iPhoto / iCloud Photos syncing unbelievably slow — 3 days to sync 15 photos?!

Photos simply do not sync reliably anymore. If I take some photos on my iPhone, they just sit there. Nothing shows up on my iMac unless I go into Settings and toggle iCloud Photos on the Mac — basically trying to “kick” it into syncing.

And even then… I’m waiting up to 3 DAYS just for about 15 photos to appear. No exaggeration. There’s also no manual “Sync Now” button, which feels ridiculous in 2025. Sometimes nothing syncs at all unless I keep fiddling with the settings.

This whole process has become painfully tedious and honestly feels broken.

I’ve been on macOS for 30 years, and the decline in quality over the last 10 years has been slow but very obvious. Sync used to “just work.” Now it’s slower and clunkier than anything I ever dealt with. Safari has gone downhill too — laggy, buggy, stalls more often than I’d like, a lot of websites don't like to work on it, and I'm forced to move to Chrome.

I never thought I’d say it, but macOS is on par with Windows when it comes to reliability. I’ve stuck with Apple because the ecosystem was meant to be seamless — but syncing photos across devices shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth.

Is anyone else experiencing stupidly slow iCloud photo syncing on iMac?

Is there any way to trigger a manual sync? Or is this just how things are now?

Honestly, starting to wonder if it’s time to rethink the whole setup.