Turned on iCloud Photos and lost pictures. How can I make this work?

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Level 1

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Turned on iCloud Photos and lost pictures. How can I make this work?

I want to enable iCloud photos, but have some reservations. I hope someone can help.

I keep my entire Photos Library on an external hard drive. Once every few weeks or month, I plug my phone into my MacBook Pro and upload new pictures to my Photos Library.

Two years ago I decided to go for the switch to using iCloud Photos. I upgraded my iCloud storage and turned the button on. In the process, I think the uploading froze a few times, and it ended in lots of my pictures disappearing. I had to go to a Time Machine backup (or Backblaze) to restore the photos. I then turned off iCloud Photos and gave up on it.

I'd like to start using iCloud Photos, but I'm afraid the problem will happen again. Does anyone know of any procedures to go through to ensure a clean upload to the cloud?

Posted on May 30, 2023 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

194,691 points

May 31, 2023 5:11 AM in response to AceKicker

Which system version do you have installed on your Mac?

And where is your Photos Library stored? If your Photos Library is on an externals drive, make sure the external drive is meeting all requirements described here: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

iCloud Photos cannot work with referenced files. All items should have been copied into the Photos Library on import, not referenced outside the library.

All media files inside the library should be using codecs, that Photos can process. For videos, I would stick with videos using the HEVC codec or H.264, and for image files with formats, that Photos can export, or with HEIC or supported RAW formats.

Make a copy of your Photos Library, before you try the first upload to iCloud. And be patient. The first upload will take a very long time. How large is the library? As an estimate, when I uploaded my library for the first time, several years ago, it too ten days for just 40000 photos and videos, without showing any progress. Just wait and don't interrupt it, even if the progress bar seems to be stuck.

You can check the progress in Photos on your iCloud web page at www.icloud.com .

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Answer 2

AceKicker Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 2, 2023 1:32 PM in response to léonie

Thanks for your response.

Right now I have OS 13.3.1 (a), but at the time I tried it last, I had the most up to date version (this was two years ago).

I keep my entire Photos Library on an external hard drive. It is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

The file formats are compatible. I've been using Apple Photos for over a decade.

One thing I didn't is over the past few months, I get error messages a lot when opening Photos, and it's always a pain to fix. I repair the library, repair the hard drive via disk utility, etc.

There are two different errors I get. The one I got today (after weeks of no errors) was: Photos was unable to open the library “Photos Library”. (4302). Do you have any suggestions on how to get these errors to quit recurring?

Once I can get this error cleared, I'll try the process you said and give it time. My library is 567GB.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,691 points

Jun 3, 2023 2:11 AM in response to AceKicker

One thing I did not mention in my previous reply is, that it currently does not seem to be save to use an encrypted volume with Photos. Whenever I have used an encrypted volume for Photos I got the same random erros you mentioned. There may be a timing problem when Photos needs to access encrypted data.

And the external drive with the library needs to be connected and mounted as long as you are signed into your user account, even if you are not working with Photos.

Perhaps you may want to wait until next week after WWDC, to see, what changes will be brought by the new macOS 14.

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Turned on iCloud Photos and lost pictures. How can I make this work?

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