how can i 'force' the edits i make on my iphone to correctly sync with icloud?
the edits i make on my phone are not syncing on my imac/icloud.com.
ongoing issue since august - any help much appreciated, thank you!
iPhone X, iOS 12
trying to sign out from icloud on my imac but get this message (attachment). not sure what it refers to, or how long i need to wait until said "documents" are uploaded.
Photos says everything is "updated just now" - and i can't see anything in progress of being uploaded, so this message makes no sense at all.
You are welcome. Sign out on the phone since that is what isn't syncing.
Try going to iCloud.com using a computer to see if the items are there and whether they are from the device or the computer. That should show whether the device or the computer isn't syncing.
ok i know what it is now: there are 3 small items on my icloud drive which i viewed on my iphone AND icloud.com
but if i look at icloud drive on my imac it shows something different.
please see the screenshots which show how it's not syncing:
ok i'm trying this now: turned off icloud photo library, then turned it back on again. fingers crossed this will force it to be in sync.
also with the iphone plugged into my imac, it's telling me there are "New items (3,027 new items)". very bizarre!
amongst these photos are the correct edited versions, but the file name has an "E" infront of the file name.
ok, i left it running overnight and it's still not working. i can't see any difference it's made, now that the uploading process is finished.
edits are still missing, and thumbnails still inaccurate.
it's confusing, my attached screenshot in previous post said it was uploading. "uploading" from where exactly?
if my entire photo library is already in the cloud, how can it be uploading?
the whole wording by apple is very unclear - not once is the word "sync" used anywhere.
apple really needs to introduce a simple function: a button that simply says "SYNC", in order to force a sync between all devices. i've been going around in circles trying to solve this since august, which is really annoying.
i'm going to try and sign out from icloud on my iphone but i get this rather worrying and confusing message.
i'm hoping that by singing out and then back in, it will force all my photo edits to be in sync...
How to use the Photos library repair tool - Apple Support
this sounds rather drastic but maybe worth a shot - do you have any experience of using this repair tool?
i'm just very nervous about potentially losing thousands of photo edits... 😕
Should your Photos Library be badly damaged, then repairing it can make it worse. That is why you never should use this tool without making a backup of the library, before you run the repair. Th Photos User Guide says so: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/repair-the-library-pht6be18f93/mac
Important: You should back up your photo library before repairing it.
As a consequence of repairing, your library will upload again to iCloud to update all changes. This may take a few days for a large library, even with a fast network. The last time I repaired my library, I had to wait several days, before it had finished the new syncing.
If you repair a library that's automatically updated with iCloud Photos, the entire contents of the library re-updates with iCloud after the repair process completes.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204967
In your Mac firstly back up your photo library , then enter in user library , click on finder take cursor on top menu bar > Go > hold option key and click on library .
Find a folder preferences > drag and drop com.apple.Photos.plist to the desktop , restart the Mac and then open photo application .
Also create a new test user account How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support
And then set up iCloud photo library and also turn it as on see these articles Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
hi eric,
thanks for the reply.
when i go to turn it off, it gives the option to "remove from iphone" or "download photos & videos".
i am not sure which to select.
all the correct/edited photos are on my iphone, i just want to get those synced to the icloud.
the photos are all there but some with and some without the edits. it's very inconsistent and driving me nuts 😕
thanks again!
Photos says everything is "updated just now" - and i can't see anything in progress of being uploaded, so this message makes no sense at all.
"updated just now" does not imply that all original image files have been downloaded from iCloud, only that all edit and adjustments have been synced.
On my MacBook Pro I noticed, that Photos is very reluctant to download all originals from iCloud, in spite of the preference "Download originals to this Mac" being enabled. As soon as the free storage drops below 200GB or so, Photos seems to be ignoring this preference. I always have to force the download by viewing each and every new photo enlarged. Otherwise quite a few of the originals would be missing from my Time Machine backup.
The warning you are seeing is from iCloud Drive, not from iCloud Photos. iCloud Photos seems to have finished syncing, but your iCloud Drive not. You must not sign out of iCloud, while documents on iCloud Drive are being uploaded to iCloud. They are currently in Limbo. The only way to disable iCloud safely, if you are seeing this warning would be to copy all documents and data from iCloud Drive to a local folder, before you sign out of iCloud Drive.
This would be very drastic. I would first check your iCloud Drive for items showing a cloud badge. Perhaps you can identify, what is currently still uploading to iCloud and wait for the upload to finish.
Then try to sign out of iCloud again.
Do you have very large items on iCloud Drive?
the imac is synced with icloud.com - ie. both displaying some edits but not all.
only the iphone shows all the correctly edited photos
so i know that the computer is not syncing correctly with the iphone
i just checked again, and in fact icloud.com is behaving much better than imac>photos
icloud.com is displaying the correct edited thumbnails+photos more often than on my computer - but it's still not perfectly in sync with my iphone.
It is. But if the library has a problem, that cannot be fixed by the built-in repair tool, then trying the repair will be no good. Usually Photos will just give up and state that it could not repair the library. But I had it already happen, that Photos could not open the library at all again, after trying a repair. A repair should usually not be necessary at all - only if Photos crashes and the library has been left in an inconsistent state; or when the library is stored on a failing drive - this can usually be repaired.
But repairing will frequently fail, if the library is stored in a synced cloud folder like DropBox, where the syncing will make mince meat of the internal database links or if a duplicate cleaner has damaged essential files inside the library.
i noticed, 2 days ago that the edits were starting to work on PHOTOS/IMAC.
something was working, something - i don't know what - had changed. the ones that were not before displaying correctly were now showing the correct edited version.
BUT: the next day these correct photos reverted back to the original un-edited versions!!! unbelievable.
my conclusion is that icloud just has a mind of its own, is irregular, inconsistent and broken.
shame on apple.
why aren't my photo edits syncing?
