iOS 16 - Photos app does not sync photo’s from Camera App to iCloud

Question

iOS 16 - Photos app does not sync photo’s from Camera App to iCloud

This problem appeared about 8 months ago, and because many users suffer, an update was likely to fix it; iOS 16 - Photos missing after sync - Apple Community. Nowadays, a few updates ahead, I’m running iOS 16.4.1 (a) on my iPhone Pro 13 and the same issue still persists!? It keeps saying ‘Syncing ## photo’s to iCloud’… But it does literally nothing, no matter how long you wait...

Both via Cellular, WiFi, and even with a Lightning cable to any of my Macs I’m unable to retrieve the pictures from my iPhone’s Camera-app in full quality (unless I make a screenshot or send + receive the picture via WhatsApp it appears in my iCloud).

So, the problem is clearly isolated to the iOS 16 Photo’s app, because other Macs / older iPhone etc don’t suffer from this problem, and it only got worse over time (i.e. nowadays I have to restart my iPhone 13 Pro for every few photo’s to upload as suggested ‘work-around’ 8 months ago). Killing + restarting Camera + Photos’s app-, either on Macs or iPhone did not help.

So, my question is; How can we resolve this, or when can iPhone users expect this long-lasting and very annoying bug to be finally fixed?

iPhone 13 Pro

Posted on May 8, 2023 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

271,642 points

May 10, 2023 2:06 PM in response to John Heesterbeek

The thread you cite specifically deals with syncing photos from iPhone to Mac using USB. It sounds like you have a completely different scenario - using iCloud Photos.

iCloud Photos requires a well charged battery to move photos to iCloud. You should also not be using Low Power Mode.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,255 points

May 12, 2023 5:46 AM in response to John Heesterbeek

Can you still identify the first photo or video that will not upload to iCloud, when the problem started?

Perhaps the item is damaged in some way or incompatible with iCloud Photos. A single photo or video saved to Photos, tht cannot be processed could be blocking further uploads to iCloud and need to be removed from the library. You may have save some file shared with you, that is holding up the show.

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Answer 3

May 12, 2023 5:49 PM in response to sberman

It affects behaviours both via cable and via iCloud. Over these 8 months my battery hardly dropped under critical percentages and it basically is always 100% sitting in a dock unless I take a picture of a product near my desk (either at home or office), but both connected to a WiFi and 4g backup. Again, Photos app is telling me ‘Syncing to iCloud’, but showed nothing on iCloud. Also syncing screenshots or WhatsApp photo to the same iCloud also worked nonetheless, so only new pics are affected.

So, either with or without cable, regardless of battery level it says ‘Syncing…’ but actually doesn’t do anything at all.

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Answer 4

May 12, 2023 5:56 PM in response to léonie

Unfortunately I couldn’t, but I had the same idea too. So, because exporting photos on this iPhone is key for me, at some point I just got as mad as deleting my entire photo collection since my first iPhone ever and removed it both from my iCloud and from iPhone as I couldn’t find that one critical corrupted pic.

After that, it didn’t work ether while connecting it to my account again, I even emptied my deleted photos as well and deleted the library on my MacBook Pro as well that synced previously to the same iCloud attached. Nothing worked.

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Answer 5

May 12, 2023 6:29 PM in response to John Heesterbeek

Update:

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for your response. Its really appreciated! 😊

It literally took me hours of struggling before I tried everything-, I even deleted libraries on all ends; I deleted iDevice caches, detached iCloud, rebooted devices endlessly and after 2 days of trying something finally synced again. I was hopeful for a moment...

However during that day it also suddenly stopped syncing again, and I had to use the cable again to ‘force’ a sync. As I finally and simply gave up on syncing all of my iDevices over iCloud, as of writing this my iPhone Pro 13 just finally synced to the iCloud again.

HOWEVER, now my MacBook Pro (updated yesterday) is currently suffering from the exact same equivalent sync issues as my iPhone as it remains stuck on ‘Uploading ## items’ for already for a day… (using my online iCloud login via MacBook Pro’s Safari I can actually confirm it really doesn’t sync to iCloud.com)

Conclusion

Long story short; After I basically lost all of my photo shoots after endless resetting, the ‘same’ sync issue just 'moved' from iPhone Pro to my MacBook Pro. (Great job Apple🤬!) I really miss those times when I could just rely on a simple micro SD card to make an emergency backup by now.

I'll keep an eye on this thread to see if there's a more sustainable reset-approach to get things to work just as rock-solid reliably as we expected from Apple in the past. Again, thanks everyone who took the time to read-/ and-/ or respond! 🙏

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Answer 6

DavidRRS

Level 1

30 points

May 12, 2023 11:45 AM in response to John Heesterbeek

Updated to iOS 16.4.1 (a), photos and messages are not syncing via iCloud.

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

200,255 points

May 13, 2023 6:06 AM in response to John Heesterbeek

Aftereach major system upgrade my iCloud syncing stopped working.

The fix that worked for me (after checking that all photos and videos are in icloud at www.icloud.com)

has been to to start over with a new, empty library.

Quit Photos, if it is running.
Hold down the options key ⌥ firmly while launching the Photos.app, until you see the dialog to select a Photos Library.
Select to create a new library.
Make the new library your system Photos Library in Photos > Settings > General: Use as system photos Library.
Make the new library your iCloud Photos Library in Photos > Settings > iCloud.

Now wait for the photos to download from iCloud. Onlyitems that are compatble with iCloud should come back from iCloud.

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iOS 16 - Photos app does not sync photo’s from Camera App to iCloud

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