Photostream not updating on Mac Photos

Anybody else having issue with Photostream? I had two iPhoto libraries: One I was actively using, and one I've been hanging onto to merge one day. When I updated to Photos app, I read the pages on opening multiple libraries, hoping that this was finally my opportunity to merge the two. Alas, this only allowed me to successfully open each library, one at a time. When it became clear that there was going to be no way to merge the two libraries within Photo, I decided to just go back to opening my default iPhoto library with Photos and would import from the old iPhoto library manually some day in the future. My question/problem (finally, I know): It doesn't appear that new photos from my devices, since configuring Photos on Mac, are showing up in my Mac Photos photo stream. They stop on the day I installed it, and I don't see any way to force a sync. What did I do wrong? What am I missing?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Apr 14, 2015 8:10 PM

49 replies

Apr 15, 2015 5:29 PM in response to leonfromearth

Mine isn't syncing immediately like i've seen on some demo videos online. There's an obvious issue. Moral of the story is never use stuff that has just come out.

Jun 16, 2015 11:23 PM in response to Jason R. McCarty

Same problem here. 10.10.3, I had to reboot my Mac to get Photos to start downloading my photo stream. Ugh. I used to have to reboot Windows boxes all the time to get them to work, the past few years I ma rebooting my Macs to get them to work reliability and my Windows systems are rock solid.

jmush1

Level 1

9 points

Jul 29, 2015 8:45 PM in response to leonfromearth

I had this same issue. I fixed this by:

Closing Photos.

Opening Activity Monitor.

Killing the process titled "Photos Agent"

I opened up Photos again, and my Photo Stream immediately updated.

Aug 1, 2015 3:07 AM in response to Jason R. McCarty

Ironic, isn't it. Steve is not around anymore...

Aug 19, 2015 9:43 AM in response to jmush1

What a star, jmush1! I've been struggling with getting my latest photos taken on my iPhone from Photostream onto my MacBook Air for the last 24 hours. They just didn't seem to download. Most of them had appeared on my iMac, but not all of them. I tried all the usual things - quit Photos, restarted Photos, etc and no effect. I tried your technique, and all the pictures have just come through. Many thanks for sharing your fix. I'll now try to get the rest of them on my iMac using the same fix.

Cosette

Level 1

4 points

Aug 19, 2015 3:01 PM in response to jmush1

Tried this, but didn't work for me. It's weird because I see photos in my photo stream taken on my iPhone a few days ago, showing up in my Mac. But not photos I took today, despite restarting Photos and killing the Photos Agent. Is there a manual refresh I don't know about? The photos are in the photo stream on my phone.

One photo I had to resort to emailing myself, but this is supposed to be so magically automatic. I can't think it is my settings since I see photos from a couple of days ago.

mistyc

Level 1

0 points

Aug 24, 2015 8:25 PM in response to leonfromearth

I missed the time with Aperture.

Anyway I migrated all photos and too late now but I had same issue but I found leaves photo app long time sometimes it updated.. Very intermittent.

Now what I do to update is go to Photos/Preferences/iCloud

Uncheck my photo stream and wait for 5seconds then recheck the box and instantly photos will come through and date will be updated.

I worried if photos all disappears but i tried this 100 times but it looks keep all the photos.

See if it helps.

Regards,

Brendon

Aug 24, 2015 11:56 PM in response to leonfromearth

I fixed this by doing this:

$ pkill -9 photo

$ pkill -9 com.apple.CloudPhotosConfiguration

which was a big hammer but seems to work.

Mike

ilkkatm

Level 1

0 points

Aug 28, 2015 2:45 PM in response to Mike Bender

Works!

Thank you Mike!

Sep 3, 2015 11:29 AM in response to jmush1

Thanks so much. I had too many images to use iCloud and didn't want dup's everywhere.

MFDS

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2015 3:25 PM in response to jmush1

This worked for me after a day of wasting time on the issue. Awesome. Thanks!!

MooMuir

Level 1

50 points

Oct 1, 2015 5:02 PM in response to leonfromearth

Hi Leonformearth

I had the same issue, which I believe was caused because I had updated the Photos library in iCloud on my iOS devices, but had not yet updated my MBP to El Capitan. I realised this may be the issue, the had to wait until the El Capitan OS X was released. Updated to El Capitan, and now all is behaving as it should.... 🙂

sgrinna

Level 1

8 points

Oct 8, 2015 8:34 AM in response to jmush1

Many thanks, jmush1. All the other tricks (closing camera, photos, restarting macbook...) didn't work. Nice job!

BW Lee

Level 4

2,574 points

Oct 24, 2015 11:04 AM in response to jmush1

Thanks so much for this tip. This has been driving me bonkers for months. Instant fix...

DJF3

Level 1

5 points

Nov 20, 2015 1:55 AM in response to jmush1

This really worked, tnx!

When is Apple going to fix this? Ever since the new Photos app the photostream has become a nightmare.

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Photostream not updating on Mac Photos