How long does it take to upload the photo library? I've been waiting for a week.

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How long does it take to upload the photo library? I've been waiting for a week.

I have enabled iCloud for my photo library and it immediately started to upload. After a couple hundred photos, it seemed to stall. I waited overnight but it had not made any more progress. I paused and restarted which seemed to get it to move a few more but then stalled again. Waited overnight and not a single additional photo was uploaded. Paused a restarted again.... a few more and then stopped.... also waited a long time (several hours) and no progress.

How long will this take (I have 26GB and 15K photos)? Why does it stall or stop? Is there some limit?

I wanted to use iCloud as an alternative to my time machine backups and to allow the photos to be available on all devices - however, so far I am very disappointed with the process and not sure if it is going to work.

Suggestions?

iOS 10.11.1 El Capitan, Photos 1.2,

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), 26GB Photo Library, 15K Photos

Posted on Oct 22, 2015 1:52 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Oct 22, 2015 1:57 AM in response to jlt8030

Why does it stall or stop? Is there some limit?

Either you do not have enough iCloud storage for all your photos, or your interbet connection is limiting the upload rte, or you have photos or videos in the library that cannot be uploaded because of the format or a corruption.

You can check for problematic photos using a smart album with the rule "Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library":

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Answer 2

jlt8030 Author

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Oct 23, 2015 4:11 PM in response to léonie

Thanks for the update and suggestions. It did finally begin uploading and took until today tom complete the 26GB upload. It took over a week! I have no idea why as my internet seems to work fine with streaming services and other high bandwidth required apps. I did tweak my power settings and forced the system to not hibernate or shutdown disk or network - maybe that helped. I have since reset to factory settings.

Thanks.

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Answer 3

jlt8030 Author

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Oct 23, 2015 4:47 PM in response to jlt8030

Oh, I found the reason. Article HT4858. There is a limit on the number of photos in a given period of time to avoid flooding. It just restarts when the time has been exceeded. Ergo, it took time.

My Photo Stream upload limits

The My Photo Stream limits below are based on anticipated upload patterns. These are the My Photo Stream upload limits:

Uploads to My Photo Stream per hour: 1000 photos
Uploads to My Photo Stream per day: 10,000 photos
Uploads to My Photo Stream per month: 25,000 photos

If you exceed one of these limits, your uploads to My Photo Stream will pause temporarily, and you might see a notification on your device. Your uploads will resume automatically when you no longer exceed the limit, such as in the following hour or on the following day.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Oct 23, 2015 11:23 PM in response to jlt8030

The limits you listed apply to My Photo Stream - it is limited, because it is free storage you use it in addition to the paid iCloud Storage.

The limits do not apply to iCloud Photo Library. That is a different part of iCloud.

I did tweak my power settings and forced the system to not hibernate or shutdown disk or network - maybe that helped. I have since reset to factory settings.

That may have done the trick.

The initial upload to iCloud Photo Library is slow. It may also be caused by the traffic on Apple's servers, when millions of users are trying to connect and upload at the same time.

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