Photos app on Mac M1 MacOS Sonoma not working and not syncing with iCloud

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Level 1

5 points

Photos app on Mac M1 MacOS Sonoma not working and not syncing with iCloud

I run MacOS Sonoma on a MacBook Pro M1. I use iCloud Photo Library. I also use it on my iPhone, iPad and my other MacBook Pro M1 (identical model at my office.)

I'm having major issues with the photos app on one of my MacBook Pro laptops. Here are the problems: the other day it said it was repairing the database when I opened the app. It took a long time. Once it was finished it wasn't updated with the last 300 photos I'd imported from my other MacBook Pro at my office. My other devices had no problems updating. When I tried to turn iCloud off it was unresponsive, both in iCloud settings and in settings on the photos app. Once I got it turned off it didn't erase the library from the app. The photos remained (I have optimized library as default on) Then I tried turning it back on, it still didn't try to sync up. I tried erasing a photo but then it became unresponsive again and I had to force quit. I tried to edit a photo and it starts to download the photo but then comes to a halt when it's almost finished. Then I tried to log out of apple-id in iCloud, logged back on, nothing had changed. Then I tried to install a new version of MacOS Sonoma with the same result. The difference is that the library kept getting smaller and smaller down to a couple thousands photos (my library has approx 46400 photos.) I've tried to reboot many times, but there's no results. What to do?

See attached screenshot from the bottom of the photos app, it's in Swedish but it says "1446 photos, 7 videos" and "synchronising 43038 photos from iCloud"

Posted on Oct 24, 2023 8:49 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

zpjet

Level 1

22 points

Oct 29, 2023 4:00 AM in response to mikenite

It turned out the problem wasn’t with my library or my iCloud. What helped immediately was getting rid of

~/Library/Photos/Libraries/Syndication.photoslibrary

which, from a quick web search, is a library for Shared Albums (I don’t think it’s for Shared Library as it seems to go back a few years).

I moved it to bin - with command-backspace, and force-quitting the photolibraryd in Activity Monitor - then restarted and everything went to normal, with my M2 Pro not spinning fans and not getting warm, once again.

I wish I found out about that other library earlier - only when inspecting the process in Activity Monitor, with Open Files and Ports, I found there’s this other Syndication library.

My full discovery process Sonoma Photos.app 14.0 and 14.1 very slow… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Omar_A1

Community Specialist

Oct 25, 2023 9:04 AM in response to mikenite

Hello mikenite,

Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

Let's boot into safe mode and attempt to repair your library and sync to iCloud:

"Start up your Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
Select a volume.
Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar."

Additional details can be found here: Start up your Mac in safe mode

If the issue persists, can you provide a few more details? Have you tested on multiple networks? Also, what is your exact macOS version?

Cheers!

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Answer 3

mikenite Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 25, 2023 12:05 PM in response to Omar_A1

Hello,

thank you for your reply. However that didn't help unfortunately. I have tried to switch network also, I've also tried to repair the library but then it wasn't even able to do that, it said something like do you want to switch library at the end of the repair and then a message with an error code, can't rembember what it said exactly. Everything else is syncing up flawlessly, my documents and other stuff. I'm afraid I have to erase the entire computer and install it from scratch or something, I'd rather not but I'm out of ideas.

I'm on MacOS Sonoma 14.0

Edit: just discovered I can update to 14.1 som I'm gonna try that!

Cheers!

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Answer 4

mikenite Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 29, 2023 4:03 AM in response to zpjet

Good for you! In my case no one seems to know what the exact problem was. I sat with apple support on the phone for almost 3 hours, they had no clue, talked to three different support persons. We tried everything, starting a new photolibrary etc. nothing worked, reinstalled macOS Sonoma three times. Today I erased the computer and started from scratch, now it's working again...

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Answer 5

Lyraxas

Level 1

8 points

Nov 3, 2023 11:22 PM in response to zpjet

Oh jeeez, thanks a lot! This solved it for me. At first my Photos App got into recovery mode, after that it wouldn't sync anymore. I disabled and enabled iCloud multiple times, I reinstalled Sonoma, I deleted the whole library and created a new one. Nothing helped.

But with your Information everything went back to normal! Thanks a 1000 times!

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Answer 6

Nov 14, 2023 10:23 AM in response to zpjet

I have create it a ticket with apple support couple of weeks ago as my photos application stopped to sync with iCloud and it was very slow, they were helpless, and the tech on the call asked me to uninstall my vpn connection that I use for some work related. I was not convinced.

Doing this trick fixed the issue on my macbook pro, thanks.

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