Photos won't download original pictures to Mac

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Level 1

4 points

Photos won't download original pictures to Mac

I've recently done a clean install on my Mac and having issues with Photos app. I've not backed up my old photoslibrary file, assuming I would be able to download it again after clean installation, before formatting everything was synchronizing properly. After, when I open Photos app, make it system library and enable iCloud Photo Library, Photos start to download thumbnails; but after all images are added to my library it won't download original files. Status is stuck at downloading 37,000 something and won't proceed.

I've tried leaving it overnight, but there is no network activity. I've also tried deleting .photoslibrary file and starting from scratch, also logging out of iCloud and back in, rebooting in between, it all ends up with same result.

If I select a random image, it will download original as it does on iPhone/iPad with optimized library.

There are many Photos related errors in system logs, many from 'cloudd' or 'photolibraryd' processes. Seems like an issue with these supporting background processes but I don't have any idea how to fix those.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), Photos app on my Mac.

Posted on May 19, 2016 9:35 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 18, 2017 12:42 PM in response to léonie

Hi Hakaramakara,

Did you ever solve the issue? My library sync is also stuck with no activity. I tried syncing to a new Mac user account (same iCloud account) with no luck.

Apparently there's no easy way to download the pictures directly com iCloud...

Any good ideas?

Cheers,

Jeppe

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,789 points

May 19, 2016 10:38 PM in response to hakaramakara

Downloading 37000 files may take more than a week without visible progress. Let it run. If you keep starting over just after a day it will never get done.

Status is stuck at downloading 37,000 something

What does the status line below the photos view show? Does it say "downloading photos or videos", or does it also mention "items"?

The download may get stuck, if you are having one item in your iCloud Photo Library that cannot be processed, because of an unknown color profile, video codec, or image format.

Create a smart album with the rule "Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library". Is this album empty?

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Answer 3

hakaramakara Author

Level 1

4 points

May 20, 2016 11:53 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for the response, answers your questions:

- I don't see any reason why it would take 1 week to download, thumbnails for all of the library is downloaded in 5-10mins. I see lots of CPU&Network activity while thumbnails are downloaded, but everything is dead afterwards.

- Status at the bottom is stuck at "Downloading 37,523 Items" for last 12 hours.

- "Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library" album is empty because I'm trying to download my library from iCloud, not upload.

There may be some old photos in my library with some kind of problem, most of my pictures are from iPhoto which then got imported into Photos & Photo Library. Do you know how I can dig deeper to find out what the exact problem is?

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,789 points

May 20, 2016 12:22 PM in response to hakaramakara

- I don't see any reason why it would take 1 week to download, thumbnails for all of the library is downloaded in 5-10mins. I see lots of CPU&Network activity while thumbnails are downloaded, but everything is dead afterwards.

Photos is not not only downloading, it is checking the photo it downloads agains the photos already in your library to avoid duplicates.

- "Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library" album is empty because I'm trying to download my library from iCloud, not upload.

Photos is syncing. If it cannot upload the photos on your Mac, the download from iCloud may be paused.But ids this album is empty, the photos on your Mac are not causing the problem.

There may be some old photos in my library with some kind of problem, most of my pictures are from iPhoto which then got imported into Photos & Photo Library. Do you know how I can dig deeper to find out what the exact problem is?

Can you identify the next photo or video that should download to your Mac but does not?

You can download the photos directly from the Photos.app at www.icloud.com, if you sign in with your AppleID.

If you can tell from the photos already in your Photos Library which have been downloaded and which not yet, you could then try to download the missing photos from www.icloud.com. Check the image file format of these photos. It might be an unsupported video codec, or a photo with an unsupported color profile. are there any photos in iCloud that are in TIFF format, PSD format, BMP format? These formats are most likely to have unsupported color profiles assigned.

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