I wanted to throw this out to everyone to see if they are having issues with iCloud photo syncing with their idevices. The situation I am having is that photos I take either from my iPhone 15 Pro or iPad Pro 12.9 are not syncing with each other. This all started when I upgraded from iPhone 13 Pro Max to iPhone 15 Pro last Saturday (September 23rd). The good thing is that photos from either device are uploaded to iCloud.com, but are not being sent back down. Except, they are showing on AppleTV for some reason, but not iPhone or iPad. I have talked to an Apple Specialist to trouble shoot the problem, but alas it’s been sent to Apple engineers since no resolution has been resolved. Any suggestions are welcomed.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iCloud Photo Syncing Issue in IOS 17 and iPadOS 17
- Thread starter ht5pilot
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you have a ticket raised to engineering, I’d just leave it for a few days. They might find a real bug & be able to stomp it with your help.
But if you want to just “fix it” yourself, you could try (1) unlink Photos from iCloud, (2) clear out Photos, (3) re-link Photos to iCloud and let it re-sync.
But if you want to just “fix it” yourself, you could try (1) unlink Photos from iCloud, (2) clear out Photos, (3) re-link Photos to iCloud and let it re-sync.
It’s been a week since I contacted Apple tech support and had my issue sent to engineering. I tried what you suggested, but it did not fix my problem. I’m thinking Apple engineers are so busy with this overheat issue with the new iPhones that my situation isn’t a priority one for them. Only thing I can do is be patient with them.
I tried your suggestion, but it’s not working. It has to be a software bug or something with their servers that’s not allowing my idevices to sync up correctly. Sigh. I pray this gets resolved soon.
Still no response from Apple engineers and it’s been 2 weeks since a ticket was issued to me. This morning, I took the plunge and backed up all my devices and did an Erase All Contents and Settings on my iPhone. Didn’t work. I’m convinced there’s something wrong with their servers or my iPhone isn’t configured correctly with iCloud.
I have the same issue with iPhone 12 Mini and iPad Pro 12.9 M1. All started with one of the iOS/iPadOS 17 official builds and every combination of “turn iCloud photos in/off on this device, that device, reboot, turn on again, turn backup photos sharing on/off, check iCloud.com blah blah blah” nothing worked and still doesn’t work. Very frustrating as iCloud syncing for photos has worked flawlessly (for literal years) up until this point.
iOS 17.1 beta 3 may resolve the issue as it did address Message sync/search with iCloud. You could give it a try but, if you do, you should stay on the beta. I would advise to test it on iPad first and do a backup beforehand.
Just a note, there some users reported issue downgrading to 17.0.3 from beta.
Last edited:
I wanna elaborate: iPhone syncs with photos/iCloud fine, as does my other iPad Mini 5th Gen. Just the iPad Pro 12.9/M1 is not syncing with iCloud for Photos. At first, it was doing the same to the Mini 5th Gen, but just blind luck that toggling stuff back and forth corrected it.
Same issue here except both iPhone and iPad stuck in syncing. I read that iOS 17.1 maybe fixing this issue. 🤞🏼
Weird how the affected device(s) are swapped for certain users. For me, my iPhone and other Ipad work fine, just my iPad Pro 12.9 still doesn’t sync photos correctly. 
Tempted to reset the iPad, but don’t know how that would affect my cellular settings.
Tempted to reset the iPad, but don’t know how that would affect my cellular settings.
It has to be something on the server side. Hopefully they are aware of it and working on it. If 17.1 doesn't fix it, then seems like nothing else we can do.
I took a couple test photos on my phone after updating to 17.1 and they showed up directly on my iPad. Previously I was getting “sync errors” and photos weren’t showing up reliably.