Why is My Photo Stream on my Mac empty?

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Level 1

8 points

Why is My Photo Stream on my Mac empty?

Photos that I took on my iPhone or iPad used to automatically find their way onto the other device and also onto my Mac via "My Photo Stream" - this was just what I wanted.

Since upgrading to iOS 8.3 on the iPhone and iPad and/or upgrading to 10.10.3 on my Mac the iPhone and iPad are still exchanging photos but this seems to have stopped working on my Mac. I only noticed today that no photos have downloaded to the Mac since April 16th. I don't believe I have changed anything but I noticed my Mac seemed to be trying to use this new "iCloud Photo Library" scam to make Apple more money, and I don't really understand it so I have disabled that.

However, the "My Photo Stream" album, in Albums within the Photos app is empty. In System Preferences -> iCloud -> Photos -> Options I have only "My Photo Stream" ticked.

I've read quite a lot of posts from people unhappy about the way Apple seem to have revamped photo storage, I'm joining that group. I just want it to work the way it used to. If anyone can help I'd be most grateful.

Cheers,

Suds

Posted on May 27, 2015 4:10 AM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

207,367 points

May 27, 2015 5:09 PM in response to Jarsudsco

Disable Photo Stream in the System/iCloud preference pane

and in Photos' iCloud preference pane.

Reboot and reenable both respectively. See if that will jump start Photo Stream on the Mac.

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Answer 2

Jarsudsco Author

Level 1

8 points

May 28, 2015 2:15 AM in response to Old Toad

@Old Toad - Thank you for the reply. My iCloud preferences look slightly different to the one you snapshotted - I have no "Photo Stream" control but similar options are within my "Photos" control so I just applied your steps to those and that seems to have fixed it - My Photo Stream is populated again and all my recent photos have downloaded to my Mac.

Thanks once again, much appreciated :-)

- jarsudsco

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