Q: iCloud Photo Library stopped syncing

Adding to the anecdotal "evidence"....

I have had the upload/syncing of photos from my iphone 6 to my MBP stop several times now.  i also have an ipad mini that i do not use for photos or editing.  the ipad mini and the MBP are always perfectly synced.

the only way i have found is to fix the "stuck" upload from the phone is to turn off iCloud Photo Library in the iphone Settings/iCloud/Photos, wait for all photos to "disappear" and then turn it back on later and wait for all the photos (18000+) to re-sync.  I haven't lost any photos from the iDevices or my MBP, but it is a bit of a white knuckle ride.

For a few weeks things will go just fine.  Then the same problem will reappear...iphone has more photos than the ipad and MBP....repeat the above process.

currently the ipad mini and the photos on the MBP are matched as always.  they both show the last photo uploaded was from my iphone, a photo that i edited via the Camera+ app.

current number of photos waiting to be uploaded as shown at the bottom of the iphone page is only 10, b/c the last fail was only a few days ago.  I have tried deleting some of the "stuck 10" off the phone but it doesn't help.  it doesn't even change the number of photos waiting to upload.  I see the line quickly blink to "uploading" and then back to "10 Items to Upload"

@ pierrefrommontréal:

Just to be sure: Do you mean Camera+ (by taptaptap) or Camera Plus (by Global Delight)?

Anyway, up to now we have collected these photo extensions:

• Camera+ (with several reports that this was the last edit before upload stuck)
• Camera Plus (?)
• Pixelmator

for me, definitely Camera+ by tap tap tap.  It is the only camera app (besides the built in apple app) that i use.

good news!

was reading some info on a similar iphone / iCloud sync problem and temporarily "cured" my stuck photo issue.

since I had a pretty good idea which photo was the problem photo, i moved it from my photos app on my MBP to my desktop so i can keep a copy.  Then I deleted the problem photo from the MPB photos app.  I also deleted it from my iphone photos app.  I restarted both devices and held my breath, but no changes.  the iphone still had several photos more than the MBP.

a few days and several photos taken on my iphone, the problem remained.  iCloud sync stuck, showing now 20 or so photos waiting to upload.

another thread discussing similar stuck uploads mentioned delving deeper into the photos app on the iPhone, into the "albums" into the "recently deleted" folder.  Sure enough, my problem photo was still hanging out on the iPhone after all.  So i selected it for deletion and "really" deleted it again.

i rolled back over to the photos folder of the photos app on the iphone just in time to see it report that it was uploading the rest of the stuck queue.  I just confirmed the arrival of the queue of previously stuck photos on my MBP.  both devices are in sync.

so if you know the problem photo it seems you can clear the problem and get syncing going again.  but what is causing the jam in the first place?

@iCoco

I meant Camera Plus by Global Delight. I use it mostly for their auto enhance feature.

I am getting the impression that editing photos with a third party extension using the integrated extensions sheet is causing this stuck upload issue. As it seems there is not only one, but several apps/extensions involved. I will report this finding to Apple Support and hope the smart guys in Cupertino will be able to track it down and fix this annoying issue asap.

I hate to throw a wrench into the mix but I am having this issue as well and I have never used a third party extension to edit my photos. I've just used the built in editor.

Hey @pache59, thanks for your contribution. Thats good to know - even if its hard to believe that Apples own editing tools might cause such trouble.

As far as I know, Apple is saving and uploading only original photographs and all modifications are stored in a separate database. Obviously, this database must be synchronized over devices as well. So this might be the place where Apple folks should look at, anyway.

I have the same problem and have started to think it's a third-party Photos app extension as well. I only use the Pixelmator and Fotograf extensions.

About a week ago, all my photos miraculously started syncing on my three devices (MacBook Air, iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2).

The only explanation I can come up with in my case is that I was trying to upload a sizable quantity (in the hundreds) of pictures on a slow Internet connection. The Photos app took more than a month to do the job. I am not at home so I cannot contact my current  ISP but I know their services are quite inconsistent, the download rate reaching peaks of 15 Mbps and troughs of less than 1 Mbps, with upload speeds sometimes too low to be registered. My theory is that for a few days they delivered sufficient bandwith to allow the chunk of pictures to be transferred. Now that Photos only has to sync two, three photos every other day it seems up for the job.

Krásný den, Moc vas prosim o pomoc vzhledem k tomu že neznam slovo nejde snazim se uz asi mesic vyresit svuj problem. Kdysi davno jsem si vpujcila Apple Id od kamradky ktere jsem si pozdeji zmenila na svoje jenže bohužel se mi to sparovalo a ja mam ted svoje apple ID na nakupy ale jeji apple ID mam pro prihlaseni na icloud heslo ktere k tomu bylo proste prestalo fungovat a ja znam pouze heslo na jeji mail kam vubec nechodi jak mam změnit heslo asi ma nejaky zachrany mail o kterym ale nikdo nevi. Jsem uplně bezradna a strasne moc vas prosim o pomoc. Kdyby jste vedeli jak memu problemu pomoc budu strasne rada.Bohužel se svym iphonem nemuzu ani hnout   Krasny den Nikola

P.S vazne nejsem blondyna

Since I have stopped using third party extensions to modify pictures I've never had syncing issue again. So I wonder if this issue might be resolved on Apple's end, or maybe with the upgrade to iOS 9? Any news from you guys? Does the issue persist or is it resolved for everybody?

In particular: Can anyone confirm that he or she is still using third party extensions (Camera+ ?) to modify pictures and not experiencing upload issues any more?

I Haven't had any problems with with uploading while using 3rd party extensions anymore, iOS 9 seemed to resolve that but now I some of my photos don't show up in certain apps anymore. I believe it is because an app not updated to use iCloud Photo Library corrupted the library. The photos show up in my photos app and all of my devices but when I try to access these perticular photos in an app that does support iCloud Photo Library they don't show up. And I'm not sure how to recover the library short of downloading all the photos (11+ GB currently) and deleting the library and reuploading them. Any ideas?

I have the same problem since I updated to ios 9. The photos i take with the iPhone stopped synchronize with the Mac and the iPad. It also coincided with the day when I filmed several videos , at first I thought it took so...From the same date I can not realiazar backups from the iPhone. I do not know what to do. Disable iCloud settings from iPhone? ...The latest copy of icloud made ​​says " 0 bytes". It is advisable to remove that copy ?

I guess it all has to do with the same problem!

Hopefully soon we find the solution!

Had this issue with iOS 8 half a year ago. I don't remember how I fixed it.

Now I have it again with iOS 9 (iPhone 5s). Not syncing for about one week.

I don't use third-party extensions.

Tried to fix it by removing some images, deleting deleted images and restarting the phone. No success so far.