How do I force macOS Photos app to resync with iCloud?

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Level 1

92 points

How do I force macOS Photos app to resync with iCloud?

I use iCloud photos for everything, but am finding sync problems between computers. Here's what I did:

1) On Mac #1, I imported a bunch of historical photos into Photos.

2) I did some minor edits (cropping, enhancing, etc.) then I used Adjust Time/Date to assign the correct historical dates to those photos. They were properly categorized and jumped back in time so they appeared in the correct chronological order.

3) Pause for a day.

4) After a day, I happened to open Photos on Mac #2. I saw all the historical photos, except they all had yesterday's date, and did not inherit the correct historical dates. They DID however inherit the minor edits.

5) I waited a day just to see if it might take extra time for them to sync. They don't sync.

What do I do?

This is on Photos 10.0 on Sequoia 15.3.2.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.3

Posted on May 7, 2025 9:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

17,227 points

May 9, 2025 7:08 AM in response to David Das

What about Mac#1 might be different? Weaker internet, maybe? It could be caches, login items-- things like that. For fastest syncing, the Mac should have Photos in the background and have been left running.

Here are some things that might help:

Restart the computer (of course)
Re-start 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

Use another library if you have one, or make a small test Library with a few pictures in it and see if the same thing happens. You can create a new Library by closing Photos and then option-clicking on the Photos icon.
Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it.

The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.

Let us know what happens…

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Answer 2

May 8, 2025 7:01 AM in response to David Das

The first thing I'd do is look at Photos at iCloud.com. What date do those have? Check again with both Macs to see which one the dates agree with.

On Mac#2, you may want to try adding a picture or two and see what happens at iCloud.com.

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Answer 3

David Das Author

Level 1

92 points

May 8, 2025 4:44 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you for the reply!

I just took a look at iCloud.com > Photos. That set of photos appears with its modern date (i.e. a few days ago). Not its adjusted date (a few decades ago). So I guess this means that computer #1 did not properly update the dates in iCloud.

(However, I've actually done several batches of these, and some of them DID get properly updated across all platforms.)

Any suggestions on what to do? I could probably locate this batch on computer #1 and then re-assign a new date (perhaps one minute different than the previously adjusted date) which might force it to resync. However, this has happened a few times to me, so I'd love to get to the bottom of it.

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How do I force macOS Photos app to resync with iCloud?

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