iCloud sync photos down to Mac

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14 points

iCloud sync photos down to Mac

Since late 2010 (iPhone 3GS), I have been backing up my iPhone to Mac via USB cable, including syncing photos there.

Now, I finally broke down and paid for the 50G iCloud plan to offload photos from my phone in order to free up space, and also to include photo captions in the sync process. (which doesn't work when sync'ing via cable)

But the Mac Mini silently fails to download photos from iCloud, as it is trying to upload the last 14 years of photos first.

How can I force the Mac to download the latest photos from iCloud?

(without having to delete a decade of photos off the Mac)

Or maybe I cancel iCloud and go back to USB-cable sync'ing and lose all my captions. :-(

iPhone XS, iOS 17

Posted on Nov 5, 2024 8:11 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 5, 2024 10:34 AM in response to n8leon

The process will take awhile, like days, but it's well worth it. You should watch what's happening at iCloud.com-- pictures have to go to iCloud Photos before going to the Mac, so you can see how it's working. Pictures will be transferred before albums, so it may look a mess at first. It's also transferring pictures to your phone, so there's lots to be done.

Be sure to keep your Mac turned on and to not have Photos active. If Photos is running it needs to be in the background with another app, maybe Finder, the active one. Photos doesn't want to interrupt your work for downloads, so it needs to think that you're not using Photos. Also, keep the phone plugged in.

If you're out taking pictures with your phone, you may find those pictures already on your Mac when you get home. But sometimes it's slower. When I take screenshots that I want to immediately use on this site, I use AirDrop to get them to my Mac quickly.

As with lots of things, it's slow to get going…

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