Syncing stuck on “Reading Photo Library” step

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Syncing stuck on “Reading Photo Library” step

For some time now, my Mac OS takes a really LOOOOONG time to finish syncing with both my 2021 iPad Pro 12.9” and iPhone 14 Pro Max (and its predecessors). It seems to be taking the most time on the “Reading Photo Library” step and sometimes it gets stuck there, so much so that it can be trying to sync all night and still has not completed by the next day. This has happened to me with previous versions of Mac OS as well, in fact it’s been an ongoing problem despite mutiple iPhone/iPad devices and multiple versions of Mac OS

Solutions tried:

1) Make sure I’m suring only new, Apple USB-C cables

2) Make sure devices are connected directly to the computer

3) Updating to latest iOS on both devices and latest MacOS

4) Turning off photo sync (fixes the problem but now I can’t sync any new photos)

5) Deleting photos and restarting the photo sync (problem invariably returns)

I vaguely recall a previous manifestation of this problem for which solutions involved deleting some kind of photo cache file, though I don’t remember what that was, exactly. Otherwise, I can’t think of anything else to do differently. Does anyone have a fix for this problem? It’s really irritating and has significantly interfered with my normal use of my iOS devices.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jan 12, 2023 8:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,525 points

Feb 14, 2023 3:04 AM in response to Julian Bashir

Julian Bashir wrote:

...

I vaguely recall a previous manifestation of this problem for which solutions involved deleting some kind of photo cache file, though I don’t remember what that was, exactly. Otherwise, I can’t think of anything else to do differently. Does anyone have a fix for this problem? It’s really irritating and has significantly interfered with my normal use of my iOS devices.

There used to be an iPod (or iPhone or iPad)Photo Cache folder in the photo libraries of Aperture, iPhoto, and Photos. This folder cached the previews generated for syncing to speed up the process for the next sync.

if this folder got corrupted, removing it could fix problems with the syncing, but the next sync would be very slow.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150211043840/http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203156

I have not tried the manual sync since I have switched to iCloud Photos, because manual syncing and iCloud Photos cannot be used together, but you could look inside the Photos Library package and check, if the cache is still there and if it is growing, while Photos is slowly rendering the previews for the current syncing.

Open the Pictures folder and locate the Photos Library file.
Control-click Photos Library and choose Show Package Contents.
In the next window, look for the iPod/iPad/iPhone Photo Cache folder

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Answer 2

Jan 12, 2023 9:37 AM in response to Julian Bashir

First thought: You're right, it takes a long time for information to go up to iCloud and then back down to all the devices--sometimes days. The speed depends a lot on the quality of the internet connections. (Cables, not so much-- the internet is the bottleneck.) Maybe your experience is normal.

Are you using an external drive? An external drive use for the Photos Library must be formatted for Apple as MacOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS. And can not have had Time Machine on it since the formatting.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Turning off photo sync"

Do you have "Optimize Mac Storage" checked in Photos Preferences>iCloud? This will move smaller images down to your Mac and speed things up. This is also available on the iPhone and iPad. Try setting all these to "Optimize" -- you can change it later, if you want.

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Answer 3

Jan 12, 2023 9:56 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

To clarify, I am not using iCloud syncing at all, just direct syncing with the photos on my Mac.

My photo library is located on an external drive connected via Thunderbolt. I specifically got a Thunderbolt drive to make sure the connecton quality would be highest possible speed.

The external drive is formatted MacOS Extended (Journaled) and is not being used with Time Machine.

By “turning off photo sync” I mean that if I uncheck the option to sync photos in sync, that it skips this and will not get stuck on that step. But, that sort of defeats the point of being able to sync photos so it’s not really a solution.

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Answer 4

Feb 13, 2023 8:40 PM in response to RIGuitarGod

No, I've still had the same problem. I temporarily disabled Photo syncing to get around it, but this is obviously not a long-term solution. I was really hoping someone from Apple would have a fix. I'm sure we aren't the only ones having this problem.

By any chance, is your photo library on an external drive, and how big is it? Mine is on an external Thunderbolt drive and is about 890 GB in size. But then again, it's always been fairly large and was always on external hard drives, previously slower and lower tech ones than the one I have now, so I don't think that's the problem.

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Answer 5

Feb 13, 2023 4:32 PM in response to Julian Bashir

Did you ever have any luck with this? I'm going through the same thing.

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Syncing stuck on “Reading Photo Library” step

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