iPhoto / iCloud Photos syncing unbelievably slow — 3 days to sync 15 photos?!

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Level 1

6 points

iPhoto / iCloud Photos syncing unbelievably slow — 3 days to sync 15 photos?!

Photos simply do not sync reliably anymore. If I take some photos on my iPhone, they just sit there. Nothing shows up on my iMac unless I go into Settings and toggle iCloud Photos on the Mac — basically trying to “kick” it into syncing.

And even then… I’m waiting up to 3 DAYS just for about 15 photos to appear. No exaggeration. There’s also no manual “Sync Now” button, which feels ridiculous in 2025. Sometimes nothing syncs at all unless I keep fiddling with the settings.

This whole process has become painfully tedious and honestly feels broken.

I’ve been on macOS for 30 years, and the decline in quality over the last 10 years has been slow but very obvious. Sync used to “just work.” Now it’s slower and clunkier than anything I ever dealt with. Safari has gone downhill too — laggy, buggy, stalls more often than I’d like, a lot of websites don't like to work on it, and I'm forced to move to Chrome.

I never thought I’d say it, but macOS is on par with Windows when it comes to reliability. I’ve stuck with Apple because the ecosystem was meant to be seamless — but syncing photos across devices shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth.

Is anyone else experiencing stupidly slow iCloud photo syncing on iMac?

Is there any way to trigger a manual sync? Or is this just how things are now?

Honestly, starting to wonder if it’s time to rethink the whole setup.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Dec 26, 2025 12:51 AM

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Answer 1

Hiromar Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 15, 2026 2:54 AM in response to léonie

You are massively overcomplicating what should be a trivial sync process.

This is no different to basic Wi-Fi device syncing. I’ve used Apple hardware for over 30 years and I have never waited five days for two or three photos taken on the same day to appear. That alone tells you something is broken.

This is not a corrupt image, an incompatible format, or some obscure edge case. The photos reach iCloud almost instantly. The failure is on Apple’s side — iOS/macOS Photos syncing. Full stop.

Look at the number of hoops you’re jumping through to explain away what should be a seamless, background task. That’s not “advanced troubleshooting”, it’s a sign the system is failing. This is meant to be a premium, tightly controlled ecosystem — not something that needs constant babysitting and detective work.

We’re not in the back end of nowhere running some janky server stack. This is Apple’s own OS, hardware and cloud. Syncing a handful of photos should be invisible. Instead, it’s slow, unreliable, and opaque.

Apple should get its act together instead of serving up increasingly mediocre software with declining reliability.

Samsung shipped core tech years ago that the iPhone 17 is recently claiming — that speaks volumes. Meanwhile, Apple’s busy shipping Mac Studios to YouTubers to flex local AI setups while basic platform fundamentals rot.

That tells you exactly where priorities are — and who’s getting fleeced.

FYI - <y photos is still syncing the same sync since I wrote this post. That is 20 days. So I have been airdropping in the meantime.

This is plain stupidity.

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Answer 2

Jan 15, 2026 8:22 AM in response to Hiromar

You have misunderstood this Community site. We are not Apple; folks who read these posts are just users like you. Some of us hang around here from time to time in case our experience may help someone. We don't get paid and we don't have a schedule, and Apple engineers don’t read the stuff, here. There is absolutely no value in angry ranting at experienced and knowledgable people like léonie who just want to help. If you are more interested in being angry than in finding a solution, then you're not at the right place.

If you would like to make suggestions to Apple, go here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

Here's a hint: when you ask someone for help, Apple, or anybody, really, you're more likely to get results by being polite and serious, and stating your concern without emotional outburst. Remember that the person who reads your post probably, even at the Apple feedback site, is in no way connected with the cause of your rant, and on this site we only answer the questions we want to.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,909 points

Dec 26, 2025 2:59 AM in response to Hiromar

How large is the library on your Mac?

When you toggle iCloud Photos on and off, Photos will have to sync the complete library again with iCloud Photos, and you are lucky, if it only takes three days.

When there is a problem with syncing new photos from the iPhone to the Mac, the first place I am checking is the Photos.app on my iCloud web page at www.icloud.com . There I can see, if the photos have already arrived in iCloud and and Phone managed to upload them. Frequently I have to check on the iPhone, if it has paused the upload, because it is on battery power.

Then I have to connect it to the charger and so the upload will start.

When the new photos are already in iCloud, but the Mac is not downloading them, there might be a recently imported photo on your Mac that is not compatible with iCloud and Photos cannot upload it. Such items need to be removed from the Photos Library and converted to a different format, before the syncing will work again.

What is the status bar showing on your Mac? See: Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support

Are there items listed as "On this Mac only" or "couldn't sync with iCloud"? Such items should be removed, so the Mac does not waste time on trying over and over again to upload items that cannot be uploaded.

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iPhoto / iCloud Photos syncing unbelievably slow — 3 days to sync 15 photos?!

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