iPhone: Photos Do Not Sync to iCloud

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Level 1

15 points

iPhone: Photos Do Not Sync to iCloud

iPhone 15 Pro Max (1TB), iOS 17.5.1, 2TB iCloud account with about half the space used. Just under 70,000 photos, and about 1500 videos on the phone.

Photo sync works sometimes, but then appears to stop for no apparent reason. It has been trying for about two hours to sync 109 items, with no progress. Pausing and restarting sync, closing and reopening Photos, and restarting the phone all do not help.

Any thoughts on how to get this to work? My iPad syncs with no problems.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17

Posted on Jun 21, 2024 3:40 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 22, 2024 7:56 AM in response to John D III

How's your wifi? Mine sucks! So two hours doesn't seem all that long to me. When I've just taken a picture on my phone, and I want to use it immediately on my Mac, I use airdrop to transfer it quickly.

Have you tried plugging the phone in to power? Have you tried turning off wifi to force cellular data transfer? Sometimes those things seem to help.

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Answer 2

John D III Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 28, 2024 2:02 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Tried shutting off wifi, no joy. Tried a few other things, but nothing worked until I connected it to power. Then it did the sync immediately, and took less than a minute for about 110 photos.

I started out with about 84% charge when I originally tried to get it to sync, so there was really no reason to conserve battery.

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Answer 3

Jun 29, 2024 7:38 AM in response to John D III

John D III wrote: I started out with about 84% charge when I originally tried to get it to sync, so there was really no reason to conserve battery.

The iPhone doesn't know what you will be doing the rest of the day or how much you may need to use your phone later. Imagine how angry people would be if their phones kept dying because of invisible low-priority background stuff. The phones are smart, AI is coming along, but reading minds is still beyond their abilities. That's why background operations may be delayed until the phone is plugged in or until wifi is stronger.

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