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User profile for user: smile123
smile123 Author
User level: Level 1
3 points

My iCloud Photo Stream is not syncing correctly to my Windows 8.1 laptop or my Windows 7 PC.

I have been going through the forums for the last few weeks and nothing has helped. Both computers are x64 bit.


Problems I am experiencing

A. Windows 7 PC has not synced photo stream since September 25

B. Windows 8.1 laptop has not synced since a little before that.

C. I can't upload any photos (.jpegs) to the photo stream. An error pops up saying that they cann't be uploaded as they are not in a format supported by iCloud, even though they are jpegs.

D. Photos are syncing ti my ipad 3 perfectly fine, so clearly there is a problem with my computers but I am totally stumped.


  1. I have un-installed, deleted all icloud photo stream folders, restarted and then re-installed the iCloud control panel on both computers, and it has created new folders and re-synced maybe 30 photos before it stopped again.
  2. I have uninstalled every single Apple program on my Windows 8.1 laptop and reinstalled iTunes, iCloud and Quicktime and that didn't help.
  3. I have toggled the Photo Stream on/off button in setting on my iphone, and that seemed to kick start the sync on my Windows 7 PC this morning, so far I've got 70 photos on my Windows 7 PC and that's where it has stopped but its a really random selection, and doesn't include the photos I took yesterday or today.
  4. Two of my colleagues at work where my Windows 7 PC is located - their photo streams are working fine, both using ios7 and icloud control panel, however their computers are x32 bit.
  5. I have also simply logged out and signed in again multiple times, however that doesn't do anything.
  6. I have unticked the "read-Only" permissions on my photo icloud stream folder, but that didn't help either.
  7. I have followed the troubleshooting from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3989 - however that also did not help.
  8. I have tried changing the folder path for iCloud photo stream, however that did not help either.
  9. I tried the steps from someone who said they spoke to an Apple rep (steps copied from forum and I put them in italic) on this forum: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5381738

    1. Anyway, the Apple rep had me sign out of iCloud CC on my PC.

    2. Then on each iOS devices Settings/iCloud/Delete Account.

    3. Confirmed all the warnings.

    4. Then re-entered my iCloud id and password on the iOS device.

    5. Things restarted and the iOS Photo Streams got loaded with the number of photos that

    6. iCloud has.

    7. Signed in on iCloud on the PC. It synced the same way.

    8. Tried taking pictures on the iPhone and iPad. They synced everywhere.

    9. So I'm back in business.

    10. I just deleted everything on my iOS devices when I exited iCloud.

    11. My interest is the PC syncing when I take a photo on my iPhone.

    12. ME: Okay so these steps again refreshed the photostream on my iPhone 5. I can see that the photos I took yesterday and today have been uploaded to the photo stream as I can see them there on my device. I have also now signed back into iCloud on my Windows 7 PC and it is slowly syncing again, but just recognising the same photos it downloaded previously as per Step 3 which I did just earlier this morning.

  10. I have also just tried uploading photos via the upload folder from my windows 7 PC, and they uploaded perfectly.


This is really, really frustrating. I've tried everything I can find on these forums but nothing has helped fix the issue 100%.


Can anyone offer something else I can try to reslove this issue?

Posted on Dec 2, 2013 4:08 PM

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User profile for user: jezloz
jezloz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Posted on Dec 3, 2013 11:33 PM

I have the same issue here. Have been searching for answers for a week. Photo's that load up are just random and stops at 25-40 pics, no more after that. Apple are refusing to take this as a real issue and investigate. It is a known issue with users.


I am seriously looking at packing up my apple goods and moving on. Without the photostream to PC option I could go with any product.

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User profile for user: jezloz
jezloz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 3, 2013 11:33 PM in response to smile123

I have the same issue here. Have been searching for answers for a week. Photo's that load up are just random and stops at 25-40 pics, no more after that. Apple are refusing to take this as a real issue and investigate. It is a known issue with users.


I am seriously looking at packing up my apple goods and moving on. Without the photostream to PC option I could go with any product.

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User profile for user: Steritz
Steritz
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 6, 2013 9:33 AM in response to smile123

I have also been trying for two week now to get photos on iCloud to work. Tried all suggestions on various chat communities and results remain a failure. Impacting on productivity as I have an app that uses iCloud photos to archive expense voucher images for my business. Would be nice if someone at Apple can at least acknowledge the problem and gve us some comfort that the problem is being looked at. Not a big business but we have 17 Apple devices heading for the trash bin soon.

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User profile for user: Robin Seneta
Robin Seneta
User level: Level 1
25 points

Dec 14, 2013 10:02 PM in response to smile123

I fight with my photostream all the time. I assume as soon as I get to my house and in the wireless environment they will jump to my PC but they don't. Then I waste hours of time trying to restart everything just to pull them over. It doesn't. I just revert to plugging in my phone and dragging them over-which I shouldn't have to do since that is what photostream and icloud are for-but whatever Apple. Nothing seems to be working lately....I struggle with ITunes on my computer as well-seems like their services are failing-it's sad. What is even more sad...? My Google+ app syncs my photos right up to my google account-if it is that easy for an app that is not native to the Apple environment to do it-then why can't Apple make it seamlessly work within all their own apps and software. That is sad. Maybe that Google+ App should be a hint for Apple....or it's customers.

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User profile for user: HowardFromRedmond
HowardFromRedmond
User level: Level 1
19 points

Dec 15, 2013 9:24 AM in response to smile123

Hi all. I can’t tell you how to solve your iCloud 3.x issues. Heck, I don’t think they’re even solvable.



But if you had a previous version of iCloud that was working correctly then I can definitely tell you how to solve the “iCloud Photo Stream is not syncing correctly to my Windows 7 PC” problem. …without even a re-boot.



  1. Log out of iCloud 3.0 and uninstall it.
  2. Open My Computer and then open your C:\ drive. Go to Tools/Folder Options and click on the View tab. Select the “Show hidden…” radio button and click on OK.
  3. Open the Users folder.
  4. Open your user folder
  5. Open ProgramData (previously hidden folder)
  6. Open the Apple folder – not the Apple Computer folder.
  7. Open the Installer Cache folder
  8. In Details view sort on Name
  9. Open the folder for the newest entry for iCloud Control Panel 2.x – probably 2.1.2.8 dated 4/25/2013
  10. Right click on iCloud64.msi and select Install.



When finished, the synching between iCloud and your PC will be back to working perfectly as before the 3.0 fiasco. The pictures will be synched to the same Photostream folder as before the “upgrade”. Now all you need to do is wait until Apple/Microsoft get this thing fixed and working before you try the 3.x upgrade again.



I think the iCloud 3.0 software was written by the same folks who wrote healthcare.gov with the main difference being that healthcare.gov might eventually be made to work.



For those of you who hate to go backwards, think of it as attacking to the rear. Which would you rather have, the frustration of no synching or everything working on an older version?



Good luck…

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User profile for user: HowardFromRedmond
HowardFromRedmond
User level: Level 1
19 points

Dec 18, 2013 8:37 AM in response to HowardFromRedmond

For those of you who got this to work, good for you. For the ones who didn't, it's my fault. I got a couple different procedures that I had tried mixed up together.


You don't need to do steps 3 & 4 -- The hidden folder ProgramData shows up after step #2.


Sorry for the mistake.


Howard


PS: It would have been much simpler to correct my mistake if there was an "Edit Post" function.

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User profile for user: Mizoo
Mizoo
User level: Level 1
9 points

Jan 7, 2014 2:58 PM in response to HowardFromRedmond

I had this same problem. I checked with the troubleshoot part of iCloud and this was the suggested fix:


Try signing out of and back in to iCloud Control Panel:

  1. Close any open Windows Explorer or File Explorer windows you're using to access iCloud Photos (or Photo Stream).
  2. Open iCloud Control Panel:
    • In Windows 8, go to the Start screen, then click the iCloud tile.
    • In Windows 7, choose Start menu > All Programs > iCloud > iCloud.
  3. Click Sign out.
  4. Enter your Apple ID and password. Click Sign in.
  5. Select iCloud Photos (or Photo Stream) under Favorites in a folder window of File Explorer (Windows 8) or Windows Explorer (Windows 7).
  6. Double-click the shared stream.

You should now see thumbnail images in the Recent Updates column.


So far this seems to be working. Photos are now downloading (slowly, I might add, over my high speed wifi) to my Windows 7 64 bit computer. What a hassle, though. Why hasn't Apple fixed this without us having to go searching for resolution?

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User profile for user: orchidash
orchidash
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jan 17, 2014 1:53 PM in response to HowardFromRedmond

Do you know if there is any way to downgrade on a new laptop with no previous installation versions? I would really like to get the synching capability back but am having much difficulty figuring out what I can do about this. I am running Windows 8.1 x64 and have iCloud panel 3.1. Everything is working fine on the phone itself, and my shared streams are synching on my PC, but my Photo Stream folder shows 0 items while my phones stream has around 100.

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My iCloud Photo Stream is not syncing correctly to my Windows 8.1 laptop or my Windows 7 PC.

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