Photos not downloading to PC from iCloud

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Level 1

4 points

Photos not downloading to PC from iCloud

I set up iCloud on my PC (windows 11 with new update to icloud for windows app) and set both my apple devices (iphone 13 with ios 17.2 and ipad pro with ios 16.3.1) to use iCloud photos. The photos are uploaded to iCloud (I can see this from web browser). However, only shared albums are downloading to my PC. I have over 2000 other photos I want to download.

Both boxes are ticked in photos options, (I have enough space on my computer. Low power mode is off on my devices. Any suggestions?

Windows

Posted on Dec 1, 2023 10:40 AM

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Answer 1

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Voltron27

Level 1

22 points

Feb 1, 2024 8:21 PM in response to m953

Apple, this is SOOOOO annoying! This problem has gone unfixed for years! It's pretty pathetic. Don't blame Microsoft. None of my other cloud syncing programs have this problem. Even the iCloud Drive files sync fine. It's literally JUST the photos in the iCloud Photos folder that don't sync properly. And don't tell me it works because you've tested it with like 5 photos in the folder. Any time you have a significant number of photos, like in the thousands, it just chokes and doesn't download them. It downloads SOME...very slowly...but never finishes. Obviously, if I complain to Microsoft, they are going to tell me it's Apple's fault. Please step up and fix this persistent issue that I'm sure THOUSANDS of your users continue to have. We are tired of lame workarounds!

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Answer 2

m953 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 2, 2023 2:11 PM in response to m953

Update: After spending an hour on the phone with apple support (removing norton, uninstalling/reinstalling icloud, rebooting computer etc), the solution was to create a new user on my PC (admin capabilities), and then downloading/installing icloud for windows and enabling photo sync on the new user. The photos downloaded nearly instantly.

Apple says this is not their problem, but Microsoft's. "There's some incompatibility with the original user that is preventing Apple from syncing the photos." The agent's guesses were 1) remnants of Norton 2) some other security software working in the background 3) lack of privileges in my original user (which was also admin). It was recommended I contact Microsoft Support. This doesn't really make sense as the albums always loaded.

So now I have the photos, but need to logout/login to this new user to use them. I guess it's better than nothing, but very inconvenient and I need to set up backups, password managers etc in this new user (which I named "Icloud NotWorking".

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Photos not downloading to PC from iCloud

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