iCloud Photos. How long to complete.

Question

Level 1

38 points

iCloud Photos. How long to complete.

Hi. Over the weekend I decided to take the plunge and switch over to iCloud Photos, enabling it on out 20year+ library.

At there start of the process our library was approx. 200GB in size with ~43k photos.

The first problem was that the update stalled with no errors. This turned out to be because the local copy of the library had filled up the external drive. I moved the library to my local drive and the process seems to have completed. The bottom of the "All Photos" has the image count and "Updating..."

After 48 hours of updating the local library size on disk is current 205GB - yesterday it was over 300GB.

According to iCloud preferences Photos are using ~95GB on the Cloud.

I've also switched over to iCloud Photos on my iPhone and iPad (all images from both had been manually imported into Photos before turning on iCloud Photos)

Those have had 2 nights of updating and are listing ~21k photos - more than they had before the switch on - but are missing photos from approx. 2000 - 2013. Both devices show "Update Just Now" under the "All Photos" tab

I'm assuming that the Macbook is still in the process of updating the Library (the only evidence being the shrinking Library size) and that the iPad and iPhone will catch up over the next couple of days.

Should I just leave the Macbook plugged in with Photos open in the background?

MacBook Air, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jul 18, 2022 2:01 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,249 points

Jul 18, 2022 3:49 AM in response to DanKell

With 200GB of photos it may take more than a week to finish the first syncing with iCloud Photos.

My own Photos Library with 250 GB of photos and videos needed 10 days for the first upload into iCloud Photos. It is not just an upload, but iCloud has to recreate the library in iCloud and solve conflicts between duplicates.

I would wait a bit longer and let it run. While you are waiting watch out for albums or folders with "Unable to upload" in the name in the sidebar. You could also create a smart album with the single rule "Photo is unable to upload". A library with very old photos and videos may contain items that cannot be uploaded to iCloud and cause the syncing to hang. Do you have videos that are neither HEVC nor H.264? Or do you have scanned photos in your library that are neither JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, PNG, PSD? After the upgrade to macOS 10.15 I had to convert most of my videos to a different format, also to remove all PDF files and some of the photos shared by others, until the iCloud syncing could finish successfully.

Reply

Answer 2

DanKell Author

Level 1

38 points

Jul 18, 2022 4:07 AM in response to léonie

Thanks. It would be nice if there were a bit more feedback than just "Updating..."

How did you leave the Mac during that time?

I'm assuming Photos open, in the background.

Should I run Caffeine to stop it sleeping or is sleep fine?

Reply

Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,249 points

Jul 18, 2022 5:46 AM in response to DanKell

I left Photos open, but not in the foreground.

Apple has not documented, if the iCloud syncing will happen during Power Nap, so I disabled the Energy Saver, to prevent the Mac from falling asleep.

I would occasionally check, if the number of photos and videos in iCloud is increasing, in the Photos.app at www.icloud.com .

Reply

Answer 4

DanKell Author

Level 1

38 points

Jul 18, 2022 5:48 AM in response to léonie

Thanks again.

Since posting the original question Photos has moved from "Updating..." back to "Uploading 24k items" which roughly matches the difference between local and currently available on the other devices

Reply