Icloud Photo Library Not Syncing Mac

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If you want your Mac's photos to wirelessly sync to all your other iOS devices and computers, you want to set up iCloud Photo Library: Apple's photo sync service lets you back up your images on all your devices, as well as access them — online or offline — on said devices. If you're willing to pay for the extra iCloud storage space, you can store an incredible amount of photos and videos, all accessible at the touch of a button or multi-touch screen.

Here's how to set it up on your Mac and get everything configured to your liking!

  • Sign in to iCloud to access your photos, videos, documents, notes, contacts, and more. Use your Apple ID or create a new account to start using Apple services.
  • I have noticed that Apple Photos will stop syncing with iCloud and when this happens there seems to be no way to get things to sync again. I have tried every hint online that I could find all the way to creating a new separate library, making it the system library, and trying to re-sync all over again.
  • Dec 09, 2019  Syncing iCloud photos to other devices such as iPhone, Mac and PC comes in handy on several occasions. Especially, when the time is short and you have to make quick edits. But, there come times when the iCloud photos are not syncing to these devices.

Dec 21, 2017  I’m contacting you about a strange issue relative to my iCloud Photo Library. I have an iPhone and an iPad Pro, both on iOS 11. All the photos taken on both devices are synced with my Mac and iCloud.com but not between my iOS 11 devices. iPad photos appear on iPad, Mac and web - iPhone photos appear on iPhone, Mac and web.

How to set up iCloud Photo Library on your Mac

  1. Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
  2. Select the Photos menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
  3. Go to Preferences.

  4. Click on the iCloud tab.

    Source: iMore

  5. Check 'iCloud Photos.' This will begin uploading any and all images you have stored in the Photos app to iCloud.

    Source: iMore

How to optimize your photo and video storage

If you routinely shoot 4K video or high-quality images on your iPhone, iPad, or DSLR, you may run out of storage space fast. (I have a 1TB iMac, but also have almost a terabyte of 4K video stored in iCloud — it gets unwieldy, fast!) This is especially true if you have a Mac laptop with limited hard drive space: It's nice to look at your iPhone's gorgeous Portrait mode photos, but not necessarily always practical to store all of them locally.

Thankfully, Apple offers an Optimize Storage option, which lets you store full-resolution photos and videos of only your most recently shot and accessed imagery; all older photos and videos are available to download via iCloud and are stored as low-resolution previews on your device to save space. You can switch between optimizing your Mac's photos storage or storing your full library locally: Here's how!

Note: If you plan on using Optimize Storage, we suggest having at least one device that stores your entire library locally (usually a Mac with a large local or external hard drive), so you have multiple backups of your photographs and video.

  1. Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
  2. Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.

  3. Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click the iCloud tab.

  5. Click Optimize Mac Storage.

    Source: iMore

Icloud Photo Library Not Syncing Mac

Full-resolution versions of your photos and videos will be uploaded to iCloud.

How to share photos with iCloud Photo Library

Apple's photo service doesn't just provide online backups and sync for your images and video: The company also offers a free sharing service that allows you to send shared albums to friends and family (or create a publicly-shared website). Here's how to turn it on for your Mac.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments below.

Updated January 2020: Updated for macOS Catalina. Serenity Caldwell worked on a previous version of this post

iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide

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Photos On Mac Not Syncing

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iCloud plays an important role in syncing your photos across your devices. It's especially helpful when you want to transfer photos between your devices wirelessly. However, it’s not without problems while using iCloud to sync photos from your iOS device to your computer (Mac or PC). Since the fixes to iCloud Photos Not Syncing to Windows PC have been provided already, this article only covers the solutions to the problem iCloud Photos Not Syncing to Mac, be it Mac Sierra or Mac High Sierra. Read on to get the details.

Solutions to iCloud Photos Not Syncing to Mac

If you find photos not downloading from iCloud to Mac or iCloud photos not syncing to Mac, there are two ways you can choose. One is to use an alternative way to sync photos from your iPhone or iPad to Mac (as shown in Solution 1), the other is to try the potential solutions provided to fix the issue. All the practical methods are detailed below.

Solution 1: Sync photos from iPhone to Mac without iCloud (FREE)

In addition to using iCloud, you can use the FREEWARE for iOS data transfer and file management, EaseUS MobiMover Free, to transfer all your photos in Camera Roll, Photo Stream, and Photo Library, from your iPhone (or iPad in iOS 8 and later) to Mac. With MobiMover, you can transfer files between two iOS devices or between iOS device and computer (Mac or PC) without any cost or limitation.

What can MobiMover transfer or manage for you:

Photos: Camera Roll, Photo Library, Photo Stream, Photo Videos

Videos: Movies, TV shows, Music Videos

Audios: Music, Ringtones, Voice Memos, Audiobooks, Playlists

Icloud Photo Library Mac Not Syncing

Others: Contacts, Notes, Messages, Voice Mails, Books, and Safari Bookmarks

As you can see from the list above, the files you can transfer using MobiMover are not limited to photos. If you need, you can also transfer contacts from iPhone to iPhone or put music to iPhone with MobiMover. Now, follow the steps below to safely and quickly sync photos from your iPhone to Mac within minutes.

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your Mac running OS X 10.7 and later with a USB cable, open EaseUS MobiMover Free, and choose iDevice to Mac. (You can also use the custom feature to transfer photos from your iPhone to Mac by clicking [your device name] > Picture > Photo/Album.)

Step 2: Select the category/categories you want to copy from your iPhone to Mac. Other than photos, you can also transfer videos, audio, contacts, messages, and more.

Step 3: Click the folder icon to choose a location for the images to be imported, then click the Transfer button to transfer photos from your iPhone to Mac without iTunes.

Step 4: Depending on the size of the files, it may take seconds or a while to import photos from iPhone to Mac. When it has done, you can view the transferred items in the folder you just selected.

Notice
The fixes to the issue iCloud Photos Not Syncing to Mac introduced below are arranged in an increasing order of difficulty. If the iCloud photos are still not syncing to Mac after trying the possible fixes below, you are recommended to use EaseUS MobiMover Free in Solution 1 to get things done.

Solution 2: Check Internet connection on your devices

As you may know, a stable network connection on your iOS device and Mac is required to upload photos to iCloud. Thus, you need to make sure the Wi-Fi network connection works properly on your Mac and your iPhone (or other iOS devices). If you find Wi-Fi not working on your devices, learn how to fix it from the related article.

This is the first solution you should try when iCloud photos do not sync to Mac or photos are not downloading from iCloud to Mac.

Icloud Photo Library Not Syncing

Solution 3: Check your Apple ID

To sync photos across your Mac and iOS devices, you have to sign in to iCloud on these devices with the same Apple ID. When you find iCloud photos not syncing to your Mac, go to check your Apple ID and see whether it’s the cause of the issue.

Solution 4: Turn on iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream

Icloud Photo Library Not Syncing Mac

Icloud Photo Library Not Syncing Machines

To access photos your photos and videos from all your devices, you need to turn on iCloud Photo Library/My Photo Stream on both your iOS device and computer. If iCloud photos are not syncing to your Mac, you should also check whether the options are set up correctly.

Icloud Photo Library Not Updating Mac

  • On iPhone/iPad: Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and then switch on iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream.
  • On Mac: Go to System Preferences > iCloud, make sure Photos is selected and click Options next to it. Then turn on iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream.

Solution 5: Check your iCloud Storage

Icloud Photo Library Not Syncing

Apple provides 5GB of iCloud space for free. But 5GB is generally not enough for you to store your iPhone photos and videos. It's possible that iCloud Photos Not Syncing to Mac is due to insufficient storage in iCloud. If that’s the case, you can either buy more iCloud storage or go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > iCloud to manage iCloud space on your Mac. (If you are not willing to be limited by iCloud storage, try EaseUS MobiMover in Solution 1 instead.)