Syncing photos with iCloud slow

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Syncing photos with iCloud slow

Previous thread closed. M3 Max MB Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, photo synch has become unbearable the last several months. Both devices fully updated to latest OSs. This slowness affects all devices.

Previous thread suggested killing the bird process might help. Tried that and no luck.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, I went over 100k photos recently, though I have 2 TB iCloud and it's only ~ ½ full. HELP!

Synching seems ALWAYS paused for "system performance". Well, my devices are restarted regularly, powered up almost always, and usually updated the day patches/updates are released. How much "system performance" pausing of iCloud synch is required, seriously?

Oh, and being able to see a list of items yet to be synched would be very useful.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Apr 20, 2025 05:31 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 21, 2025 10:09 AM in response to ilndrox

Which sync is unbearable, iPhone to iCloud, or Mac to iCloud? What do you see at iCloud.com?

How's your storage on your Mac? Do you have at least 10% of your storage free? How about on your iPhone?

Where does your Photos Library reside-- in the Pictures folder of your internal drive, or on an external drive? or on a network? If it's on an external drive, is that drive formatted in APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format?

You say that you have re-started your Mac-- have you restarted in Safe Mode?

This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

I don't see any "System Performance" messages-- ever, I think.

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Syncing photos with iCloud slow

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