iCloud Photo Library Never Synchronises

Question

Level 1

116 points

iCloud Photo Library Never Synchronises

Is there something can we do to force a full synchronisation?
How do we figure out why iCloud Photo Library synchronisation fails?

The Symptom:

A fully-charged, wireless-connected iPhone 6 Plus, with 40GB of free space, and plugged into a charger, constantly starts and stops when trying to synchronise the iCloud Photos Library, the progress bar gets to about 30% and then the whole process dies and is restarted. Because of this, photos never synchronise to iCloud Photo Library. Occasionally (once a week) it just works and the photos synchronise, which is almost more disturbing. For the last three days I have left the phone on, plugged-in, unlocked, and connected to my Apple Airport Extreme wireless network. The iPhone has attempted to synchronise more than 10,000 times. Every night I have left the phone connected, unlocked, fully charged and plugged into a charger. One time last week, it synchronised with all these factors being unchanged. There is a link below showing the behaviour in a video capture:

http://youtu.be/fyorGTVLiKU

I have tried the following:

After a few weeks of problems, I called Apple Support. I was told I had corruption in my Apple ID authentication. They would fix it and I needed to factory reset my phone — I have factory reset the phone three times in the last two weeks. After I reset the phone it takes a few days for iCloud Photos Library to synchronise to the phone and once the main library is synchronised, new pictures are automatically synchronised for a few days. It only seems to be new activity that isn't synchronising. The video above shows uploads and downloads that are all new activity.
I have repaired and synchronised my Photos Library on my MacBook Pro.
I have signed out of iCloud entirely on the iPhone, and then signed back in, more times than I can count.
I have power cycled the iPhone countless times.
I have applied all updates to iOS software, currently: iOS 8.4.1 (12H321)

I realise that iCloud Photo Library is a new feature, I'm not complaining here — I'm trying to give a strong example and information to Apple and others who might be experiencing the same problem.

I would like to strongly urge Apple to make authentication and synchronisation errors VERBOSE on the iPhone. Or, at the very least, I would like the option to enable error messages from this suite of apps.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 17" Core i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

Posted on Aug 22, 2015 9:39 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Aug 23, 2015 6:20 AM in response to splurben

First of all thanks for sharing. Second since you already have a case open with Apple support, why don't you continue to work with them?

Number 3.

If you already cleaned up your phone and upload of new content gets stuck - I can only think that there are certain files that are not being recognized.

To my experience those are usually the files that are either very large in size (usually only affected in combination with slow upload speeds - which does not sound like your case) or file that have been modified with some kind of photo editing.

So plain and simple stop editing your content if you want to use iCloud photo library and if you will find which editor is screwing up your library, feedback Apple about it. When I say stop, I mean it - don't even make them lighter.

Disclaimer. There is absolutely no guarantee that I am correct. There is nothing but logic and a bit of experience behind that answer.

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Answer 2

splurben Author

Level 1

116 points

Aug 24, 2015 12:59 AM in response to fromsouth

I will remove Photoshop from the iPhone. That is an understandable potential problem. Thank you! Impressive lateral thinking. I'll post results in a few days.

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Answer 3

splurben Author

Level 1

116 points

Aug 26, 2015 8:48 PM in response to fromsouth

I removed the Photoshop apps, but I haven't used it in ages, long before these problems.

That hasn't helped. There are more than 30 apps with access to my Photos anyhow and there's no way I can remove them all nor can I delete all the photos that might have been changed by those apps.

This is just awful. I can't find a way to get it to synchronise no matter what I do.

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Answer 4

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Aug 27, 2015 10:40 AM in response to splurben

If you didn't edit any photos/videos, you don't really need to remove any apps. It is not the access it is file modification, library really has tough time authenticating strange files. Has to be something else. Nothing else triggers any points (excellent and very detailed description btw) with one exception.

You mentioned some kind of corruption of Apple id authentication. Can't imagine if that had to do with anything, but any details? If details are too personal or can compromise your security do not post here.

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Answer 5

splurben Author

Level 1

116 points

Aug 27, 2015 5:52 PM in response to fromsouth

Thank you. I called Apple Support yesterday. The authentication has to do with an internalised duplication of an authentication object left over from the original .Mac / Apple ID from 2002. It's not a risk for unauthorised access, it's actually a risk that is more restrictive. They're 'repairing' the account 'hopefully' over the next 3 days.

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Answer 6

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Aug 27, 2015 7:02 PM in response to splurben

sounds like they they escalated to database guys, while I prefer troubleshooting by elimination, there probably something that looks wrong on server side. Only one advice if that is the case. Be patient even if it takes a month, but ask regular updates say 5 days intervals. Good luck, if you solve it, I d love to know how. Love cool puzzles.

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