iCloud Photo Library Upload - Extremely Slow Uploads

The loop command has typos. The correct one is:

while [ 1 ]; do lsof -c cloudd | grep filecache; date; sleep 5; done

Also, I found that part of the problem I had was that each time I locked my machine using Hot Corners (I had Hot Corners feature configured so that my Mac locks when I move the cursor to the top-left corner), iCloud Photo Library uploads stopped. They resumed after I unlock the machine AND went back to Photos.

If I lock the machine using the keyboard shortcut (Command+Option+Eject), then the uploads would not stop. Bad bug in there...

Note: Hot Corners feature is hidden in System Preferences > Mission Control > Hot Corners. From now on, I will not use Hot Corners to lock my Mac and just use Command+Option+Eject.

Thanks for posting the fix. Easier to read results if you slip a "| tail -c -20" in there to see only the last 20 characters of the filenames. I'm watching my 60K photo collection upload slowwwwly ! But its moving without hanging. It looks like my iMac is pumping out a ISP-limited stream of 3MB/s (24mb/s) but still only maybe 30 photos per min. Not sure where the rest of the bandwidth is going.

while [ 1 ]; do lsof -c cloudd | grep filecache | tail -c -20; date; sleep 5; done

BTW - I have tried both Flickr and Google Photos via the new automated uploaders. Both uploads are much faster, and run nicely in the background incrementally uploading. BUT they are both heinously lossy, losing all metadata that is not stored in the JPG itself (dates, locations, faces). Both also screw up structure of the photo database, especially if one changes contents of events.

Please, oh please, Apple, make iCloud upload faster while still keeping all metadata and structure.

Apple is not here - this is strictly a user to user support forum - http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

LN

So we can just plug that command into terminal?

<Edited by Host>

nm got it!

my upload speed is 370kbps download of 15.5 mbps. Have ~25000 photos and have been trying for two weeks and only ~5000 downloaded. Spend several hrs on phone with apple yesterday and thought it was resolved but only have had ~200 downloaded overnight. Can anyone help. I am about ready to cancel my extra iCloud account it doesn't seem worth it!

LarryHNSep 13, 2015 7:34 AM

Photos is totally optional and if you do not like it you can use anything else you prefer - what hardware and what software you use if totally up to you, choose to use things you like rather than things you do not like

bearincognitoOct 5, 2015 10:55 AM

You're not helping, Larry

Haha, bear, you took the words out of my mouth! (One has got to go way out of their way to use different applications than Apple's if he is tied into Apple's larger ecosystem via purchase of Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple T... you get the idea. So if people are unhappy with the functioning of a core Apple app, it's because it goes far beyond just complaining about one particular piece of software among many viable alternatives, but comes from a valid expectation that if Apple is going to tie their hardware, software and services so tightly together, those who have made a large investment in hardware are going to have a very strong interest in making sure that the software and services don't become an overlooked weak link. So it's helping absolutely nobody to tell locked-in users exploring the depth and severity of a specific problem to just go use something else. Pardon my extended digression, but I've seen this same "help" offered far too often on these boards when it's clearly no help at all.)

Anyways, stepping back outside of the parentheses, I just want to also add report of my struggles with these sluggish upload speeds, a real pain given that:

a) the upload process, when ongoing, totally and fully kills my download bandwidth, to the point where my 80+ Mb/sec download speed connection quite literally can't download a single email (Surajai, thanks for checking with your ISP to confirm that they claim not be be throttling in these conditions. Also, I think this thread/post explains the best hack to ameliorate this and a further explanation of the problem - Re: Your internet on life support? Blame Photos app. I have yet to attempt these suggestions myself.), and

b) I've got a nearly 550 GB photo library, which means that, since I can only upload overnight when nobody else will be using the Internet, I'm looking at several more months 😮 of this (my upload speed is . And then I recall seeing references suggesting that if I ever do try to repair my Library (some thumbnails are screwy, some full images appear flipped until I click Edit), it's going to try to upload the whole **** thing again. In which case, I guess I will take Larry's advice, and choose to use something else, anything else.

So that's my iCPL sob story - if you're also dealing with this, know you're not the only one. My questions to this thread are:

• Filesize-bandwidth-time calculators like this (http://www.meridianoutpost.com/resources/etools/calculators/calculator-file-down load-time.php) suggest it will take ~200 hours at my roughly 8 Mb/sec connection upload speed (I'd estimate it's taking at least twice this time, based on my experience of uploading about 100 GB out of 550 GB so far) - not sure if there's bandwidth overhead, constraints within the running app such as video conversions, or some kind of bottleneck on Apple's end) . Has anyone tried doing their iCPL upload on a symmetric/high-bandwidth connection (i.e. 1 Gb/sec +)?
• Does the iCPL upload go as fast as these calculations would suggest (i.e. would I really be able to upload my gargantuan library in an hour or two or three?)
• If so, I'd hope to just find a spot with such a connection and camp out there with my Macbook and my Photos for an afternoon. Any suggestions for public places with such connections? I'd presume many Apple store would have such a pipe, but also presume each individual connection to their network might face bandwidth limitations? Anyone with experience with this, as I'd happily camp out there for a couple of hours to finally get all my photos backed up and accessible on iCPL.

Easy answer I tried to upload 4gb video to Icloud at the same time I uploaded the same 4gb file to my Dropbox acct, Dropbox took minutes I gave up with Icloud progress was so slow. The answer is my friends it's Apple again and not anyones ISP, the only way to get this over to Apple is for people to stop using Icloud and use another cloud storage like dropbox. No I don't work for Dropbox or any other cloud storage provider I'm just a ****** off member of the public who doesn't understand why everything Apple does causes grief. The only system they offer which I think is first class is OSX, I think IOS is poor and not very intuitive ie I can't add memory to my Ipad or Iphone without using overpriced external drives like Ibridge and Apple are moving us towards Icloud use on a system that's snail slow. For cloud storage to work it needs to be fast, you don't have to be Einstein to work that out but while people keep using Icloud Apple will keep choking it and slowing it down....

my download speed it 3.8 Mbps and my upload speed is 490 kbps and I am trying to upload several gigs of photos to iCloud, but it is taking forever.

Yes it is slow - it took me ten days to upload just over 7000 items - once it finished everything works quickly - keep the uploading device awake, connected to the internet and do not mess with the process - messing around slows it or causes it to start over - let it finish (pause when you need better Internet speeds for other devices) as it does also slow downloads to a crawl on other devices for some people (it did for me)

LN

Update:

I am 2 1/2 months into this ridiculous process, uploading overnight (~8 hours) maybe every other day (it fully kills any downstream bandwidth, which seems commonly reported if fairly debilitating - likely Comcast-upstream-downstream-throttling-related)... and I'm just about halfway through this process.

I've only kept up with it because it seems like the best way to have offsite backup.

The fact that there is a promise iCPL will work in the next Apple TV update is encouraging, although I've not been too positively surprised by much of anything with this offering/service so far.

Note that ICPL is not a backup - you still need local backup

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

Do I need a Backup?

iCloud Photo Library stores all of your original photos and videos in iCloud, but we always recommend you keep back up copies of your Library. You can download your photos and videos from iCloud to your computer and store them as a separate library, transfer them to another computer with Image Capture or Photos, or store them on a separate drive.

LN

Note that ICPL is not a backup - you still need local backup

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

Thank you. I had not seen this statement from Apple, but it fully matches with what I believe, that iCPL is indeed not a sufficient backup, due to the unlikely (but possible) deletion of photos/data from somewhere else (synced device, browser or other web interface, by accident, error, or malice) and then, by design, from all synced devices. Again, this is unlikely, but (my) photos are valuable enough that I definitely maintain backups beyond iCPL. But just as a iCPL is not a 100%-reliable backup, on-site backups are insufficient (fire, theft, file-encrypting ransomware, radiation storms, whatnot and whathaveyou) too, and I think that as long as you are aware of iCPL's limitations, it can be a good (additional) off-site backup of these valuable files.

With that in mind, Apple's statement isn't really driven by the fundamental unsuitability of iCPL to be used as a basis for a good backup solution, but a) understandable precautionary legal liability concerns that they can disclaim because they don't in fact market iCPL as a backup solution, and b) the fact that iCPL allows users to offload the full-size files off of their machines to save space (which has become unfortunately almost a necessity for many given Apple's abandonment of cost-effective magnetic storage in all of its new MacBooks coupled with users' ever-growning photo collections), rendering iCPL no longer a backup but in fact, the originals.

Still, it's not much of anything until I can actually get my photos all uploaded... still dawdling around 50%.

Seriously, has anyone tried this process somewhere with a big, symmetrical upload pipe? In that case, should/would it just fly through these uploads? I haven't had bandwidth issues in a long time... but, oh, this upload thing on a fast (but still waaaay) to slow asymmetrical cable connection is just absurd.

Yes it is slow - it took me ten days to upload just over 7000 items - once it finished everything works quickly - keep the uploading device awake, connected to the internet and do not mess with the process - messing around slows it or causes it to start over - let it finish (pause when you need better Internet speeds for other devices) as it does also slow downloads to a crawl on other devices for some people (it did for me)

LN