Syncing photos with icloud

I have an old Macbook pro (purchased 2012, running Catalina 10.15.7) that doesn't seem to be uploading photos to icloud. I don't see any information anywhere about photos syncing. When I scroll to the bottom of my photos, it states how many photos and videos there are, but nothing about syncing. I also don't see any buttons I can toggle for syncing. What am I missing?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 9, 2025 4:46 PM

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Posted on Mar 9, 2025 4:56 PM

Do you have iCloud Photos turned on in the Mac?


You can do that by opening the Photos app, click Preferences in the menu named Photos, click iCloud at the top of the Preferences window, put a check mark in front of iCloud Photos. While there also note the 2 options: Download Photos to this Mac (to keep a copy of the full size original on the Mac) or the Optimize Storage option.


Also see the information in Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 9, 2025 4:56 PM in response to donfromwetumpka

Do you have iCloud Photos turned on in the Mac?


You can do that by opening the Photos app, click Preferences in the menu named Photos, click iCloud at the top of the Preferences window, put a check mark in front of iCloud Photos. While there also note the 2 options: Download Photos to this Mac (to keep a copy of the full size original on the Mac) or the Optimize Storage option.


Also see the information in Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Mar 10, 2025 9:04 AM in response to donfromwetumpka

You haven't told us much about what you've already done or what you expect or how you know it's not syncing. It could take a while for each of us to make a suggestion and then you respond with "Already done that." Apple AI still doesn't include mind-reading. Maybe you could help out?


It's hard to be sure about Catalina. In Sequoia this

appears at the bottom of the Library view.


I found this from Ventura (I think):

and it says "Update" rather than "Synced."


Have you looked at iCloud.com?





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Syncing photos with icloud

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