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

73 replies

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 24, 2015 4:24 AM in response to simonbuysellit

simonbuysellit wrote:

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.

*********

We discovered this yesterday – if you change the album, and force restart both the watch and the phone, the photos will sync. The issue lies however with the "All Photos" album, this method does not work with "All Photos" and sync will break again after selecting "All Photos" even after successfully changing to another album. Right now, I've moved back to "Favourites" until the "All Photos" bug is fixed.

Just to confirm – are you syncing the All Photos album? Or a another one?

Sep 24, 2015 3:05 AM in response to jamie.shaw

Yes, you're right. All Photos freezes the sync up and it no longer allows me to change albums after I've selected it. I will email Simon M as I have a case open and then force restart them both i guess. Sorry for the false Hurrahing.

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 24, 2015 3:11 AM in response to simonbuysellit

Sorry to shoot down your excitement – as the issue seems widespread, and more importantly reproducible – I don't want readers to get confused thinking the issue is solved when it wasn't.

It's good to know that we're getting somewhere though, and someone has a direct line to Apple. We're part way there, we can sync photos, just not with the "All Photos" album.

Churchil

Level 1

25 points

Sep 24, 2015 4:18 AM in response to jamie.shaw

Okay, restarting both devices did work for me as long, as mentioned, I keep away from the "all photos" album. We're on the way to a solution, thanks for all your efforts here.

Off topic: And let them please bring out iOS 9.0.2, the last update forces me to restart my iPhone frequently......

Sep 24, 2015 5:04 PM in response to jamie.shaw

I have the excact same problem. There is clearly a problem with the "All Photos" option then.

Do we need to report this to Apple somewhere else so they fix this or at least remove that option if it's not supossed to work?

Sep 24, 2015 11:45 PM in response to AirRockStar

HI. I'm not sure you need to, I'm going to copy the senior team member in on this, who is passing it to "the engineers". so far I've spent about 6 hours writing and talking to Support about this and I'd hate anyone else to go through the pointless steps of restarting your watch from backup and as a new watch and the. Needing to re-enter all your data which is most annoying and of course doesn't solve the issue. Reporting it here should be enough. Fingers crossed. There support team have been really good.

Sep 26, 2015 1:54 PM in response to AirRockStar

I'm not seeing "All Photos" as an option within the Apple Watch app on the iPhone, and I want to make sure I'm not missing something that's causing the problem.

The albums I see are:

- Camera Roll

- Recently Added

- Skitch

- Family (shared by Steve Prescott)

- Family (shared by you)

The one I want to sync (and did pre iOS 9) is "Family".

Why am I not seeing an "All Photos" option when the rest of you are?

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 27, 2015 1:24 AM in response to slprescott

If you're seeing "Camera Roll" but not "All Photos", it sounds like you do not have iCloud Photo Library enabled.

Sep 27, 2015 5:38 AM in response to jamie.shaw

Thanks, Jamie. I appreciate the explanation.

Sep 27, 2015 4:28 PM in response to simonbuysellit

simonbuysellit

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...

------------------------

I do not think so.

It happened to me as well. I use 5S, iOS 9, watchOS2 and 38mm aluminium apple watch.

I just synced a photo album because it contains photos that I will use for my apple watch faces.

The strange thing is, when I want to change the faces type, the photos shows up in the apple watch faces setting. And it run well. Every time my watch wakes up, it shows the photos from the album that I chose.

But when I checked in the watch photo app, there was nothing there. No photos.

Oh well, I hope it will be fixed in the next update.

Sep 28, 2015 2:51 AM in response to TikaHanafi

I've had this issue since updating, and it's really frustrating.

This happens for me even if I stay away from 'all photos'

I'm using an iPhone 6 128gb 9.0.1 & 42mm AW SGS 2.0

Over the weekend I setup the iPhone as a brand new virgin device from DFU mode, also reset & re-paired the AW - still the same problem.

Just had a phone conversation with my father (iPhone 5 on 9.0.1 & AW 2.0) and he can swap between albums & even use 'all photos' without a glitch!

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 28, 2015 3:06 AM in response to coldsweat

coldsweat wrote:

I've had this issue since updating, and it's really frustrating.

This happens for me even if I stay away from 'all photos'

I'm using an iPhone 6 128gb 9.0.1 & 42mm AW SGS 2.0

Over the weekend I setup the iPhone as a brand new virgin device from DFU mode, also reset & re-paired the AW - still the same problem.

Just had a phone conversation with my father (iPhone 5 on 9.0.1 & AW 2.0) and he can swap between albums & even use 'all photos' without a glitch!

Now that is interesting. Surely it can't be an issue with the bluetooth chipset used in iPhone 6? Maybe "All Photos" is too much data for it to handle?

Sep 28, 2015 3:17 AM in response to jamie.shaw

yes, absolutely. I wonder if it's the amount of photos in All Photos that causes the photo sync to misfire; did your father have many in there I wonder. This discussion and issue was passed to Apple engineers today I believe. (Had to restart my watch and phone yesterday when the watch stopped making calls). Grrrrr.

jamie.shaw Author

Level 1

47 points

Sep 28, 2015 3:18 AM in response to simonbuysellit

simonbuysellit wrote:

yes, absolutely. I wonder if it's the amount of photos in All Photos that causes the photo sync to misfire; did your father have many in there I wonder. This discussion and issue was passed to Apple engineers today I believe. (Had to restart my watch and phone yesterday when the watch stopped making calls). Grrrrr.

Yeah, there's definitely some flakiness between iIOS 9 and Apple Watch. I had issues yesterday were workflows wouldn't sync to the Workflows app, even after a restart. Attempted to uninstall the app and reinstall on the watch – it got stuck at "Installing..." despite the toggle being flicked to off. Bizarre.

Sep 28, 2015 3:22 AM in response to jamie.shaw

Yes, but at least we are all remembering to stand up regularly; I don't know where we'd be without that regular prompt. (Sarcasm voice)

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Photos not syncing (iOS 9 / watchOS 2)