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iPhone iCloud Original Photos Not Downloading
- Thread starter Z6128
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I had a random blitz of about 1,000 pics in a matter of an hour last night, then it stopped and won't downloaded anymore.
half way there
half way there
I had a random blitz of about 1,000 pics in a matter of an hour last night, then it stopped and won't downloaded anymore.
half way there
I had that in the morning. But totally stuck again.
Me too! I was coming here to post about it. Glad it’s not just me. I am stuck with 154 left to go. Seems to stop and start. Does it have to do with everyone upgrading to new phones and the servers being backed up?
Just found a potential “solution” (in that it doesn’t fix the underlying issue).
Sharing a photo forces it to be downloaded, so what I am currently doing (and it seems to be working so far) is that I selected all the photos (using the drag select + tap top of screen to go to the top method), then hit share and then mail.
This results in the photo app starting to prepare the photos it already downloaded and downloading the rest. I have 5k photos in my library and so far (over the last 20 minutes or so) I’ve had it download about 300 photos. This method might obviously fail for people with 20k libraries, though I’d imagine one could do it piecewise there as well.
I’ll post an update once it is done or if it stops working.
Sharing a photo forces it to be downloaded, so what I am currently doing (and it seems to be working so far) is that I selected all the photos (using the drag select + tap top of screen to go to the top method), then hit share and then mail.
This results in the photo app starting to prepare the photos it already downloaded and downloading the rest. I have 5k photos in my library and so far (over the last 20 minutes or so) I’ve had it download about 300 photos. This method might obviously fail for people with 20k libraries, though I’d imagine one could do it piecewise there as well.
I’ll post an update once it is done or if it stops working.
Interesting. I tried this method a couple of times but it usually ends up crashing with about 8,000 photos. At this point I have a measly 28 left!
Downloading original photos to my iPad wasn’t working particularly well on iOS 12.4.1 and still doesn’t on iPadOS 13.1. Mine has been stuck on downloading 32 photos which were taken on my iPhone for weeks.
As mentioned, sharing photos triggers a download request which partly resolves the problem but the remaining ones that haven’t downloaded are ones that have been edited (cropped, lightened etc).
Try and re-edit the already edited photo on the iPad the number of photos to download decreases by 1.
So it could be something to do with previously edited photos not downloading the background unedited version.
As mentioned, sharing photos triggers a download request which partly resolves the problem but the remaining ones that haven’t downloaded are ones that have been edited (cropped, lightened etc).
Try and re-edit the already edited photo on the iPad the number of photos to download decreases by 1.
So it could be something to do with previously edited photos not downloading the background unedited version.
Having similar problems since setting up my iPhone 11 Pro Max 512GB. Tried resetting network settings, rebooting, logging out/in, but still very slow. I have a library of 15K+ photos and ~1200 videos.
I finally tried the nuclear option last night and restored the iPhone and set up as new. Even after that, still having the same problems and downloading stuck at around 15,600 items left.
I finally tried the nuclear option last night and restored the iPhone and set up as new. Even after that, still having the same problems and downloading stuck at around 15,600 items left.
Thanks for that info. I was just going to ask if anyone has reset their iPhone that is on 13.1 and then restored from a 13.1 backup.
I have a new iPhone 11 Max Pro 256 with similar issues as everyone else. Since new iPhones come with 13.0, if there is a database version issue, it's impossible to fix without going through the initial setup, update to 13.1 and then nuke again and restore from old phone (on 13.1 also).
Mine is slowly decreasing the originals count. I should have left it plugged in overnight, but didn't. I will keep it plugged in as much as possible over the next week. I'm on vacation right now so not a big deal.
Seems sensible advice, there doesn't seem to be anything a user can do at the phone end.
Little point rebooting & stressing. If you need a particular photo at full-size click on it & then click edit (or wizard / enhance) & it'll come down, but I'm not clicking 23,900 to find my remaining missing 10%. Someone will though ...
When this is fixed I'm going to look at my libraries again. I've got an archive 2003-12 Photos app library (ex-Aperture) and a current 2013-19 Photos app synced library & it's probably too big now.
It's a PITA to keep switching libraries in Photos on Mac though, and obvs you can only sync one to iPhone / iPad via iCloud at a time.
Little point rebooting & stressing. If you need a particular photo at full-size click on it & then click edit (or wizard / enhance) & it'll come down, but I'm not clicking 23,900 to find my remaining missing 10%. Someone will though ...
When this is fixed I'm going to look at my libraries again. I've got an archive 2003-12 Photos app library (ex-Aperture) and a current 2013-19 Photos app synced library & it's probably too big now.
It's a PITA to keep switching libraries in Photos on Mac though, and obvs you can only sync one to iPhone / iPad via iCloud at a time.
If I Alt-Click on Photos in the dock, it does the standard alt-click thing (which is to minimise any current window) then it pops up Photos to ask for a library. Confuses me why MacOS uses the same gesture for two different actions. So I put shortcuts to the actual libraries in my dock and click on those. It then opens Photos with the relevant library.
It does get confusing though as Photos isn't really designed well for multiple libraries and most settings (such as whether an imported photo gets put into the library or stays referenced) are global.
My workflow currently is to make all the edits whilst the photo is in iCloud, then export the edited version. Then I swap to my non-iCloud library, in referenced mode, and import those exports. Once done, I swap libraries back to the iCloud one and delete the photos I'd just exported. This means I can never undo any edits but I've actually never felt the need to. And it takes the photos out of iCloud, which as I currently have the default 5GB of iCloud and a 16GB iPhone, is what I want. I'll probably change this workflow once my new phone arrives.
Hmm, the above makes sense in my head, but is probably rather confusing to read!
Good for you, and I admire your dedication, but I stand by my original assertion! 😂
Wow, that is some creative problem solving. I tip my hat to you, sir. This is a great workaround.
It has still been slow going even after updating to iOS13.1. Out of my 18,745 photos I still have 9,710 left to download.
As others have mentioned, when trying to share or edit the photos the original size will then begin to download but this is still a pain as when trying to share several photos at one time there is still a delay versus one that wasn't there in the past since they had been there.
It does appear this is something that will just need to wait out but it is still a little frustrating to see how slow going it is.
As others have mentioned, when trying to share or edit the photos the original size will then begin to download but this is still a pain as when trying to share several photos at one time there is still a delay versus one that wasn't there in the past since they had been there.
It does appear this is something that will just need to wait out but it is still a little frustrating to see how slow going it is.
Is "wait it out" typical for previous iOS versions when restoring a backup to a new iPhone, or is this an issue that needs to be looked at?
In my opinion, its something that Apple need to address and smart-quick!! I’ve never had this issue in 10 years of owning an iPhone. I guess it could be an iOS 13.1 issue? Not sure if others with this problem are on any other iOS.
I use "optimize storage" (no reason to have all my originals on the phone; that's what the Mac is for) and I used this trick to download the originals since the beginning of the year, which I do like to have on the phone. Worked great!
I've seen it in the earlier days of the Photo Library, but not recently. I agree. They market a phone heavily for its camera, and then their photos app is broken.
With iOS 13.1.1 did it fix the download problem with your photos?
my problem is uploading one picture. Stuck for a week now. And iOS 13.1.1 didn’t fix it. 😫
my problem is uploading one picture. Stuck for a week now. And iOS 13.1.1 didn’t fix it. 😫
With iOS 13.1.1 did it fix the download problem with your photos?
my problem is uploading one picture. Stuck for a week now. And iOS 13.1.1 didn’t fix it.
Nope still foobar’d! Stuck on ‘downloading 25 originals’. This is after selecting every single one and sending to email, it took hours to download and eventually attempted to create the email but of course crashed, as expected. No idea what these remaining 25 are.
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Were you able to get this fixed? Im in the exact same situation with missing pictures in imessage "info".