Big Sur Photos won't update

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Level 1

50 points

Big Sur Photos won't update

the Photos on my laptop haven't updated in 2 weeks and the application does not provide a means for me to manually update. what am I supposed to do? I can't see new photos

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jan 31, 2022 1:44 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

23,903 points

Jan 31, 2022 2:52 PM in response to ekkis

Hi

How are you updating? iCloud? Photostream? USB?

Anything done to your system - eg move of library, update of MacOS around 2 weeks ago?

I'll assume iCloud - what does the sync status say at the bottom of the all photos view. Do you have plenty of free space on iCloud, and on your mac? How much?

Where is your library stored - if on an external drive, what is the format?

Do you have an "unable to upload folder"?

If you create a smart album wiht the condition "photo - is unable to upload to iCloud" does it show anything?

Are your settings definitely correct?

First check that the library is set as the system library - the circled button should be greyed out. (Photos preferences) If it isn’t, click it.

Then check icloud settings are as shown.

Also make sure you have enough iCloud space for your whole library, and lots of free space on your mac and phone.

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Answer 2

ekkis Author

Level 1

50 points

Feb 2, 2022 3:16 PM in response to TonyCollinet

> How are you updating? iCloud? Photostream? USB?

thanks for your reply. I'm using iCloud. on my system there is no other choice.

> Anything done to your system - eg move of library, update of MacOS around 2 weeks ago?

nothing

> I'll assume iCloud - what does the sync status say at the bottom of the all photos view.

I turned off cloud and restarted it and now it says "Updating..." for the last 2 days and doesn't seem to be actually updating

> Do you have plenty of free space on iCloud, and on your mac? How much?

plenty. my local disk has 300G free

> Where is your library stored - if on an external drive, what is the format?

the local disk: ekkis/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary

> Do you have an "unable to upload folder"?

where would I have that?

> If you create a smart album wiht the condition "photo - is unable to upload to iCloud" does it show anything?

I created one. it shows no items

> Are your settings definitely correct?

how would I know?

> First check that the library is set as the system library - the circled button should be greyed out. (Photos preferences) If it isn’t, click it.

it's greyed out

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Answer 3

Feb 2, 2022 3:22 PM in response to ekkis

How big is your library?

When you turned iCloud off and on again you triggered a new FULL resync with iCloud. The first thing it has to do is compare local and cloud libraries. That is why nothing seem to happen for a while.

I cloud sync is very slow. For reference my 50GB 5000 item library took a full 48 hours. Depending on the size of your library it can take weeks (eg a 500GB library at the same speed mine went would take 20 days - it is not limited by your internet speed)

Leave your mac on 24/7, connected to power and with phtotos open and sleep disabled. Patience is the key.

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Big Sur Photos won't update

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