upload" items will occur.




Jan 30, 2022 5:57 AM in response to jadenic0le

Go to system preferences then to your Apple ID , select iCloud make sure photos it’s selected then on the bottom make sure optimize Mac storage it’s selected too now open photos app go to preferences in the second tab unselect iCloud photos then select it back on make sure optimize Mac storage it’s selected see the screenshots and make the settings like this


Note.leave the app in background don’t close out

Photos app on Mac won't update!

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