All Devices Upload of entire photo library after logging out and back in into iCloud

[chris4565]

Hi guys,

Of course logging out of iCloud and back in is nothing you do very often but if it has to be done easily the most annoying thing for me is that my entire photo library gets re-uploaded again because apparently iOS doesn't realize that nothing changed after logging out and is assuming that every media on my devices is new. This process takes many hours to complete.

So I just had the idea to erase the library on the device after logging out so after logging in it should now just download the files right? And that should go faster. Anyone that has tried this before?

 

[itsmilo]

I think when it shows „uploading“ it’s not actually uploading anything in this case, it seems to scan the library to check if those photos are already uploaded. If anything, their wording is wrong and should show something like „indexing ...“ instead

 

[chris4565]

Maybe it's like
Uploading image 1 --> Oh, already there
Uploading image 2 --> Oh, also already there etc. ?

Either way, it takes seemingly forever. My upload activity consists of many, many small spikes.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I agree - the time required is the process of comparing the library on your phone to the library in iCloud. iCloud treats this as a merger of libraries, and the work of merging to avoid duplication can take time.

Yes, it could go faster if you deleted the photos while signed out of iCloud Photos (you certainly wouldn't want to do that while signed in). People don't follow this path all that often, but there are lots of people setting up new devices or Erasing All Content and Settings on a regular basis - pretty much the same approach, but global in its reach.

Speed of restore after an erase can be very fast, assuming you're using Optimize Storage rather than Download and Keep Originals, since Optimize Storage will only be downloading thumbnails (high-quality files will only download if/when you view them individually). I have little doubt that a file-by-file compare is going to take longer than a mass download of thumbnails.

 

[chris4565]

Thanks for the confirmation ?