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User profile for user: AnonymousSB
AnonymousSB Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

How to tell which photo iCloud can't download

I have almost 50K photos/videos in my iCloud library and I'm trying to turn off iCloud on my Mac. In the "Photos" tab at the bottom, it shoes "Updated Just Now", indicating there are no more photos/videos to download from iCloud. BTW, I have "Download Originals To This Mac" enabled.


So, when I uncheck "iCloud Photo Library" in preferences, I get warned that:

1 low-resolution item will be removed from this Mac.

Seriously? 1 out of almost 50K? How can I even begin to find that one photo and see if it's worth trying to get out of iCloud? I see there is a Smart Album option for photos that won't upload to iCloud, but not one for photos that won't download from iCloud. Clearly Photos has a list somewhere in it's memory to know that there is ONE item that isn't downloaded. Anyone know how I can find this item?

null-OTHER, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Aug 15, 2018 4:48 AM

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User profile for user: AnonymousSB
AnonymousSB Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Posted on Aug 15, 2018 5:14 AM

I sorta answered my own question in my question. Here's how I found the ONE file that wouldn't download from iCloud.


  1. Download "DB Browser for SQLite"

    Don't worry, we won't mess anything up

  2. Go to where your "Photos Library" is located

    Probably in your "Pictures" folder

  3. Right click on your "Photos Library" and select "Show Package Contents"
    1. User uploaded file
    2. Isn't that cool, it's just a special kind of folder! (P.S. you can do this on applications too)
  4. Open the "database" folder and copy "photos.db" somewhere else on your computer
    1. This file is huge, depending on your library size. Mine is almost 800MB
    2. We're copying it because it's locked and you can't even open the original

      P.S. don't copy the "photos.db.lock" or "photos.db-wal" file

  5. Now open that copy with "DB Browser for SQLite"
  6. Select the "Browse Data" tab and select "RKMaster" from the "Table" dropdown
  7. Scroll over and observe the "hasBeenSynced" column
  8. Type a number "0" into the "Filter" box below the column name

    User uploaded file

  9. You should now only see a list of items that aren't downloaded from iCloud!
  10. Scroll over and observe the "imagePath" column
    1. This will tell you the Year/Month/Date of the file that isn't downloaded, which should be enough to go find it
    2. Also, you can see if it's a ".mov" or other type of file.
  11. Now, you can try and get that file somehow, maybe through iCloud.com?

    In my case, it was a video and I couldn't get it, not even through iCloud.com. Thankfully I know it's not an important video, based on the other photos and videos I took at the same time, but *** Apple? You lost one of my files? That's the whole reason I put my stuff into iCloud is because it's supposed to be safe there.

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User profile for user: AnonymousSB
AnonymousSB Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Aug 15, 2018 5:14 AM in response to AnonymousSB

I sorta answered my own question in my question. Here's how I found the ONE file that wouldn't download from iCloud.


  1. Download "DB Browser for SQLite"

    Don't worry, we won't mess anything up

  2. Go to where your "Photos Library" is located

    Probably in your "Pictures" folder

  3. Right click on your "Photos Library" and select "Show Package Contents"
    1. User uploaded file
    2. Isn't that cool, it's just a special kind of folder! (P.S. you can do this on applications too)
  4. Open the "database" folder and copy "photos.db" somewhere else on your computer
    1. This file is huge, depending on your library size. Mine is almost 800MB
    2. We're copying it because it's locked and you can't even open the original

      P.S. don't copy the "photos.db.lock" or "photos.db-wal" file

  5. Now open that copy with "DB Browser for SQLite"
  6. Select the "Browse Data" tab and select "RKMaster" from the "Table" dropdown
  7. Scroll over and observe the "hasBeenSynced" column
  8. Type a number "0" into the "Filter" box below the column name

    User uploaded file

  9. You should now only see a list of items that aren't downloaded from iCloud!
  10. Scroll over and observe the "imagePath" column
    1. This will tell you the Year/Month/Date of the file that isn't downloaded, which should be enough to go find it
    2. Also, you can see if it's a ".mov" or other type of file.
  11. Now, you can try and get that file somehow, maybe through iCloud.com?

    In my case, it was a video and I couldn't get it, not even through iCloud.com. Thankfully I know it's not an important video, based on the other photos and videos I took at the same time, but *** Apple? You lost one of my files? That's the whole reason I put my stuff into iCloud is because it's supposed to be safe there.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
195,285 points

Aug 15, 2018 6:36 AM in response to AnonymousSB

. Clearly Photos has a list somewhere in it's memory to know that there is ONE item that isn't downloaded. Anyone know how I can find this item?

That is a very good question. But Photos has no search tool for items that are not stored locally and need downloading.

Sometimes you can see this item, when you browse the thumbnails. There ma be a white thumbnails with a cloud icon.


Since your library uses "Download Originals To This Mac", the culprit will probably be an item that is synced to your Mac from another device, for example an iPhone. The originals for the photos you uploaded from your Mac should all be there. So search with a smart albums with the rule "Camera model is ..."


A brute force approach would be to plug in a drive with plenty of free storage and to select all photos and videos in your library. Then use "File > Export > Export unmodified original". Select the external drive as the destination. Then wait for the photos to export.

This will force all missing originals to download to your Mac, if they are not already there. If the download does not succeed, you will get an error message with the filename of the missing item and can search for it.

The added bonus will be, that you will have a backup of all originals, before you disable iCloud Photo Library.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
195,285 points

Aug 15, 2018 6:49 AM in response to AnonymousSB

but *** Apple? You lost one of my files? That's the whole reason I put my stuff into iCloud is because it's supposed to be safe there.

That I why I recommended to keep a backup copy of all your iCloud media files stored locally on an external drive. Apple's servers are as save as possible, but who can tell if your video ever managed to upload to iCloud? The file may have been corrupted or damaged by transmission errors, or similar.

And your question is showing one essential problem with iCloud Photo Library. We can never be sure, if all our files downloaded from iCloud and all our original are back on our computer, unless we pretend to sign out our iCloud. we really need a more detailed information on the state of the iCloud sync - which files did not yet upload to iCloud, which files did not yet download from iCloud.

Even with a library with Download Originals To This Mac" we cannot be sure, if all originals are stored locally and will be included in our Time Machine backup.

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How to tell which photo iCloud can't download

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