Photos Library Says Updating

I don't see photos from My Photo Stream on my iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or Apple TV

Turn on the “Cellular Data” option. If you upload a lot of pictures, then enable the “Unlimited Update” option as well. 1.3 Turn off/on Photo Library. Sometimes, all it takes to fix the iCloud Photo Library not syncing issue is a simple reset. Go to your phone’s Settings iCloud Photos and turn off the option of “iCloud Photo. In this video we will see how to fix cannot download photo from your icloud photo library error on iPhone. ICloud is cloud service from Appl.

If you turned on My Photo Stream on all of your devices, your last 30 days of photos are available in the My Photo Stream album so that you can view or add them to your library on each device.* If you recently created your Apple ID, My Photo Stream might not be available. Use iCloud Photos to keep your photos and videos in iCloud. Learn more about iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream.

Photos

If you can't find your My Photo Stream images in the Photos app, follow these steps on each of your devices:

iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

  1. Tap Settings > Wi-Fi on all of your devices. Check that Wi-Fi is on and you have an internet connection.
  2. Tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Make sure Upload to My Photo Stream is turned on. If you don't see this option, turn on iCloud Photos to keep your photos and videos in iCloud instead.
  3. On the device that captured the photo that you're looking for, close the Camera app. (Nothing uploads to My Photo Stream until you do.)
  4. See if your iOS device is below 20% battery power. If it is, My Photo Stream disables itself temporarily to save battery life.

Mac

  1. Make sure that your Mac is connected to the internet.
  2. From your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click iCloud. Make sure that you're signed in with the same Apple ID on all of your supported devices.
  3. Open the Photos app. Then choose Photos > Preferences. Click iCloud (or Photo Stream).
  4. Make sure that My Photo Stream is selected. If you don't see this option, turn on iCloud Photos to keep your photos and videos in iCloud instead.
  5. On the device that captured the photo that you're looking for, close the Camera app. (Nothing uploads to My Photo Stream until you do.)

Apple TV

  1. In Settings > Network > Wi-Fi, check that Wi-Fi is on and you have an internet connection.
  2. In Settings > Accounts > iCloud, check that My Photo Stream is on.
  3. On the device that captured the photo that you're looking for, close the Camera app. (Nothing uploads to My Photo Stream until you do.) If you still don't see all of your My Photo Stream photos, it might be due to storage capacity on your Apple TV.

* For iCloud to share photos or videos with your other Apple devices, you need to sign in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on every device.

I see different photos in the My Photo Stream album on each of my devices

Your device keeps up to 1,000 photos, even if they're older than 30 days. Photos older than 30 days are removed from iCloud, so depending on when you enabled My Photo Stream, your devices might not have the same photos. Due to capacity, your Apple TV might display only your most recent photos.

Follow these steps to delete older photos from My Photo Stream and put your most current photos on all of your devices:

  1. If you have photos in the My Photo Stream album that you want to keep, save them to your device. Then save copies of your photos and other data.
  2. Turn off My Photo Stream. Here's how:
    • On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and turn off Upload to My Photo Stream.
    • On your Mac with macOS Catalina or later, open the Photos app, then in the menu bar, choose Photos > Preferences. Click iCloud, and turn off My Photo Stream.
    • On your Apple TV, go to Settings > Accounts > iCloud and turn off Upload to My Photo Stream.
  3. Confirm that you want to Delete Photos.
  4. Turn on My Photo Stream again.
  5. Repeat these steps for each device.

I don't see my imported photos in My Photo Stream

  1. Make sure that your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac has an active internet connection.
  2. Check if you're using iCloud Photos in the Photos app. If you turned on iCloud Photos, photos from other devices using My Photo Stream won't appear on your device.

Learn more

  • Learn more about My Photo Stream and Shared Albums.
  • Get help if your iCloud Photos won't load on your Windows PC.
  • Learn how to delete photos from My Photo Stream.
  • Learn how to download your photos and videos from iCloud.

With the upgrade to Photos, many Mac users have been left with a duplicate iPhoto library on their Macs. Here’s how to delete iPhoto library and clear out some clutter.

iPhoto used to be the standard photo editor and photo management system on Macs, at least for the average computer user. Like it or not, however, that all changed when Apple first introduced the software, nearly a year ago. If your Mac came from Apple with Photos already installed, you don’t need to worry about old iPhoto libraries.

A Mac that was upgraded to a new version of OS X that added the Photos app, however, can end up with what look like duplicates of their photo libraries. The first time you start up Photos after upgrading, your Mac will copy over your photo library into the new software (if you explicitly set up more than one old iPhoto library, you’ll have to copy them over yourself). It doesn’t go back and delete the old one, though.

Here’s where things get a little bit confusing: you don’t actually have two copies of your photos. Thanks to the way OS X (the software that powers your Mac, like Windows powers a PC) works, your pictures aren’t actually stored in those libraries. Instead, they’re stored somewhere else on your hard drive, and each library has what Apple calls a “hard link” to the pictures. As a result, each library can access the photos, but store separate information about them. You can delete either library safely; only if you were to delete both libraries would you lose access to your pictures.

While having a second copy of your photo library doesn’t take up that much extra space on your computer, it can still be confusing – first of all, each library reports that it’s a certain size, which can make it difficult to figure out how much room is left on your Mac. Additionally, if you need to back things up, it can be hard to figure out where your files are.

Still with us? Let’s recap:

  • if you upgrade your Mac from iPhoto to Photos, you’ll get a second photo library
  • if you had multiple iPhoto libraries (you would know if you did), you’ll need to copy them into Photos manually
  • the libraries each link to a single copy of your photos, rather than storing each photo twice
  • it can appear that your libraries are taking up more space than they are, thanks to the way hard links work
  • you can safely delete either photo library – only if you delete both of them will you lose access to your photos

How to delete iPhoto library on your Mac

Photos Says Updating Library

Now that you understand why you might want to delete an old iPhoto library, and why you don’t necessarily have to, let’s talk about how to actually do it.

Before you do anything like this on your Mac – that is, delete something potentially important – you should back up your software with something like Time Machine.

Read: How to Backup Your Mac with Time Machine

That way, if you accidentally delete something important, or something else goes wrong, you can always roll things back to how they were when you started. This is really easy, and there’s nothing to be concerned about; it’s just good practice to back things up (and keep them backed up) before you muck about in your computer.

Photos Library Says Updating Screen

First, you’ll need to open a Finder window: you can do this by clicking on the Finder icon (it looks like a square face) on the dock, or by clicking on your Mac’s desktop background and hitting ⌘+N (Command + N) on your keyboard.

Next, look at the left-hand column in the new window. You’ll see a list of locations around your Mac; find the one that says Pictures and click on it. You’ll be taken to that directory, which contains libraries for Apple’s image-related apps (Photos, iPhoto, Photo Booth, etc).

In the list of files on the right, scroll down and look for your iPhoto library – it’ll be a little iPhoto icon, and the name will read, unsurprisingly, iPhoto Library. Don’t worry about accidentally deleting your Photo Booth or Photos libraries; you’ll be able to see which one is which.

To actually delete the library, you can do one of three things:

  1. Click on the iPhoto Library listing, and without letting go of your mouse or trackpad button, drag it until it’s over top the Trash icon on your dock. Once you’re on top of the Trash, let go.
  2. You can select (click on) the iPhoto Library, then right-click on your mouse or Trackpad (Apple will call this Secondary Click in your Mouse or Trackpad settings). A new menu will pop up; find the entry that says Move to Trash and click on it.
  3. Finally, you can also delete your iPhoto Library by clicking on it and hitting ⌘+Delete (Command + Delete) on your keyboard.

What Does Updating Photo Library Mean

Read: How to uninstall apps on Mac OS X

Photos Library Says Updating Free

Now that you’ve gotten rid of your iPhoto library, it makes sense to completely uninstall iPhoto – that way you won’t accidentally create a new iPhoto Library and have to repeat all these steps. It’s as simple as opening up your Applications folder, and deleting iPhoto (using one of the three steps we just discussed). For a more in-depth look at how to uninstall apps on your Mac, be sure to check out our guide above!

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