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Photos iCloud Uploading and Updating Issues

I'm running Photos version 5.0 on Catalina 10.15.1 and have been in the "Uploading" and "Updating" cycle for a few days. I noticed about a week ago that when I'd launch Photos on my laptop, that the normal sync process wasn't updating. I went looking online, and saw quite a few posts discussing this issue, pointing to issues with the Uploading process getting in the way of the Updating process - but I was seeing my Uploads continue to go down - so they weren't stuck. After a few days of letting Photos do its thing, I'm now in the "Updating" phase... and the item count at the bottom of Photos now accurately reflects the total of photos + videos that I see in iCloud when I view Photos in Safari. BUT... the photos that are missing on my Photos for Mac, aren't appearing as they do in iCloud and on my phone - and my MacBook Pro network interface shows no downloading traffic. There are a number of posts on this topic, but they're all older.... so I really need some help. Yes, I've turned iCloud Photos on and off, with and without restarts... I've waited for long periods of time... I jus don't know what it's doing... or how long I should wait. Should I delete my Photos library all together and start with a clean sync? That feels terrifying to do, but maybe it's the only way? Just so frustrating!

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Nov 5, 2019 2:58 PM

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Posted on Nov 6, 2019 5:23 AM

Resolved! - after waiting 10 hours of “Updating” status, my issue is now resolved. Everything is sync’d. Looks like the total process took 8 days of solid processing. My library is nearly 700GB, so I guess that makes sense, but indexing and displaying photos vs waiting them to load feel like they should be separate and more transparent.

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Nov 6, 2019 5:23 AM in response to Glewt

Resolved! - after waiting 10 hours of “Updating” status, my issue is now resolved. Everything is sync’d. Looks like the total process took 8 days of solid processing. My library is nearly 700GB, so I guess that makes sense, but indexing and displaying photos vs waiting them to load feel like they should be separate and more transparent.

Nov 5, 2019 3:12 PM in response to Glewt

Update: The status at the bottom of Photos changed from "Updating 73,079 items" to "Updating..." - so maybe that's progress? Still no change in the photos displayed - and the numbers above the status still reads 69,392 Photos, 3,240 Videos (72,632 items) - not the true number on iCloud (73,079).

Nov 6, 2019 3:07 PM in response to AndyCarter77

I'm not entirely sure how the various status titles changed. What I do know is that after repairing the library (honestly, not sure there was anything wrong with it, but a re-index can't be a bad thing), the status changed to something I hadn't seen before (Restoring from iCloud...) which gave me some hope. After a few hours of that status, it returned to "Updating", and then after another 10 hours of processing, it was updated. How big is your library? I would recommend the library repair (only takes about an hour), and then see if it doesn't resolve the same way mine did.

Photos iCloud Uploading and Updating Issues

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