Photos not syncing in iCloud with a VPN

I am with ExpressVPN and have this same problem.

Interestingly it only seems to affect the Photos app. I often use the Notes app and that syncs with my iPhone while I am on the VPN with no issues. I have found that the sync on Photos is temperamental even without the VPN. A couple of time I have found that only by deleting some photos will a sync kick off.

Never have a single problem with Google Photos syncing though. I really wish that there was an alternative solution for Photos/iCloud. If there was I'd drop them as soon as I could. I'd pay for a reliable solution!

Photos/iCloud has to be the most disappointing experience of the Mac platform and I don't understand why it hasn't been fixed. But unfortunately apple doesn't seem to acknowledge that there is a problem, so until they do that means a fix is not coming any time soon.

Hey guys,

same thing here: Photos on MacOS Sierra (10.13.1) would show previews in low quality, but won't download the full size images.

First thing I tried, was to restart my iMac, but that didn't help.

I opened Photos - still saw the previews with that "progress-circle", but it did not proceed beyond one quarter.

After some thinking, I gave it a try and quit Viscosity VPN. One second later, my network monitor showed download activity, and a few seconds later, I had the full resolution images in Photos.

So, definitely a VPN issue. But what's the problem here?

Any ideas?

Heiko

Yes, same problem here!

I have tried several VPN providers, including protonVPN and NordVPN. None of them is working properly with iCloud Photos.

I contacted NordVPN asking them if they block any port but they say the problem is with Apple without any further explanation. ProtonVPN is not responding at all.

But as long Apple is blocking VPN I am not using their services. Period.

I found the following solution to work:

- Use the App Store NordVPN app, not the direct download version.

- Use a P2P capable server - these can be found in the server selector.

The speed was about 80% of non-VPN for me, but it works.

Thank you! It worked.

I removed the NordVPN client I've downloaded from their website and installed the IKE client from the Appstore.

After I connected to a Dutch p2p server Photo's instantly started to sync my photo's.

Same here. iPhoto (syncing in general, Address Book etc) plus Private Internet Access doesn't work. iPhoto keeps "Updating...." as soon as I turn off the VPN it finishes whatever it is doing.

Same here ... installed 10.13.2 a few days ago and Photos stopped updating. Turned off my ExpressVPN and Photos started updating again.