Unknown Error - I can not import my photos from iCloud (drive) to 'Photos' app

Question

Level 1

4 points

Unknown Error - I can not import my photos from iCloud (drive) to 'Photos' app

Hi everyone!!!

Yesterday, I backed up some albums from Photos to my iCloud Drive. These photos were taken with my iPhone just a few months ago (I also deleted them from my iPhone and then deleted them from 'deleted photos' option within 'Photos' app)

Now, when I try to reimport the photos into the Photos app, I get an “unknown error.” The issue is that only some photos were imported successfully, while others weren’t. I don’t understand the criteria because the imported ones share the same format (.jpg) as those that failed. Even my videos (.mov) trigger an error!

What I’ve tried so far:

Downloading the photos from iCloud to my desktop: Didn’t work.
Downloading the photos from iCloud to the local iCloud Drive folder: Didn’t work either.

All this stuff have been done using my macbook air.

Please I need your help!

thanks.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Posted on Jul 14, 2025 10:42 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 15, 2025 09:34 PM in response to RnzBondanzap

RnzBondanzap wrote:

To be more specific, what I did was take all my photos from my iPhone and drag them into a folder in my iCloud Drive.

Can you be more specific? Did you somehow drag the photos on the iPhone to the iCloud Drive? Or did you do that on the Mac?

Beware that depending on the macOS, dragging images/movies from the Photos library can only output a thumbnail of the movie. The proper way is to use Photos > File > Export. I wish Apple would put an extra dialog what will happen if the user does this.

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Answer 2

Jul 16, 2025 07:41 AM in response to RnzBondanzap

RnzBondanzap wrote: …simply used drag and drop to move all the photos and videos into a folder in my iCloud Drive. Simple and straightforward.

Simple, and bound not to work. Did you read what Matti said?

When you want to get a picture from Photos, you have lots of choices to make. Did you want to get the original files, or did you want to get edited ones? Did you want to get metadata, or not? Did you want thumbnails, previews, or full size? What format would you like it in-- jpg, heic, tif, or what The export dialog gives you an idea of some of choices you have to make when delivering a picture from Photos:

The actual picture files don't exist in Photos until you export them as files. To be sure of what you get, you have to tell Photos what you want. So which set of choices do you suppose that Drag & Drop produces? You can't tell, and it changes from OS to OS. I use drag and drop when I don't care much what I get-- in texts, for example. Otherwise, it's a bad choice.

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Answer 3

RnzBondanzap Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 15, 2025 09:17 PM in response to muguy

Hi Muguy,

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this issue.

Answering your question:

What do you mean by backed up to iCloud Drive?

Yes, I copied all my photos into a folder inside my iCloud Drive.

To be more specific, what I did was take all my photos from my iPhone and drag them into a folder in my iCloud Drive. Then, I went back to my iPhone and deleted those photos (the ones I had backed up to iCloud).

I'm new to the ecosystem and honestly didn’t fully understand how this iCloud Photos synchronization works, but I now realize that by deleting them from my iPhone, they were also deleted from everywhere. That’s why I tried to bring them back to my iPhone by dragging them from my iCloud Drive folder into the Photos app.

And as I mentioned in my issue, when I try to do that (moving my photos from iCloud back into the Photos app), the system throws a series of unknown errors, preventing me from importing my photos.

Do you know why this happens?

Why does it import some photos but not others?

Why, if they are literally the same photos I backed up just a few hours ago, is my iPhone not accepting them back?

How am I doing the import?

From my MacBook Air, I simply drag the photos from my iCloud Drive folder directly into the Photos app.

I also noticed that when I did the backup, those "short videos" that play when viewing a photo (I think that feature has a name), were turned into actual .MOV files in the iCloud backup—haha.

Anyway, I hope this whole story is a bit clearer now.

P.S. If you're wondering "why did I do this?", it’s because up until that point I didn’t know there was an option on the iPhone that reduces the quality of photos and videos to save storage space :(

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 4

RnzBondanzap Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 15, 2025 09:44 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Hi Matti,

I did it on the Mac. I opened the Photos app on my Mac, selected the albums I wanted to back up, and simply used drag and drop to move all the photos and videos into a folder in my iCloud Drive. Simple and straightforward.

Thanks in advance

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Answer 5

RnzBondanzap Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 15, 2025 09:19 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Hi Richard,

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this issue.

I just reply to Muguy :) maybe now is more clear for you.

Thanks!

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Answer 6

muguy

Level 10

90,344 points

Jul 15, 2025 01:21 AM in response to RnzBondanzap

What do you mean by backed up to iCloud Drive? Did you copy the photos into an iCloud Drive folder? Or, are you confusing the sync feature in photos with a backup. Syncing is not backing up. If you enable sync and then delete photos, those photos are deleted everywhere.

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Answer 7

Jul 15, 2025 08:16 AM in response to RnzBondanzap

As muguy indicates, it very hard to figure out exactly what you are doing.

Where is your Photos Library package, probably named Photos Library.photoslibrary? Is it in the Pictures folder? Is it in iCloud Drive? (It can't work in iCloud Drive.)

How have you "backed up some albums from Photos to my iCloud Drive?" Can you give some details? Did you use "File>Export" to export pictures? What settings did you use for the export? Did you make folders for groups of pictures?

"iCloud" can mean so many things, and I'm not sure you use it in the same way every time. Do you mean the Mac's iCloud Drive folder, or the iCloud Drive folder at iCloud.com, or iCloud Photos at iCloud.com, or something else?

Let us understand what you're doing…

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