iCloud Photos failing to archive

Hey Seeker100,

The last step you can do is refresh the iCloud app itself which will attempt to reconnect to your photos and folders upon first start: Sign out of or uninstall iCloud for Windows - Apple Support

If you still have issues after that, reach out to Apple directly here as they'd be in a better position to look into this with you: Get Support

Take care.

Hey there Seeker100,

We understand you're having trouble getting your photos to sync with iCloud for Windows. We'd be happy to provide information to help you address this.

Make sure you have all of the latest updates installed for Windows. This may help solve issues with syncing:

Update Windows - Microsoft Support

If that doesn't help, check to see if starting in safe mode prompts iCloud for Windows to start syncing:

Start your PC in safe mode in Windows - Microsoft Support

Let us know the results.

Kind regards.

Here's what worked for me on Windows 11:

(1) Delete the windows subfolder "iCloud Photos" in the windows "Pictures" folder.

(2) Re-setup iCloud for Windows.

Note: The Pictures folder is usually on your C:\ drive (e.g., C:\Users\SomeUser\Pictures) or may be on another drive, depending how you setup windows on your PC. Do NOT delete the "Pictures" folder, just the subfolder "iCloud Photos". Do NOT delete any other subfolders in the Pictures folder.

Note: There may be photos in your iCloud Photos subfolder that were downloaded before the error cropped up (these will be deleted when the subfolder is deleted). Once the error is corrected, all your current photos in iCloud will be re-downloaded into the new iCloud Photos subfolder that iCloud will create when it is re-setup.

Note: the above solution worked for me after trying all the other basic recommendations such as rebooting PC, shut down and restart PC, repairing, uninstalling and reinstalling iCloud for Windows, selecting various alternative options in iCloud for Windows setup, etc. None of those attempts to fix worked and the same problem persisted (error message: "iCloud Photos failed to archive existing files in D:\Pictures\iCloud Photos\Photos [your folder location may vary] and cannot start. Please restart your computer"). Before the error showed up for apparently no reason (nothing new installed or updated), iCloud Photos was working fine. After deleting iCloud Photos folder and re-running iCloud setup, now working fine again.

Hope that helps.

Hi Seeker100,

Thanks for keeping us posted! We'll be standing by.

Cheers!

Icloud photos not syncing with win 11 computer. Getting icloud failed to archive existing... error message. I'm in safe mode still not synching. Need help

Starjupiter, you are a real star. Works like a charm. I also tried everything to no avail until I found your post. Thank you very much. It was driving me nuts.