iCloud photos not syncing

Since the High Sierra update I notice that photos taken with my iPhone are no longer appearing in the Photos app on my mac. I see them on my iPad though. In Preferences on my mac everything seems normal in the iCloud section,I am signed in and Photos is ticked on the list to sync. Also when I look at Preferences in the Photos app nothing has changed,icloud is still enabled. But Photos on the mac is only up to date till just before the High sierra was installed ,so I guess this is the problem? What can i do to get it to sync with my iPhone?

I tried signing out of iCloud in preferences and signing back in, unticking iCloud in photos preferences and also restarting my mac.None of these worked, still no new photos on mac.Nothing since the update ,Does anyone know of a solution?

Do you have Photo Stream turned on? If not, you might try doing that.

No I don't, but for some reason another restart has cured the problem! No idea why.... thanks anyway

I'm having this same problem. The photos just will NOT sync to my Mac Book Pro; hasn't since late October 2017. SW is up-to-date. I have a CONSTANT message on my Mac that says "Some account services will not be available until you sign in again." Repeated sign ins do NOT resolve this. Restarts don't resolve it. HELP.

Generally not good idea to piggyback on an older thread as your problem is not exactly like the first one. That said, to help you we need more information. What software is "up to date?" What does "CONSTANT" mean, exactly. What MBP, what version of macOS? And I think the "sign in" is not to your account on the MBP, but your iCloud account. What exactly do you mean by, "Repeated sign ins do NOT resolve this?"

I have a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015). SW is macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.2. My iPhone is a 7Plus, running Version 11.2.2. Photos stopped syncing from phone to Mac sometime last year (Sept/Oct?) Photos SAYS it's updating, but it just thinks about it; doesn't ever finish. Every time I use my Mac, a window comes up with this message "Update Apple ID Settings" Some account services will not be available until you sign in again. There is a "Continue" button. Clicking that button prompts a query for a password. I enter the password; it appears to be accepted, and then I get the same "Update Apple ID Settings" window again, and again, and again. That's what I mean by "CONSTANT".

Welcome.

Okay; this the Apple-advised way of setting things up to achieve what I think you are after; namely -

1. Any photos taken an iDevice, such as your iPhone 7 plus, automatically appear within the Photos app on your Mac.

2. You want them to remain on your Mac and from the Mac only, sync with iCloud. To be clear, you don't want all your photos to appear on your iPhone, only those taken by that device.

A. On your iPhone (indeed all iDevices) Go into Settings > Photos. Turn Off "iCloud Photo Library. Turn On "My Photo Stream". (The other settings don't matter so much and are up to you, but I'd probably keep iCloud Photo Sharing Off.)

B. On your Mac Open Photos > Preferences (shortcut is Command plus comma - or you can get there by clicking on the Photos name on the Menu Bar and choose Preferences from there).

C. Once in Preferences, Click on "iCloud".

D. Check the box "iCloud Photo Library". (Underneath that, you can choose how you want your original photos to be handled. I have "Download Originals to this Mac", but that's up to you and there is a clear explanation of what the 2 options mean.)

E. Check the box "My Photo stream".

This is what the above will mean:

All photos taken on any iDevice will appear within the Photos app on your Mac provided there is WiFi available to both devices.. They will sync with iCloud, again via WiFi.

They will remain in photos until you delete them from there; no matter whether you delete them from the iPhone or not. So, as soon as the photos appear on your Mac, you can clear them from the iPhone to save space if you wish. This will not affect those on your Mac.

Those are the settings.

I would further suggest that you consider Signing out of iCloud on iPhone and Mac - then Signing in again on both, as this seems to be a separate issue with you.

And do remember that it takes a long time to sync your Mac's photos to iCloud, so leave your Mac on (and on charge if it's a Notebook) and keep the Photos app open.

Ian

Thanks Ian for your very detailed response; it gave me hope. Everything went well until I got to your final suggestion to sign out of iCloud on iPhone and Mac. Specifically the Mac. I repeatedly got the message "There was a problem removing your Mac; please try again." (paraphrasing here). After trying about 5 times, I gave up. Still no photo update on Mac.

May I assume that the signing in/out of iCloud worked on your iPhone? Only failed on your Mac - yes? And WiFi connection okay?

I want very much to get to the bottom of this.

Don't be offended - I just want to follow what you were doing on your Mac. System Preferences > iCloud brings up:



And you signed out as per the yellow arrow? Does the message appear now - in other words, can you not sign out? If you you can. Quit System Preferences, go back in > iCloud and Sign In - or this not allowed? I'm trying to identify the exact point in the process where it fails.

By the way, probably doesn't matter, but what OS is your Mac running and do you have a Notebook or iMac.

Ian

These might help, but I guess you know all this already:

https://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/mac.html
http://osxdaily.com/2015/03/04/fix-mac-asking-icloud-password-randomly/

Ian

Yes. That's the same sign out button I used. Not offended. I'm running OS High Sierra 10.13.2 and have a MacBook Pro 15 in mid 2015.

I've tried these, or similar, suggestions. I turned off Wi-FI and was able to click the sign off button without a password prompt, BUT after an hour of my Mac "thinking" about signing me off, I bailed. UGH. Nothing is working.