Avinash.Vasayani

Q: iCloud can't recognise old Photo Library

Hi

I have one Photos Library in separate partition (Media) on my Mac, which is my main Library and it’s also uploaded on iCloud, although it’s huge in size (151.06 GB disk space). Recently I did clean install of El Capitan on my Macbook.

After clean install I just double clicked it to use it in Photos and make it as my System Photo Library, it’s fine now it’s my System Photo Library but when I try to turn on iCloud Photo Library by going in Preference in Photos it ask me to upgrade my iCloud Storage plan (currently I have 200GB plan).

“This computer is storing 141.72 GB of photos and videos. You have 79.81 GB of iCloud storage available. Find out if your current plan will fit your library”

I think it is taking it as a new library but I don’t want to upload 151GB library again even I have extra iCloud space.

I just want iCloud to recognise it as an old library and update it. In last few days I have taken lot of pictures on iPhone and those are already in my iCloud. I want them to sync with my this library automatically like before.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

Quick Specifications:

McBook Pro 13 Inch Mid 2012

Processor 2.9 Ghz Intel Core i7

Memory 16GB 1600 Mhz DDR3

HDD 1TB

OS X El Cpitan 10.11.1

Photos Ver. 1.2 (340.4.0)

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Dec 5, 2015 9:44 PM

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Q: iCloud can't recognise old Photo Library

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 5, 2015 11:59 PM in response to Avinash.Vasayani
    Level 10 (105,776 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 5, 2015 11:59 PM in response to Avinash.Vasayani

    I think it is taking it as a new library but I don’t want to upload 151GB library again even I have extra iCloud space.

    I just want iCloud to recognise it as an old library and update it. In last few days I have taken lot of pictures on iPhone and those are already in my iCloud. I want them to sync with my this library automatically like before.

    Any help will be appreciated.

    There is no help for it.

     

    Photos will upload all photos again to merge the library into the existing iCloud Photo Library. It will compare all photos in your restored library to the ones in iCloud to see which photos will need updating.  The same will happen, whenever a library is restored from a backup, copied to a new location, or if you repair a ibrary with the library first aid tools.

  • by Avinash.Vasayani,

    Avinash.Vasayani Avinash.Vasayani Dec 6, 2015 2:28 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 6, 2015 2:28 AM in response to léonie

    SO it means firstly I need to upgrade my iCloud Storage plan, then only I can proceed.

     

    Actually my worry is not the storage plan, my main concern is that I uploaded my current library to iCloud very hardly it took many days, that time it was 110GB photos on my Mac, now it's 140-150GB Library File, it will again take lot of time.

     

    And one more question, are you sure it will automatically matches / compare my both libraries (on Mac and on iCloud) and it will not make any duplicates.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 6, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Avinash.Vasayani
    Level 10 (105,776 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 6, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Avinash.Vasayani

    SO it means firstly I need to upgrade my iCloud Storage plan, then only I can proceed.

    That should not be necessary. Try to sign out of iCloud Photo Library in the System Preferences > Photos. restart the Mac and sign in again.  When you try to enable your current library as an iCloud Photo Library you should see a warning, that the library may not fit, but it should allow you to proceed without upgrading the storage. 

    And one more question, are you sure it will automatically matches / compare my both libraries (on Mac and on iCloud) and it will not make any duplicates.

    Yes, it will compare. And it will not duplicate files that it recognizes as duplicates.

  • by Avinash.Vasayani,

    Avinash.Vasayani Avinash.Vasayani Dec 18, 2015 8:37 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 18, 2015 8:37 AM in response to léonie

    Hi,

     

    Sorry for getting back late on this, I did as you advised, its uploading all the photos again.

     

    It's not like what I assumed, like Dropbox does or any other cloud service does. When you have a folder which was been syncing with dropbox before, you reset your computer, assign the same syncing rules and then it just verify the files but not upload again. I'm not sure whether I could explain well but I hope you got my mean. From 141.72 GB its already uploaded approx 60GB, I'm now at 87Gb still to be uploaded. I'm not happy about this, I can't believe Apple can have this flaw with Photo App. I'm in a place where we have unlimited internet bandwidth use, but if someone has limited usage of internet how they are going to manage their photos after reseting their computers. Even though it's not about the internet usage but it's taking weeks for uploading such a big collection despite having 100MBPS internet connection.


    I have taken lot of pictures from iPhone for my work in last few days, I can't get them on Mac unless it finishes the whole sync. I have to go to iCloud to retrieve those pictures I need, it's very inconvenient.


    I don't know whether there is a solution for the above but I have few question to ask.


    1. Once it will finish the syncing I want to transfer these pictures as a folder to different location (on a portable drive first and then I want to keep them on a PC running Windows 10), I remember before in iPhoto you can copy and paste the bunch of pictures, but I didn't find the same function in Photo app. How can I copy the all 30,000+ pictures and videos in a folder and access them easily on a PC.


    2. I think I'm done with Photo app on Mac. Is it possible to save pictures from iPhone Camera Roll to cloud and access them on different platform devices?

     

    Thanks in advance

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 18, 2015 9:43 AM in response to Avinash.Vasayani
    Level 10 (105,776 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 18, 2015 9:43 AM in response to Avinash.Vasayani
    I remember before in iPhoto you can copy and paste the bunch of pictures, but I didn't find the same function in Photo app. How can I copy the all 30,000+ pictures and videos in a folder and access them easily on a PC.

    To export your Photos to a folder on a disk select the photos in Photos, then use the command  "File > Export > Export Unmodified original ...". This way you will see them in the original quality.

    If you want to save the edited versions use  "File > Export > Export ... photos" and select a high JPEG quality.

     

    2. I think I'm done with Photo app on Mac. Is it possible to save pictures from iPhone Camera Roll to cloud and access them on different platform devices?

    You can access My Photo Stream from different devices, but it will only work for new photos.  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201317

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Dec 18, 2015 10:36 AM in response to Avinash.Vasayani
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Dec 18, 2015 10:36 AM in response to Avinash.Vasayani

    1 - export the images

     

    2 - yes - several ways using MyPHotoSteam  -  iCloud: Set up My Photo Stream -  or iCloud Photo Library - Get help with iCloud Photo Library for your Windows PC - Apple Support

     

    LN