iMac Pro stuck syncing photos to iCloud since Ventura upgrade

It now seems that it's only RAW files which won't upload. JPEGs upload and sync fine, although I'm still left with the five RAW files I uploaded earlier stuck syncing. I will log it with Apple.

Hi Grace

Thank you so much for your reply to my question. Unfortunately, I cannot follow your instructions because I no longer have an Unable to Upload folder. Since I posted my question, the 4,000 photos in the Unable to Upload folder grew to over 33,000, which is nearly half my entire Photos library of 70,000+! However, it did start to gradually reduce and the folder finally emptied completely overnight, at which point the Unable to Upload folder disappeared. I am now left with Photos continually trying to sync 26 photos and the only option I am given is to pause syncing.

When I download photos from my camera, I can no longer edit them because once I’ve edited and closed a photo it won’t fully re-open thereafter, it doesn’t sharpen up and I get an exclamation mark at the bottom right hand corner and the Unable to Upload folder appears again. If I delete the photo in the Unable to Upload folder and re-download the original from my camera, the same thing happens again when I try to edit it. (All my photos are stored on my iMac, by the way, and are not referenced.) I have seen suggestions online whereby the problem rights itself if you ‘revert to original’ after editing, but that’s not a solution, I need to be able to edit all my photos!

I am at my wits’ end on this, and need this Ventura glitch sorted, and quickly, but I don’t know how. Is there any other help you can give me please?

Thank you so much for your reply, léonie. As I have 4TB of storage space on my iMac, my Photos library has always been stored on the iMac in the Pictures folder and not on an external drive, so I don't think any of the items you mentioned apply in this case. I think I will have to contact Apple Support to get this sorted, but I appreciate your reply.

I have been following the advice you gave rdkrauss in December 2022 (see attached screenshot)

I created a new system library, which seemed to get rid of the seven photos which had got stuck syncing and my library looked fine, with everything synced. However, I have just uploaded five new photos from my camera into this new system library and they have been stuck syncing all over again. I took a screenshot on my iPad and it hasn't come over to my iMac, and neither has one I took on my iMac come on my iPad, although it says it has just synced with iCloud.

Incidentally, I found the thread above by using the word 'corrupted' rather than syncing, which narrowed the suggestions down a lot. Also, I have found a comment in my daily journal about problems with photo syncing a couple of weeks before I upgraded to Ventura so it would appear that my problem pre-dates that upgrade.

I should also add that the new library is optimised for storage on my iMac, whereas my original library was (and still is) stored on my iMac. Although I have 1.62 TB still available out of 4 TB of storage space on my iMac, I didn't want to download photos on to my iMac for now until I know I have solved the problem and can delete the original library, which I would be nervous to do. (I have Backblaze so it's fully backed up, but nevertheless ...!)