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Level 1

47 points

Photos not syncing (iOS 9 / watchOS 2)

After recently upgrading to iOS 9 on my iPhone 6; I noticed that photos were no longer being pushed to the watch (I am syncing the "All Photos" folder so the most recent are available on my Watch), and thought this might be an issue that will remedy itself with watchOS 2 or with a restore.

Since then, I had to trade out my iPhone for a refurb at the Apple Store, so went through the whole process of restoring the Watch from backup, etc. but this did not rectify the issue (it was still iOS 9, watchOS 1.0.1 at this point).

And now with watchOS 2 released to the public, with both being on charge the duration of last night, the photos still haven't appeared. I've tried changing the folder, changing the amount of photos syncing, and I've tried boot cycling both devices. The photos are simply not syncing. Other services such as apps, music, etc. are all fine.

Is this a common issue that anyone else is noticing? I'm sure when they were syncing under iOS 8 they slowly appeared once by one within photos – at the moment, I'm just getting "No Photos" in the Photos app on the watch, and "0 Photos" listed under usage in Settings.

Watch Standard 42mm, Watch OS 1.0.1, Stainless Steel – Blk Sport – 42m

Posted on Sep 22, 2015 4:14 AM

Best reply

Churchil

Level 1

25 points

Posted on Sep 23, 2015 1:06 AM

I have the same problem, though after disconnecting from and reconnecting to my iPhone my photo's on mu watch are partially in synch. There are some "blank spaces" left on my watch when showing photo's. I have also changed the number of photos from 100 to 250 on the watch app but nothing happens. I have contacted support after upgrading my iPhone to iOS9 but before upgrading my Wacht to Watch OS2. Then i was advised to wait for OS2......

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73 replies

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 23, 2015 1:10 AM in response to Churchil

In my case it started after updating to iOS9 on my iPhone and before updating to Watch OS2. So I would say that the iOS update triggered the event. I also had contact withsupport without result, other than to wait for the update to Watch OS 2.

Yeah, it's definitely an issue in iOS 9. I was running the beta and it happened as soon as I installed it, and this was weeks ago.

Hi. I spent 3 hours at my keyboard talking to Apple about this last night, they are calling me back this evening. setting up watch as a new watch and selecting various albums whilst swapping and changing my settings, re-starting etc has not solved the issue. I will let you know how I get on tonight; meantime I suggest you all do the same as this is clearly a software bug. Can anyone definitely state

wether it was the watch or iOS update that caused the issue? Cheers..

Go to know someone is speaking with Apple; hopefully that might push it through to the iOS dev team. It's definitely a bug.

highcool

Level 1

15 points

Sep 23, 2015 5:11 AM in response to jamie.shaw

Yes, it doesn't seem to be directly related to iCloud Photo Library. My wife's 38mm watch (paired to an iPhone 5S) works syncing photos (iOS 9 & OS2). My 42mm paired to iPhone 6+ on the same OSs doesn't sync. We use the same iCloud credentials, iCloud Photo Library, and Albums.

I saw one mention up above of another iPhone 6+ having this issue, but phone model may be another variable affecting things.

Sep 23, 2015 5:46 AM in response to highcool

I Will mention this to Apple tonight and of course guide them to this discussion. Thank you all. Simon. Wonder if it is just 6 plus...

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 23, 2015 5:48 AM in response to simonbuysellit

simonbuysellit wrote:

I Will mention this to Apple tonight and of course guide them to this discussion. Thank you all. Simon. Wonder if it is just 6 plus...

Not 6 Plus specific – I'm using the regular 6. 42mm watch though.

Churchil

Level 1

25 points

Sep 23, 2015 5:56 AM in response to jamie.shaw

I have a regular 6 as well.

c.brom

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2015 6:36 AM in response to Churchil

I too had the same problem, photos haven't sync'd to my watch since iOS9. I think I have now found the issue. I use iCloud photo library and hence have 9000+ photos and videos in the cloud. I used to have All Photos selected to sync to my watch and I think that's the problem. Maybe there are too many and it crashed the sync? Anyway I have now selected Recently Added to sync, but here's the thing - you need to hard reset (hold both buttons) both your iPhone and Apple Watch. With mine when they had both rebooted the photos start to sync properly. As a test I tried selecting All Photos again, but it just seemed to crash the sync again and so I needed to hard reset both devices.

I Hope this helps, although I think Apple need to fix something here though!

pfd251

Level 1

0 points

Sep 23, 2015 6:45 AM in response to jamie.shaw

I believe the problem is that the watch must be on the charger and then manually unlocked in order to have the photos sync.

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 23, 2015 6:49 AM in response to jamie.shaw

This has worked for me, swapping to "Recently Added" and hard rebooting as reset the sync; they're bow pulling through. My try myself with All Photos later, but will leave it as is for now.

And it doesn't need to be charging, mine are transferring whilst it's on my wrist 😉

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 23, 2015 7:07 AM in response to jamie.shaw

Just tried swapping to "All Photos" and hard rebooting. No joy, maybe I didn't give it enough time to reset the sync though.

When swapping to "Recently added" it took a few open and closes of the watch Photos app to initiate a pull.

If anyone else wants to give All Photos and a hard reboot a go and post their results, be my guest.

Churchil

Level 1

25 points

Sep 23, 2015 8:38 AM in response to pfd251

THere is no need to have the watch on the charger when synchronizing photos.

Sep 23, 2015 11:16 AM in response to Churchil

Same issue here.

I have the iphone 5s 32G running ios9, and a watch running os2.

I can't identify when the issue started exactly, however since I am/was using camera roll for the watch to sync photos from, my last saved photo on the last itunes sync should tell me roughly when it stopped working. (Comparing the last photo on the watch as compared to that iphone/itunes sync) I can tell you that it was recently though and like many I speculate that it is an issue that started with ios9.

My problem:

Photos on the watch continue to show the camera roll prior to me dumping them in itunes/photo sync to my macbook pro. Watch photos will not sync to the new camera roll, or any other album for that matter.

Attempts to resolve and result:

1. Changed albums in iphone watch app. negative

2. Tried force quitting both the photos app on the watch as well as the watch app on the phone. negative

3. Power cycled both devices, both on and off chargers. negative

4. Hard reset on both devices. negative

5. Banged head against wall. negative

6. Reset watch content and settings (General>Reset>Erase Content and Settings) , and re-paired the watch after it reset. positive.

The only solution I could think of was to reset the whole thing and load from a previous sync. This took about a half hour, but fortunately saved all my app layouts and other settings from the previous sync, and that included watch faces I had created before the reset even if the pictures were no longer on the phone.

Sep 23, 2015 1:44 PM in response to TheJackal44

WEIRD. I just installed iOS 9.01 and for a while it worked but now I've swapped album folders and deleted some pics it stopped.! i might try chatting to apple support again tonight.

****! i was so confident earlier. grrrrrrrrr

Sep 23, 2015 6:21 PM in response to jamie.shaw

Concur that this is an iOS9 issue and not a Watch issue.

I just upgraded from 9.0 to 9.0.1, and after the reboot, I checked photos, and the photos were all different (since I had previously switched the a different album when trying to figure out why syncing was not working).

Unfortunately, it won't sync again. It just seems to do an initial sync when iOS9 loads (or your watch pairs for the first time), but then it never syncs again.

It would make sense that this is an iOS9 problem and not a watch problem, because photos have to be pushed to the watch. Something in the watch app is keeping it from generating a push when you change albums or add photos to an album. Only the initial push when the app first loads (on boot/first pair).

Sep 24, 2015 12:03 AM in response to josephabennett

Im talking to Apple on the phone this morning at 9:30; I will post my results but suspect everyone agrees it will be: "wait for the next update". If you have time to talk or type to them I think pressure in numbers might help. Cheers.

Sep 24, 2015 3:07 AM in response to simonbuysellit

NO SUCCESS.....

I spoke to Simon M at Apple this morning. We force restarted the watch which worked temporarily and then it was stuck again; so we force restarted the watch and the phone at the same time (roughly speaking) and the watch is now able to swap between albums and is registering deleted photos immediately. Hurrah!

iOS 9.01 , watchOS2. iphone 6 plus. photos are set on Optimise iPhone Storage in iCloud photo library if this makes any difference.

NB: This didn't work once i changed album selected to All Photos. Sorry

Photos not syncing (iOS 9 / watchOS 2)