iPhone Missing Photo Thumbnails- iCoud Photos (Optimize Storage)

[ssimonvii]

Hi All,
I've been having a weird issue since getting my 11 Pro Max. It's been days after my iPhone restored from icloud, however, a huge chunk of my photos are not showing thumbnails. They are completely blank. The only way to get them to show is to zoom in and hover over them until they load, scroll, repeat.

I've tried 1. Logging out of iCloud 2. Disabling iCloud photos and having it delete all photos from phone before deleting 3. Restarting etc. In the past it's always taken a good couple days to get everything loaded on my phone, but I can tell from my network stats that the phone isn't pulling down a lot of data while plugged in at night.

Any thoughts on what to do here?

Next step is another iPhone restore (then setting up as a new phone if that doesn't work), but I'm not sure that will fix the issue.

 

[MN7119]

Many other threads reporting the same issue. My new phone has over 60% of the photos missing and showing a blank square. Even when I click on it nothing comes up. I cannot trust Apple to store my pictures.

 

[ssimonvii]

I see another thread reporting this for original photos but not optimized. Any you can send my way so I can see if there are any troubleshooting tips?

 

[MN7119]

Not sure what to send to you. Photos are simply not downloading from iCloud to the phone. The only reason I buy the 512GB is because I like to have all originals in my phone. My XS had around 400GB of photos. After 5 days with the 11 Pro I have 117GB downloaded. Also, many many blank squares instead of thumbnails. It is just stuck and does not make any progress.

I see another thread reporting this for original photos but not optimized. Any you can send my way so I can see if there are any troubleshooting tips?

 

[ssimonvii]

Thanks, I meant other threads discussing the issue. I just got off with Apple Support. Seems like it finally clicked that there might be a bug at play here. Asked me to restore and try again. I don't think that will fix it, but glad to give them a datapoint to get to the bottom of this.

 

[MN7119]

Restore is always their default answer to everything. I don't think it will fix at all

Here are some of the other threads on same topic

iCloud Original Photos Not Downloading

I've been trying since Friday to download my pictures onto my new 11 Pro Max. My photos show up, but at the bottom it just says downloading and the number either never moves or downloads a few and then stops. I've tried signing in and out, turning iCloud off and on, restarting, nothing...

forums.macrumors.com

Photos missing after iOS13

I got the new iPhone 11 Pro Max 512gb and restored my iCloud backup from my previous iPhone XS Max. I always keep all my original photos on the phone since I have enough storage. When I compare both phones on the "About" both show I have 65,000 photos and 2,000 videos. However, when I check on...

forums.macrumors.com

Thanks, I meant other threads discussing the issue. I just got off with Apple Support. Seems like it finally clicked that there might be a bug at play here. Asked me to restore and try again. I don't think that will fix it, but glad to give them a datapoint to get to the bottom of this.

 

[thewhitehart]

I have optimize storage set and had the same problem. This solved the blank space problem for me: I zoomed in to display lines of three to five photos and slowly scrolled through my library as each thumbnail was filled in. There were some stubborn spaces, but zooming in and out a few times did the trick.

 

[MN7119]

I have optimize storage set and had the same problem. This solved the blank space problem for me: I zoomed in to display lines of three to five photos and slowly scrolled through my library as each thumbnail was filled in. There were some stubborn spaces, but zooming in and out a few times did the trick.

Yes, I noticed that BUT my Photos app says it is still downloading 37,000 photos after 5 days. Also, on my XS I had almost 400GB of photos and now on my 11 Pro I only have 120GB. Something is not working and Apple needs to figure it out.

 

[thewhitehart]

Yes, I noticed that BUT my Photos app says it is still downloading 37,000 photos after 5 days. Also, on my XS I had almost 400GB of photos and now on my 11 Pro I only have 120GB. Something is not working and Apple needs to figure it out.

Wow. Yeah, Apple needs to sort that out. For a trillion-dollar company, their cloud operations should be smoother.

 

[ssimonvii]

I'm still missing 70% of my photo library. At this point, when I go to a 5x9 view in photos, it will load the thumbnails for the photos selected. Some additional findings:

-I can only load so many thumbnails at a given time before it freezes. E.g. I can't just slowly scroll to load them all
-When I go to "faces" it says 2 our of 91K photos have been scanned.
-I can't search by location, however, map data is appended to each photo
-Restores (icloud backup/setup as new phone have not helped). Also tried a restore on my old iPhone XS.
-I tried using google photos to force pulling down the thumbnails. Now google photos has tons of blanks just like the photo app.

What a horrific bug this has been. There is also a thread about similar issues when "download originals" are selected (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/icloud-original-photos-not-downloading.2200523/), but figured I'd bring this front and center in case anyone else is having this problem.

I've been dealing with senior support with no resolution so far. Please find information beow on how to report similar issues so we can get a fix for this. It's insane how much I spend every month for iCloud storage, only to have my photos app, and backup app (google photos) a complete mess. Hope they fix it.

_______
Hi all. I've been in communication with a senior advisor at Apple support and it sounds like they are aware that there is likely an issue here. I've sent them a bit of information, but I asked him how you all can help providing them with data to determine the cause.

They told me to call 800-275-2273. When prompted for what you need support on, say "Photos". This will transfer you to their "Creative Media" team. Tell them that you are having an issue with iCloud photos since the restore and/or that you have tons of white thumbnails when browsing photos. They should know about it at this point, will likely relay the information to their superiors or will get you a senior advisor if they feel appropriate.

Hopefully if enough of us call and provide information, it will help them determine what they need to fix. Let us know if this even helps and what they say when you call.

 

[4492865]

I just installed Catalina fresh and it's displaying the same problem. Photos take ages to load.