What does "restoring from iCloud" mean in Apple Photos?

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kerraddoo Author

Level 1

21 points

What does "restoring from iCloud" mean in Apple Photos?

Opened Photos today and get this message - why? Looking at past threads I don't see any answers just questions.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Apr 22, 2022 12:31 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,135 points

Apr 23, 2022 9:48 PM in response to kerraddoo

iCloud Photos is checking for duplicates, when you restore a library from a backup or sync it a second time with iCloud. While the restored library is synced again with iCloud and the two libraries (the local library and the iCloud Library) are you may need temporarily more storage, until the conflicts between duplicates are resolved.

But only exactly identical files are recognised as duplicates.

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Answer 2

Todd0213

Community Specialist

Apr 23, 2022 7:27 AM in response to kerraddoo

Hello kerraddoo,

That's a great question! If you're seeing "Restoring from iCloud" when opening Photos, it could be due to having updated iOS recently, restored to a backup, or having changed settings for iCloud Photos in Settings > [your name] > Photos.

If you've recently updated iOS it can take some time for content to sync back to your device and background tasks to complete. Are you having any issues viewing your photos in the Photos app or backing up to iCloud?

Have a great day!

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Answer 3

kerraddoo Author

Level 1

21 points

Apr 30, 2022 1:32 PM in response to léonie

I've now got virtually complete agreement between my MacBook, iPhone SE and iPad. It's eaten roughly 1 week but looks like we're there now.

Many thanks.

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Answer 4

kerraddoo Author

Level 1

21 points

Apr 23, 2022 10:27 AM in response to kerraddoo

Thanks for this.

Updated to Monterey 12.3.1 about a week ago and have imported quite a lot of large RAW files. Imports went well and all viewable. Database is on an attached external 5Tb Lacie HD, formatted for iOS.

There are 33,000 photos and 900 videos on the app in my MacBook and database size using get info on Lacie drive is 770Gb. Although library size using get info in Photo app is 430Gb.

Prior to import iCloud was at 140Gb.

Iphone SE running 15.3.1 now at 16,000 photos and 800 videos and growing - very slowly.

iPad Air running 12.5.5 now at 15489 all photos.

iCloud increased to 2Tb prior to import.

There will be quite a few duplicates to be sorted and would expect final database size around 450Gb.

I'm patient but it seems to be very slow compared to previous times I've imported. Slow meaning roughly 30 hours so far. It's clearly sorting them but pretty much at a snails pace. We'll get there fingers crossed.

Regards.