Error message when adding photos to a shared photo album

Question

Error message when adding photos to a shared photo album

Hi all,

I'm running Apple Photos 8.0 (541.0.120) on macOS Ventura 13.3 (22E252) on a MacBook Pro (2023) with an M2 Max chip and 64 GB RAM. (In other words, I don't think that specs or updates are an issue.) My Photos library is fully iCloud integrated, holding about 44k photos.

I would also like to note that I have experienced this issue on other machines a while (months) ago, so this is not an issue that is related to this specific installation nor is it an issue that is related to this specific version of the software.

Sometimes, when dragging pictures (might be a single photo) from the main Library view to a Shared Album, I get an error saying "There was an error adding the selected items to 'Shared Album Name'".

When the issue has occurred on a specific photo, that photo will become "un-shareable" to the shared album until the image is given a small tweak (like adjusting brightness) and then attempted re-shared. The issue seems to be tangentially related to some background process that occurs after photos are imported, sine if I leave the library to "settle" for a while (half an hour) after importing, I can share the photos no problem.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 5, 2023 09:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Babulas

Level 1

13 points

Jun 25, 2023 02:14 PM in response to Wilhelm Damsleth

Hi,

I was getting the same error when trying to upload 900 pics at once to a Shared Album. After reading this thread, I started uploading in batches of 10 photos. Sometimes I did not get the error. When I got it, I used the "rotate counterclockwise" in the top menu bar and I was able to upload that batch to the shared album. I selected the 800+ pics remaining, hit the rotate button (four times to get photos back to normal orientation) and I was able to upload them all. Of course you have to wait a little bit for the rotation of 800+ photos to complete.

Jus my 2 cents.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 5, 2023 09:48 AM in response to Wilhelm Damsleth

…aaaand after a little while, the photos that I tried to upload (and note, only the photos I tried to upload) appear in a new section called "Unable to Upload" in the Photos app. They will remain here until I make a small edit (brightness etc.), and then WAIT half an hour or so, after which I can successfully share them again. If I don't make this tiny edit, they will remain in the "Unable to Upload" album forever.

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 5, 2023 09:39 AM in response to Wilhelm Damsleth

The following errors appear in Console.app along with the error message. Please do note that there is nothing particularly "wrong" with these particular photos, as the error has occurred multiple times previously and that making small adjustments to the photos and the letting the library settle for half an hour seems to fix the issue.

I believe that this is a bug in Photos or in the underlying architecture.

Reply

Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Apr 5, 2023 11:08 AM in response to Wilhelm Damsleth

Does the problem only occur when trying to share the photos to a shared album? Or do you have similar problems when trying to export the problematic photos to a folder in your Pictures folder with "File > Export > Export ... photos"? when you add a tiny adjustment you are forcing Photos to render a new preview. You could also try to achieve the same with rotating the photos back and forth with the keyboard shortcuts ⌘R and ⌥⌘R .

Reply

Answer 5

Apr 6, 2023 10:31 AM in response to léonie

léonie,

Thanks for your reply, and for pointing out that rotating the picture has the same effect as making other edits. I have just now found any other circumstances under which the problem occurs.

The problem occurs with pictures to which I have applied an edit, but have not yet had time to "settle" (sorry for my lack of a better word for this). For example, I just imported a couple of photos from my camera, and I can share any of the ones I have not edited immediately.

Other services that seem to be affected by the same issue is right clicking and selecting "Share > Messages", "Share > Set Wallpaper", and perhaps others – I haven't had the possibility to try them all.

I was able to use "File > Export > Export N Photo" on the photo without any issue.

Reply

Answer 6

Jun 22, 2023 12:57 PM in response to Chad West

I am having the same problem, except that rotating, editing, or waiting for the changes to "settle" does not fix it. The only way I can fix it is to duplicate the problematic photo as a still photo (vs. a Live Photo), which is a time-consuming workaround. Any suggestions?

(By the way, the problem is unpredictable. I might take 20 photos at a sitting, edit all of them, but only 4 or 5 might not upload to a shared album, although they look fine and are indistinguishable from the other 15 or 16 photos in every other way.)

Reply

Answer 7

Jun 22, 2023 02:44 PM in response to Todd Berliner

Hi Todd,

Sorry, no fix yet on my end. Although, with my problem, giving the picture a small edit and then waiting for a little while seems to clear the issue for that particular picture.

Please update me if you find a more permanent fix, and good luck.

Reply

Answer 8

PaulWith

Level 1

18 points

Jun 23, 2023 12:16 PM in response to Wilhelm Damsleth

I had this issue as well with an .heic formatted photo (i.e., one I took with my iPhone). I opened the photo in Photos and right clicked on it. That brought up a menu that included "Turn off live view". I was then able to add it to my Shared Photos album. After adding it, I turned Live view back on.

Not sure if that will fix it for you, but worth a try.

Cheers,

PW

Reply

Answer 9

Jun 25, 2023 02:23 PM in response to Babulas

Thank you Babulas.

Rotating the photos didn't work for me, but turning off Live Photo did. You can turn off Live Photo in batches (select all of the photos you want to upload to a Shared Album, control-click on one photo, select "Turn off Live Photo"), then move your photos into the Shared Album. Afterwards, you can turn Live Photo back on in your original photos in the same way. That's probably easier than rotating your photos four times.

Reply

Answer 10

May 15, 2023 08:16 AM in response to léonie

This worked for me. I agree that there is an underlying bug in apple photos that is causing this. Rotating and un-rotating worked for me.

Reply

Answer 11

May 15, 2023 08:49 AM in response to Chad West

Thanks for sharing your experience, Chad. Are you getting the same error as me? Is it frequent on your end?

Reply

Answer 12

May 15, 2023 02:57 PM in response to Wilhelm Damsleth

For me it’s happened with a handful of photos not being able to upload to the cloud and the last 2 times I created a shared album it wouldn’t let me create the album.

Reply

Answer 13

Jun 23, 2023 12:55 PM in response to PaulWith

Excellent tip, PW. I wonder why turning off "Live Photo" is necessary with some photos taken with an iPhone and not with others, even photos taken back to back. It's still a mystery.

Reply

Error message when adding photos to a shared photo album

Similar questions