iPhone 17 Pro Max is slow to download original photos from iCloud

@Richard.Taylor,

No worries - thank you for the replies. Yeah so this was initially on a fresh phone 17 Pro from Apple. I restored iCloud Backup (from a 15 Pro Max) and since my last phone had Download Originals turned on, my current phone restored with the same option - then proceeded to start downloading all the photos. What it did was download the optimized versions first (took about 30 mins?), THEN start downloading originals - and the first day - it got half way through my 64,000 photos and just came to a screeching halt only downloading about 100 per night despite being connected to WiFi and plugged into power.

Keep in mind - all the photos were on the device, just half of them were "optimized" - so when I'd open them, they'd be smaller then instantly download the larger full sized version. Also, new photos I took were being immediately synced so the user experience isn't harmed.

After 4 days of watching my phone download 100 originals a night, I finally turned off "Sync This Phone" in iCloud Photos and it removed all my photos (very slowly) - and once that was done, I turned it back on - and chose: Download Originals.

Same thing happened. It downloaded optimized versions first, then chugged through 67GB and then came to a screeching halt - only downloading ~100 photos per night for the next 4+ nights. It would sync new photos (full sized) no problems. So my belief is, this is either a bug, or Apple is doing this intentionally to save on Cloud costs. (This has never happened before - I've owned iPhones since the 4s).

So eventually I just gave up and chose: Optimize Photos. It wiped out the 67GB and now sits at 12.15GB on my iPhone - which is fine with me. I have access to Max Reception Verizon Wireless 5G UW and GBPS Wifi (fiber optic).

I would probably be unhappy if I was going somewhere without wifi / cellular and wanted an offline copy of my photos quick... but that isn't the case lol.

Hope this helps.

Normal behavior with previous iPhones: I restore iCloud backup for new phone, and in about 1.5 days it downloads my full 150+ GB iCloud Photo Library (counting photo by photo).

Yep same issue here on a 1TB 17 Pro.

First day it downloads just less than half, then every night thereafter it downloads ~100 photos - refusing to download anything during the day. I leave the phone plugged in all day and it doesn't download - only doing 100 per night for the last week.

Doesn't impact syncing new photos and I can still access all my photos. But no matter what I do, I can't get it to download - (on wifi, plugged in, photos app up, etc). Low power mode isn't on, adaptive power on/off doesn't matter, being on max reception 5G UW with unlimited cellular updates - nothing.

As a test, on October 22nd I turned off iCloud Photos - it removed all my photos - and I turned it back on and ... same thing. First day it downloaded 27k and ... every night thereafter, 100 photos (refusing to sync during the day).

So I have a feeling this is on Apple's end due to the test resulting in same behavior. Would be nice to have an option: "Hey, download all this now, I'm even willing to do it overnight" - but pausing/resuming has no impact, leaving it plugged in during day/night has no impact. It limits itself to about 100 photos per night.

It's doing ~100 photos per night as I sleep. 35,491 photos to go. This is going to be awhile.

Again I think this is as designed because no other iCloud service is impacted and my new photos are being synced to all devices instantly.

Interesting tests! I'm thinking that you are using Download Originals, is that right? Since you're willing to try things, I wonder what happens if you set it to "Optimize Storage." Will it download all the screen sized images quickly? If it does, then when you turn off iCloud, it will ask if you want to download the originals. I wonder if that's faster…

@Richard.Taylor,

Yeah, all my photos are downloaded (it downloads all the photos near instantly) - then it downloads original sizes (about half way then stops) - and if I take a new photo, it syncs it to iCloud instantly. So I think this is intentional by Apple.

I tried turning off iCloud Photos and then turning it back on, and it went back to the same thing - first day it downloads all the photos (and half originals), then downloads 100 originals a night give or take a few.

I just gave up and switched to Optimized Photo Storage - I don't mind. I have originals on my Mac. But definitely something new this year. :P

I have the same issue. Got the same phone 2 tb on september 19, and still downloading from my icloud backup, still 58 000 to complete. Dont know how to speed that up

I'm not sure I understand. Have you set to Optimize, turned iCloud to off,

(sorry, this is from my phone since I don't use Optimize on the Mac…)

and answered Download before it switched off?