All Shared Albums removed on Windows with each reboot

Question

Level 1

8 points

All Shared Albums removed on Windows with each reboot

On Windows 10, using iCloud 14.2, I have Shared Albums enabled. The issue is, each time I either reboot or even just log out of my user account, all the Shared Albums (folders and photos) are completely removed, then they start downloading again. This has happened over and over and over again on all of our household Windows PCs (both Win10 and Win11). Sometimes however, it takes a few reboots before they will start downloading again. It eventually completes but they all get deleted again the next time I reboot or log out.

I can see ApplePhotoStreams.exe downloading and writing out the files after each reboot.

What the heck is going on here? How can it be this broken? This seems to have started about 1 month ago (maybe when Photo Streams where removed?). But this isn't photo streams - this is Shared Albums.

Windows

Posted on Aug 2, 2023 03:11 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

davidjade Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 14, 2023 01:24 PM in response to davidjade

The process that manages Shared Albums on Windows, is ApplePhotoStreams.exe. I have found that if I kill that process right before I reboot, then the Shared Albums don't get deleted. Upon reboot, ApplePhotoStreams.exe is started again as normal and all Shared Albums stay intact.

So this might be a work-around until Apple fixes this bug. I do make sure that ApplePhotoStream.exe is idle and not writing to disk before I kill it (using the Windows Resource Monitor tool).

I have yet to determine if there are any side effects to doing this. So far it seems to work OK.

Reply

Answer 2

davidjade Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 1, 2023 12:42 PM in response to Tomulus531

No I have not solved this. Both Windows 10 PCs I have remove all the shared albums every time I reboot. Then I have to wait for them to download again.

I do not think it is related to anti-virus behavior. I only use what is built into Windows 10 (Windows Defender). I have even excluded those folders from scanning just to be sure. Windows Defender never complains about those folders.

This is a bug in iCloud for Windows. It started after an update that happened around the time they remove the Photo Stream feature from iCloud.

Reply

Answer 3

malum363

Level 1

100 points

Jan 17, 2024 06:23 AM in response to davidjade

Thanks for this suggestion. Unfortunately it won't help in the situation where there is an unforeseen reboot, which I have had multiple times on my month-old brand new Windows 11 Dell 7720. Most recently it was Dell software which planned the reboot but without warning me in advance.

What I am curious about, apart from how and why could such a horrible bug escape the developers and remain unfixed for so long, is: has anyone gotten the current release of Shared Albums to work properly, i.e. without disappearing all your shared albums after a reboot?? Or does this happen to everyone all the time? Or is it just so few of us weirdos who even try to use iCloud for windows in the first place? The sad thing is, it always used to work just fine. And the problems began, perhaps non-mysteriously, around the same time as the "photo stream" thing went away.

Reply

Answer 4

Aug 3, 2023 11:49 AM in response to davidjade

Hi there davidjade,

We see you have some issues with Shared Albums on your Windows PC. Based on the issue you described, the best step would be to reach out to Apple Support directly. You can reach them here: Get Support

You can also find the support phone number for your region at this link: Contact Apple for support and service

Take care.

Reply

Answer 5

Sep 1, 2023 01:38 AM in response to davidjade

Hello David. Have you solved your problem with shared albums because I have exactly the same problem

At each restart of the computer all the albums are deleted and downloaded again .. ?

Do you think this is due to a software conflict (anti-malware antivirus..)

Thanks

Reply

Answer 6

JS-Ber

Level 1

8 points

Sep 14, 2023 08:57 AM in response to davidjade

Hi there,

same here! Very annoying - and bandwidth hungry :(

Win 10 Home 22H2 latest / iCloud 14.2

Worked like a charme for many years, but started some weeks ago. Don't recall exactly, thought it was a glitch. But now on each and every restart :-((

Had a shared folder open, restarted, on start up Windows Explorer complained "path not available" (translated from German version ....) "C:\Users\<myname>\iCloud Photos\Shared\<albumname> ist not available". Well, it has been deleted ...

@Apple: What's going on, please fix!

Reply

Answer 7

JS-Ber

Level 1

8 points

Sep 14, 2023 09:02 AM in response to JS-Ber

Addendum: Opened iCloud app --> Photos --> Options and BOTH checkboxes iCloud-Photos as wellas Shared Albums were checked! Everytime! Unchecked / rechecked to get download/sync started again.

Reply

All Shared Albums removed on Windows with each reboot

Similar questions