IOS – Photos on iOS 11 re-uploading entire library to iCloud

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Since updating to iOS 11, Photos has been behaving strangely. My settings for iCloud Photos are blank

My photos are endlessly re-uploading (even though they are all already in the cloud):

Worse — or at least further unnerving, if the upload is actually doing something — this upload pauses itself after a period of about an hour (without notice) and needs to be manually restarted to proceed.

(In contrast, Google Photos, which syncs with the same library on my iPhone, seems to be working fine.)

Why are my Photos settings blank? Why is my photo library being (re)uploaded to iCloud?

Best Answer

If you go to a computer and log in to http://iCloud.com/photos you will be able to see the status of your library as rendered from Apple’s servers in the data center.

If your cloud library is corrupt, you can either:

  • try and delete it and let it clear up and try a sync up from the one device that has your master copy / most complete library
  • work with support to convince tier 1 support that you’ve read the instructions and don’t need basic training and need an engineer to look at your account on the server side

If your cloud library isn’t corrupt, you can then decide to wait out the sync or wipe that device and start the iCloud sync over. I’ve had times where things are blank and syncing for three to four days and it clear up so you might need do nothing but connect to WiFi and connect the device to power for a few 8 hour periods to let all the sync / upload / duplicate processes to run.

You might have something the code can’t resolve and need to get Tier 1 to refer you to engineering since Apple doesn’t let people contact iCloud engineering directly and you do need to work through support to get there if needed.

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