Photos...the never ending upload

Steve Schuurman1

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I was just wondering if anyone else was having this problem and how they fixed it.

When photos came out I switched reluctantly to the new app. In preferences, I choose to turn on "Store iCloud library" so that all my shots would be avail on all my devices and stored in the cloud. Well, all my photos are on my devices but it won't stop uploading. It gets to about 100 left to upload and then it restarts all over again. I think I'm on my 5th upload of 9000 photos. What is it doing? and how do I make it stop? The upload just slows down my whole net work!

Why does Apple have such a hard time getting cloud services right? I could go on about iTunes music match and iTunes in the cloud but I've let that go. haha
 
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BreakingKayfabe

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When you say that it hangs with about 100 photos left and it "restarts" does it literally remove all the uploaded photos and start bringing them down again?
 

Steve Schuurman1

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no it jut continues to count down it basically finishes and then starts over. the photos remain as is. Ive also noticed that my photos from my phone have stopped showing up in my photo stream on my computer, its pretty much a mess.
 

Adiel Ghafoerkhan

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Have you checked if it actually syncs? I have the same "100 items to upload" message but images sync just fine between Photos on iPad and Mac.

You could just turn it off and on again. Also check out this article

Broken iCloud Photo Library Upload Process: my story (and solution).

(Google the title and add Medium.com can't post links yet)
 
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eseerc

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Is that your solution to everything? ...

No, OneDrive is not the solution for everything. For example, I would not utilize OneDrive to wash my car or mow my lawn. There are other tools to utilize to accomplish those tasks. However when it comes to the many issues users within this forum experience with iCloud drive and iCloud photo library I do believe the solution is OneDrive.

I'm sure OneDrive has issues too...

Sure it does, but not nearly as many as iCloud drive. At minimum, OneDrive is true cloud storage and not a glorified, overpriced and non-sustainable syncing service.

.....and for what it's worth suggesting OneDrive every time someone mentions an issue with iCloud is less help than you think it is...

I would beg to differ. Suggesting an alternative solution is certainly offering more help than posting meaningless & petty jabs directed toward other forum contributors. And you're a forum Moderator??..... wow

For the record, my entire household is 100% Apple hardware. We just happen to prefer Microsoft for our cloud needs.
 

iN8ter

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Is that your solution to everything? I'm sure OneDrive has issues too... and for what it's worth suggesting OneDrive every time someone mentions an issue with iCloud is less help than you think it is...

OneDrive has no issues uploading Images. If it did, then every Windows Phone, PC, and Tablet would be broken. It's been uploading files fine for years now. Since 2011. I have used the OS X client, Android and iOS Apps, and had no issues with then.

His suggestion is a lot more useful than your defensiveness, and suggesting a working service is a lot more useful than trying to troubleshoot a known buggy, beta-level service with widespread issues in sync speed and reliability like iCloud Photos.

I have an iMac and an iPhone. iCloud Photos is terrible for Synching Photos. It randomly takes forever, randomly sits there and does nothing for obscene amounts of time, the upload speeds slow down to a crawl (56k modem levels on a 100Mbps WiFi connection), and it just is not robust. If something fails it almost always fails silently and you have no clue what went wrong until you notice something didn't go over, etc.

OneDrive is not the solution to everything. For one it doesn't work nearly as well with Apple's other apps as iCloud does. However, for actually backing up and/or Synching your photos there are several solutions that are far superior to iCloud, which is only better in that it is built into the OS (a pretty weak advantage in 2015). OneDrive isn't the only answer. There is also Flickr, Google+ Photos, DropBox/Carousel... among other. None of those solutions are going anywhere anytime soon, and they are all more reliable at the moment.

I've already left feedback with Apple, did the surveys they sent me and left comment about it, etc. Nothing more we as users can do except hope they improve it. In the meantime, I can't use it. It's not reliable enough and the silent fails are criminal to me.
 

Steve Schuurman1

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Thanks for the feedback. I will agree that oneDrive and Microsofts cloud services are far superior to iCloud and apples offerings . I have recently been syncing my photo stream over to one drive and I think I'm going to forget about iCloud and the ridiculous pricing involved. I had initially thought that "Photos" would be great seeing as I've been in the apple echo system for a very long time and all my photo albums were originally organized in iPhoto but this transition has been a pain and I'm justing going to stop trying to upload to iCloud photo stream or whatever they are calling it now. I guess I'm going to stick with one drive after all they offered me a ridiculous amount of storage through promoting that they have had in the past.
 

eseerc

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Thanks for the feedback. I will agree that oneDrive and Microsofts cloud services are far superior to iCloud and apples offerings . I have recently been syncing my photo stream over to one drive and I think I'm going to forget about iCloud and the ridiculous pricing involved. I had initially thought that "Photos" would be great seeing as I've been in the apple echo system for a very long time and all my photo albums were originally organized in iPhoto but this transition has been a pain and I'm justing going to stop trying to upload to iCloud photo stream or whatever they are calling it now. I guess I'm going to stick with one drive after all they offered me a ridiculous amount of storage through promoting that they have had in the past.

I want to ensure that kch50428 the "moderator" of this forum reads this message. Although his silence on this thread is speaking volumes.....

Happy to hear you are having success with OneDrive. Remember that OneDrive actually **stores** your photos in the cloud. Once they are uploaded to OneDrive, you can delete them from your phone/device if you need space freed up and the photos will still be available to you through the OneDrive app. This point alone, is why I call Apple's solution a glorified syncing service.... it stores nothing. As n8ter#AC pointed out, there are a plethora of other solutions to try as well that actually **store** photos if the flavor of OneDrive doesn't suit you.
 

Nolander07

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Optimize storage option is almost the same as a third party app. You can see the thumbnails and upload them to your phone to you look at them in a larger view. This actually works quite well with lower storage capacity devices.
The photos are actually stored in iCloud by the way.
 

eseerc

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The photos are actually stored in iCloud by the way.

Incorrect. Without a selective sync option, iCloud drive and iCloud photo library are just glorified syncing services. It's basic technological premise is unsustainable over the long run.

Think of it this way....

Say you go to the furniture store and buy a new bed. You bring the new bed home and unsure what to do with the old bed, you load it up in a truck and haul it to a STORAGE unit. You place the old bed in the storage unit and drive home knowing that it will still be there whenever you feel like retrieving it. Upon returning home, you enter the bedroom and discover that both the new **and** the old bed are in your bedroom, taking up twice the space. You do not have a need for the old bed in your home, but your "storage" solution requires you to keep both beds in your home.

Beds = Pictures
Home = Apple Device
Storage Unit = iCloud


This..... is iCloud drive and iCloud photo library. It is a syncing model to entice people to pay for both the storage unit (icloud space) and a larger home (higher capacity devices) in order to house all of your data.
 
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Nolander07

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Incorrect. Without a selective sync option, iCloud drive and iCloud photo library are just glorified syncing services. It's basic technological premise is unsustainable over the long run.

Think of it this way....

Say you go to the furniture store and buy a new bed. You bring the new bed home and unsure what to do with the old bed, you load it up in a truck and haul it to a STORAGE unit. You place the old bed in the storage unit and drive home knowing that it will still be there whenever you feel like retrieving it. Upon returning home, you enter the bedroom and discover that both the new **and** the old bed are in your bedroom, taking up twice the space. You do not have a need for the old bed in your home, but your "storage" solution requires you to keep both beds in your home.

Beds = Pictures
Home = Apple Device
Storage Unit = iCloud


This..... is iCloud drive and iCloud photo library. It is a syncing model to entice people to pay for both the storage unit (icloud space) and a larger home (higher capacity devices) in order to house all of your data.

I get that, but just turn on optimize storage and all that is stored on your device is the thumbnail. You don't have to delete a picture to get it off your device.
I like IPL and use it on my computer, iPhone and iPad. My son filled up his iPod with photos/videos, so he turned on optimize storage and what do you know- it recovered about 7 gigs of space, and he can still see the thumbnails and pull up the pictures at will. It works.
If one does not like this setup then there are plenty of other options. I just happen to like the way it works.
 

eseerc

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I get that, but just turn on optimize storage and all that is stored on your device is the thumbnail. You don't have to delete a picture to get it off your device.
I like IPL and use it on my computer, iPhone and iPad. My son filled up his iPod with photos/videos, so he turned on optimize storage and what do you know- it recovered about 7 gigs of space, and he can still see the thumbnails and pull up the pictures at will. It works.
If one does not like this setup then there are plenty of other options. I just happen to like the way it works.

Oh yeah, I totally get that IPL works for some people. All I am saying is, that it really isn't storage because the service requires you to keep the pictures on your device. Regardless if its a thumbnail or full size, the user does not have a choice as to what they can keep on their device. Its all or nothing.

The above aside, my other concern with IPL is the long term.... 5, 10 or more years from now. Imagine every time a user gets a new device having to sync up the **entire** library...... that is the stuff nightmares are made of!
 

Nolander07

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I'm not going to start a big argument about cloud services, but I want to say one last thing. I'm not sure you fully understand IPL. If you are using optimize storage the photos are not stored on your device. When you open the photos app it is the same thing as opening Dropbox, one drive, Flickr, etc., you see the thumbs. You tap on a photo and it uploads the larger image. That happens with Dropbox, etc. as well. These third party apps build up cache and eventually take up space. With optimize storage the cached photos get cleared from the device periodically as needed. The photos are not stored on your device. But...IPL costs a little if you have a lot of photos, other options may be free.
Also who's to say Microsoft, Dropbox, Yahoo, or Apple will be around in 10 years. If photos are really important print them and put them in an old school album.
By the way I also back up my photos in Dropbox, so I don't hate third party cloud services.
 

eseerc

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I'm not going to start a big argument about cloud services, but I want to say one last thing. I'm not sure you fully understand IPL. If you are using optimize storage the photos are not stored on your device.

I'm also not looking to start an argument, but you are wrong. Just read the actual description of "optimize"

FullSizeRender.jpg

Additionally, read this article from right here at iMore

How to save space on your Mac with 'optimized storage' and iCloud Photo Library | iMore

"With iCloud Photo Library you never have to worry about running out of space again. Thanks to "optimized storage", Apple can intelligently keep track of and manage your free space, ensuring your recent, favorite, and frequently accessed images and videos are immediately available on your device..."

IPL doesn't even let you control which photos it decides to store on your phone.
 

Nolander07

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Ok, you win. The description says photos are stored in the cloud. The end result is the same - more available storage - I personally don't care which ones are stored in the cloud or my phone, as long as there is free space.
 

Ledsteplin

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You lose space in iCloud though. I use that free 5 gb to back up what is currently on my phone. All other photos, videos, gifs, png images, Documents and etc go in Box, Dropbox and OneDrive.
 

iN8ter

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I'm not going to start a big argument about cloud services, but I want to say one last thing. I'm not sure you fully understand IPL. If you are using optimize storage the photos are not stored on your device. When you open the photos app it is the same thing as opening Dropbox, one drive, Flickr, etc., you see the thumbs. You tap on a photo and it uploads the larger image. That happens with Dropbox, etc. as well. These third party apps build up cache and eventually take up space. With optimize storage the cached photos get cleared from the device periodically as needed. The photos are not stored on your device. But...IPL costs a little if you have a lot of photos, other options may be free.
Also who's to say Microsoft, Dropbox, Yahoo, or Apple will be around in 10 years. If photos are really important print them and put them in an old school album.
By the way I also back up my photos in Dropbox, so I don't hate third party cloud services.

Box is like 10 years old, almost.
OneDrive is 7 years old.
DropBox is 6 years old.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have the three biggest cloud infrastructures in the world.

Apple already had a round or two of failed cloud services.

And you're calling to question the viability of those companies.

Flickr isn't going anywhere. It's already over a decade old and even if Yahoo! failed, another company wouldn't let a second pass without snatching up Flickr.

Apple's Cloud has already proven to not be as robust and certainly not perform as well as their competitors. Them having the best cloud services isn't the reason Photo Library is decent. The only reason why it's decent is because it's a default, built-in, solution.

If Google released Photos with iCloud Photo Library's issues, the service would have been declared a failure on day one.

As for "Optimize Phone Storage," that only kicks in when you are low on space. If you have 40GB space free on a 64GB iPhone, and 10GB of data in Photo Library, there's about a 98.6% chance Photo Library is using 10GB of storage on your phone. I have that option turned on as well, and everything on my device is the original stuff. It doesn't start replacing with thumbnails until your device storage gets low.
 

iN8ter

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Ok, you win. The description says photos are stored in the cloud. The end result is the same - more available storage - I personally don't care which ones are stored in the cloud or my phone, as long as there is free space.

The problem is that the behavior of the service conditions you to think one way and then flips the script on you randomly when your space gets low, which can happen for several reasons. This also causes it to behave differently across different iOS and OS X devices with that setting on, due to differences in storage capacity. You may have a 1TB Hard Drive in your iMac, 128GB MacBook [Air], a 64GB iPhone, and a 16GB iPad. In all cases, the Algorithm for how it manages storage will differ due to the devices having different storage capacities (so your library is a different fraction of your storage on all devices).

The solution sounds nice, in theory, but the inconsistencies and the randomness of its algorithm can fail you at the most inopportune times.

If you're visiting your great aunt in the mountains in Virginia, where there isn't a reliable data connection, she might want to see some of those scanned photos you have in your Photo Library.

However, since you haven't accessed them in 6 months, iCloud ripped them off of your device. She doesn't have internet. How are you going to get them? Drive 30 minutes to town to "teach your phone" what's important at that moment?
 

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