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User profile for user: BrokenToken
BrokenToken Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Does face/people data sync to iCloud and then to all my Macs and iPhone?

I have about 20,000 photos in my Photos library, which is synced to iCloud. Will the people/face tagging that I make on one of my Macs eventually synchronize over to my other Macs and be reflected on my iPhone in time?


I'm a new Mac user, and have recently purchased both a Mac Studio and a Macbook Pro, and although I have the full library downloaded to each machine (and they do reflect photo edits, deletes, albums, etc.) I'm not seeing the People and face identification data sync over - yet. Do I have to do all of my People/face tagging from just one machine?


After making changes at my "source" Mac, Photos will tell me that "Photos will finish updating your people while you're not using the app", so I leave Photos open and just let it be. Is there any way for me to determine if whatever background process is doing that job is working properly?


Thank you for any insight you can provide.

Mac Studio

Posted on Jan 10, 2023 10:15 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
195,459 points

Posted on Jan 12, 2023 7:44 AM

It will depend on the system versions on your Mac and the iPhone.

In the early versions of Photos the named faces have not been synced with iCloud Photos, but since macOS 10.13 High Sierra and iOS11 the named faces are uploading to iCloud Photos as well and are synced across all devices.

I am naming the faces only in Photos on my newest Mac, but the named faces are appearing on my other Macs, my iPhone, my iPad as well.


The faces are the last item to sync between devices. As long as one device is still uploading or downloading photos face detection will not yet sync to iCloud. You may want to check the status bar below the "All Photos" tab for the progress of the iCloud syncing (Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support). Does one of your Mac show problematic items in the status bar, for example "Unable to upload" or "On this Mac only" items?



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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
195,459 points

Jan 12, 2023 7:44 AM in response to BrokenToken

It will depend on the system versions on your Mac and the iPhone.

In the early versions of Photos the named faces have not been synced with iCloud Photos, but since macOS 10.13 High Sierra and iOS11 the named faces are uploading to iCloud Photos as well and are synced across all devices.

I am naming the faces only in Photos on my newest Mac, but the named faces are appearing on my other Macs, my iPhone, my iPad as well.


The faces are the last item to sync between devices. As long as one device is still uploading or downloading photos face detection will not yet sync to iCloud. You may want to check the status bar below the "All Photos" tab for the progress of the iCloud syncing (Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support). Does one of your Mac show problematic items in the status bar, for example "Unable to upload" or "On this Mac only" items?



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Does face/people data sync to iCloud and then to all my Macs and iPhone?

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