Photos taking a huge amount of time to upload to icloud

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Photos taking a huge amount of time to upload to icloud

Photos is not downloading from icloud probably because it has not finished uploading to icloud. When I open Photos, it is uploading but extremely slow. My Internet speed is excellent (900+ Mpps) so this can't be the problem. Could there be a blocked port, or is it possible that the Internet supplier's Modem is blocking traffic?

Besides Photos, there is also the problem with Contacts that is not syncing with other items on the Network.

(Mail, Calendar and Notes are working normally)

iMac 27" (mid 2011) OS 10.13.6 High Sierra

Maybe you know something about this? Thanks.

Didier

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 17, 2025 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 18, 2025 8:11 AM in response to Didier

Well, we can't know much about your computer, and you didn't include much information. For instance:

Do you have “Optimize Storage” checked in Photos’ Settings
Do you have more than 10% free storage on your iCloud account?
What is your storage on this Mac? At System Settings>General>iStorage, what does yours say? Do you have more than 10% free storage on your Mac?
What does your Mac's Photos say at the bottom of the Library? Like this:

Where does your Mac's Photos Library reside-- in the Pictures folder of your internal drive, or on an external drive? or on a network? on iCloud drive?

When I make a change, edit a picture, add an album, etc, on my Mac, I usually see it appear on my iPhone within a minute or two. More takes longer, for instance. I know that last week I downloaded 17000 pictures from iCloud overnight. Since syncing uses processing power, and people hate slow-downs, the Mac will avoid syncing while you use it, especially why you're using Photos. That's why I did it overnight. I left the computer on full time not letting it shut down, Photos up but in the background, and with the display off.

Let us know more about your situation…

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