Resolved Help Syncing Photos from Neo to iCloud

[ElPaso]

I bought the 200gb plan at iCloud and am trying to sync a little over 10k photos and videos from my MBN. The photos/videos are around 60gb total. The screenshot below is from the Photos app - but even though it says it is syncing, not one photo has moved in over 1 hour - I can monitor it from my iPhone. I can sync from my iphone, but not from the MacBook. Anybody know what I'm doing wrong here? Does it need to index these photos/videos before it sends them? Was'up?

 

[ignatius345]

It can take a while, sometimes overnight. What you’re seeing is not unusual for 60 GB worth of photos/videos. Once when I had to reset my (very large) Photos library I had to leave it for the better part of a week IIRC.

I’d suggest leaving it plugged in and awake overnight with a good wifi connection. You should see some movement after that. This will help in keeping your Neo awake: https://www.caffeine-app.net/

Oh, and if you want to check what’s been uploaded, iCloud.com has a Photos section that will show you that.

 

[ElPaso]

It can take a while, sometimes overnight. What you’re seeing is not unusual for 60 GB worth of photos/videos. Once when I had to reset my (very large) Photos library I had to leave it for the better part of a week IIRC.

I’d suggest leaving it plugged in and awake overnight with a good wifi connection. You should see some movement after that. This will help in keeping your Neo awake: https://www.caffeine-app.net/

Oh, and if you want to check what’s been uploaded, iCloud.com has a Photos section that will show you that.

Thanks for your response. It finally started, and sent 55 photos and videos (of the 10,000) in the first 4 hours or so; but then 100 more in the following hour - so it seems to be getting faster as it progresses. I should get some good progress overnight!

 

[ignatius345]

Yeah, I have no idea what exactly it’s doing, but it’s way slower than a straight upload would be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ElPaso]

Lol overnight, MBN awake, approximately 550 images/videos uploaded for a total of 734. If overnight uploads are 550, it will take 18 days to complete -

But it's ok, the amount of time this backup takes is irrelevant - just as long as it completes and I have a backup in the cloud.

 

[ElPaso]

Yeah, I have no idea what exactly it’s doing, but it’s way slower than a straight upload would be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Google Photos would have had all these photos uploaded in less than an hour. However the Apple Photos app is far superior to Google Photo's presentation, especially on the MacBook - and that's the bottom line for me. Apple Photos is really well done. So, I'll tolerate the slow indexing/uploading since it's a one-time thing. Life goes on! 🙂

 

[ignatius345]

approximately 550 images/videos uploaded for a total of 734. If overnight uploads are 550, it will take 18 days to complete

I wouldn’t be surprised if it randomly picks up steam and goes a lot faster at some point. IIRC the last time I did this the progress was very much fits and starts. But who knows!

 

[ElPaso]

Last night between 11:30pm and 6am, another 550 photos/videos were uploaded. To date, since Tuesday, out of 10,354 files there are still 8,551 remaining to be uploaded. I'm getting there!

 

[ElPaso]

So, as of now -- Saturday the 11th at 7:05pm - 7,483 backed up, 2,899 to go. But the process is getting faster and faster -- I'm thinking it will be completed with two more overnight sessions.

This started Tuesday afternoon, so four full days have passed - -

 

[960design]

You are on your way! The iCloud sync is made to update a typical vacation; a couple of thousand pictures max. If you have turned off iCloud sync and then turn it on after having 60GB of data, it will take a bit to catch up.

 

[ElPaso]

And it's finally complete as of 8am MST this morning. Almost 5 full days.

Google photos uploads much, much faster - but then does their "indexing" (facial recognition, map features, etc.) afterwards. Apple does the indexing during the upload. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

 

[cynics]

And it's finally complete as of 8am MST this morning. Almost 5 full days.

Google photos uploads much, much faster - but then does their "indexing" (facial recognition, map features, etc.) afterwards. Apple does the indexing during the upload. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

It's intentionally slow.

Processes used to analyze, database, and sync Photos are always running in the background on MacOS (the daemons are photolibraryd, cloudd, photoanalysisd, maybe others like a media daemon, I don't know their frameworks).

Their resources are highly restricted to maintain system performance and the user experience. So the process is slow. Plus I'm assuming its conditional based on device states (awake, plugged in, idle, whatever).

The sync processes operate independently of the Photos app (which is just a viewer for photo library database). This is why photos taken from one device are often already in Photos app on another device without a noticeable sync process. The photos app can initiate a sync but its not required for it and can remain closed.

The logic is a process that happens invisibly in the background without the need to wait for it or watch it or keep an app open or not let the computer fall asleep, etc etc.. However if you do watch its mind numbingly slow.

iOS operates a little differently but the results are the same.