Photos for Mac, stuck on "updating" trying to upload to iCloud Photos Library

I have problems with the "updating..." message as well. I have ipad air, iphone 5s macbook pro retina all conneted to icloud photo library, and I somehow got icloud photo library messed up over the weekend. The macbook shows "updating...", but new photos seem to be added to the icloud. The phone was stuck on "Last updated: Monday 11:30", even though there were changes. The iPad was stuck on "Adding 232 photos", but also seemed to upload fine. Downloading on ipad and iphone did not work, because as soon as I edited a photo, it could not save it, and advised me to try again later.

iCloud.com showed "Busy updating..." as well, but since I never log in there, it was last updated on January 2nd 2016 (strange enough, because it is a server, right? All the photos should be there, right, that is where all the uploads go, right?!?).

Anyway, I rebooted, no change. I switched off all devices, and switched on just one: no effect. I waited for a day on good wifi to see if it found its way again: no change. Killed all processes, etc. Basically, I tried all the tips in this thread, in all possible orders. Finally, I made a backup of my photos to an external hard drive (downloading from the cloud still works on mac), and disconnected all three devices from icloud photo library. I was hoping that it would help bring things back to normal, but I am not sure, since iCloud.com is still stuck (again for a full day now). Here are the (Dutch) screen shots of the current situation. First the icloud.com, showing 28238 photos, and trying to update. Then the overview from icloud settings, showing many more photos.

What can I do?!?

Greetings Mendeldesign. My first suggestion would be to to ensure that you have the latest OS and iOS software (and newest iTunes, iPhoto, etc.) for ALL your devices. From what I have read various versions of operating systems don't "play well" with each other. Once you have the newest version of all the appropriate software, restart your computer and just ONE of your devices. Just start with one device because you don't want your computer to try and download to multiple devices. Turn off sleep mode on your computer (System Preferences > Energy Saver). (Reason, once your computer going to sleep because it disconnects from whatever you had it doing -- like uploading/downloading your information from your iCloud account.)

Make sure your iPhone and other devices have enough memory to download your photos. 35,000 photos can take up a LOT of memory. I downloaded 40K photos to my phone, but had to select "thumbnails" to be stored on the phone because of memory restraints (and I have the 128GB model). I also am using a Nikon camera which takes large memory photos.

Make sure you are signed into your iCloud account on your computer and the device you wish to update and that both are set up to share the appropriate information. Once both accounts are activated the uploading / downloading should commence.

From there the items you selected to share over iCloud should start to migrate. Realize that iPhoto may not be the first thing to migrate. Also realize that you have a LOT of photos. If they are already on the Cloud that will save you a LOT of time. When I did this the first time it took me 72 hours of continuous operation to upload 35,000 photos to the Cloud and download them again to my devices. That was when the file sharing was brand new and Apple did not have enough servers / bandwidth to handle all of us trying to migrate at the same time. Hopefully that time has improved.

INTERESTINGLY, just this week my iPhone battery bit the dust and I got a NEW iPhone from Apple. THUS -- I had to download my 40K thumbnail photos (and all the other information stored on iCloud) all over again. I started up the process as explained above, noted that the thumbnails were downloading into my phone (abet slowly), then walked away from the computer. I'm not sure exactly how long it took, but somewhere between 2-6 hours later all the thumbnails were downloaded, as were my contacts, emails, keychain, etc.

I hope this helps.

I solved my issue which sounds similar to yours you people are having but closing Photos.

Then opening activity monitor and searching for photo, force quit all what the search shows up. It will repopulate with them again then open photos. Preferences and tick incloud library. Then mine started to populate and download correctly.

I m having this issue for now more than 6 months. It's incredible, but the only thing on my mind now is waiting to go to USA and taking the computer there so someone on an apple store can help me. I have a 30,000 pic library, and upload stops as soon it starts (i think it never really starts).. on the 9th picture. I ve tried using commands to kill processes with terminal, i cannot see activity on my activity monitor, no internet kbytes are sent or recieved. I also killed processes on activity monitor related with photos app. And i even repaired my library. Its very frustrating..

It seems that the problem is with photos that were introduced some metadata AFTER "iPhotos" changed to "Photos".

I tried almost everything. The only thing that worked for me but its annoying, is this:

EXPORT those photos that wasn't uploaded to iCloud into some file folder > go to safari > iCloud.com > open photos on iCloud.com > click "upload" > select the folder were you saved the photos.

The photos will be uploaded with the correctly TIME. Not sure about PLACES

has anyone found solution to this? i have tried everything but nothing works. Photos are still trying to upload from macbook even they were take by iPhone. and it takes ages and simply cannot complete it. SHAME ON YOU APPLE!!!

AS I told before, one solution was to upload directly from iCloud.com. But my connection is not good and it is tough.

What i'vê done that worked só far is:

1) make a backup from all your photos and keep it safe away from Mac

2) turn off iCloud sharing in the preferences of "photos"

3) check which photos were upload to "iCloud.com" and delete them from "photos"

4) clear the trash of "photos"

5) turn on again iCloud sharing in the preferences, with the remaining photos that were not uploaded

The problem is that photos deleted before will be misplaced for the albuns you created

worked for me.

Notice:

do not delete files from "photos" with the iCloud sharing turned on.

It will delete photos from iCloud too...

if i turn off sharing i see no pics, when on, it is trying to upload more than 1000 pictures, but as written before those pics were taken using my iphone. this is crazy, i have tried to reinstall el capitan, but no luck.

and all my pics are on iCloud, problem is i cannot see them on my mac, only on iphone

So. Your problem is downloading from iCloud to "Photos"? Not uploading from "Photos" to iCloud??

And have you read the entire thread you are posting in? Everything is covered here - if you need more please start a new thread with the specifics of your system and your issue - it is much too confusing for you and us when you thread Jack an old, solved thread

for help in writing an answerable question see

Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question

LN

Same here.

The problem is also present in MacOS Sierra 10.12.2. 😢

This works everytime for me. Thank you so micb