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iCloud Photo Library not downloading all thumbnails to ipad

I have many thousands of photos and all have uploaded to iCloud photo library from my Mac mini - I see them all downloaded on a separate Mac.


But on my iPad and iPhone, the thumbnails don't download unless I select each 'moment' and wait - even weeks after the upload completed.


Why won't the iPad and iPhone download all thumbnails?

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi, iOS 8.3

Posted on May 2, 2015 8:37 AM

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8 replies

Dec 27, 2017 5:44 AM in response to pras1011

I had the same problem with my iPhone 7, and might have found a hack to solve this.


- Make sure you are connected to a WiFi network

- Open Photos and "Moments"

- Go into browse mode where you can see years.

- Go into the "Year" by clicking the > arrow.

- Scroll until you find grey photos.


On my phone this seem to have asked for the thumbnail. It also seems like it was present on the phone without being rendered, as a whole page of thumbnails were populated in just a moment.


- Continue scrolling down until you reach the end of the year.


Do this just as fast as you can see the pictures turn from grey to actual thumbnails.


- Go out and leave the phone on the selected year.


Pictures here will still be gray, but thumbs will populate after some time. Leave the phone active, as it will take a while.


- If some pics still won't show, just do it again.

- Next year / repeat procedure.

May 2, 2015 8:53 AM in response to jazcan

Hi, thanks for the reply. I expected iCloud photos all to be visible rather than my having to view each moment manually and wait for the photos to download. Once they have downloaded for a 'moment' they stay downloaded and start filling in the collection and years view, so I do suspect this isn't the intended behaviour - certainly on the Mac all the thumbnails sync/download automatically,


Does anyone else see this behaviour? Or, indeed, does anyone have all thumbnails syncing/downloading for a largish library?


Thanks

May 4, 2015 4:18 AM in response to jamesgbeaumont

I am having the exact same problem that you describe. iPhone and iPad show incomplete "Moments" but the MacBook Pro and Mac book show all thumbnails no matter what view is used.


My library is about 15,000 photos and videos. I opened a ticket with Apple support and after several days of communication with the service rep, he said the engineers claim that is "expected behavior".


I agree with you that what I expect is that ALL of the thumbnails should automatically be in sync and viewable without any interaction by me. It make perfect sense that the hi-res versions would have to download when I want to view them.


I'll keep pushing and will update here is I get any additional info.

Jul 19, 2015 11:16 PM in response to jamesgbeaumont

I brought this to an Apple Store and they referred me to AppleCare. The upper-level tech support can run some iCloud diagnostics for you.


Several issues were mentioned.

1. You need adequate disk space, or the library won't load.

2. Try Optimize photo storage in settings->Photos, that will have the full-size photos in the cloud and pull them down when needed and space is free.

3. Go to iCloud.com/photos from a desktop browser and verify that your photos ARE in the cloud without problems.

4. Some of the Over-the-Air iOS updates could have been corrupted during download. A diagnostic test revealed some background app processes were crashing, and a Restore via iTunes with a fresh copy is looking like the most promising fix.


I'm currently waiting for the library to finish re-copying, and I'll let you know. Meanwhile, store Apple Geniuses will redirect you to call AppleCare and troubleshoot the issue with a higher-level engineer.

iCloud Photo Library not downloading all thumbnails to ipad

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