Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 11 down vote favorite
1

The Settings page says that Photos will automatically by sent to Photo Stream when I am connected to Wi-Fi, however I've waited several minutes and don't see them in iPhoto. I believe they haven't been sent to iCloud yet. Is there any way to force them to be synced to iCloud from the iPhone?

share|improve this question
I'd bet good money the problem is with PhotoStream on your Mac pulling down updates from iCloud. Check PhotoStream on your iPhone: are they showing up there? I'm trying to find the question that deals with forcing iPhoto to resync your PhotoStream (the answer is not a happy one). – Ian C.♦ Mar 27 '12 at 17:19
2  
Yea, here you go: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/32899/… -- there's no way to force an update. I'm wondering if killing the PhotoStreamAgent process would work though? – Ian C.♦ Mar 27 '12 at 17:21
a further symptom is that inside iPhone's Photos app one can see that new photos on the Camera Roll album can not be seen in the iPhone's Photo Stream either. – K.-Michael Aye Oct 6 '12 at 23:29
it seems that the iPhone won't start sending photos up to Photostream unless it's on wifi AND the phone has greater than 20% battery life. I noticed some of my photos starting syncing once I charged my phone beyond 20%. Apple seriously needs to give some feedback about why Photostream isn't syncing in their UI like Dropbox does. – Matthew Lock Dec 27 '12 at 9:37
Update: Murphy's law though the actual photos I really care about seem stuck in Photostream purgatory and won't appear on other devices. Perhaps this is why Steve Jobs was rumored to have offered Dropbox so much money to sell? – Matthew Lock Dec 27 '12 at 9:43

8 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I had this very problem today. I had taken 40 or so photos on iPhone 4, iOS 5.1, and when I got back to WiFi connection, I waited more than an hour for the photos to appear in PhotoStream either on the iPhone or my iPad, and they didn't.

None of the following worked:

  • Switching the iPhone to Airplane mode and back
  • Killing the Camera and Photos apps
  • Turning off Photo Stream in the iCloud bit of the Settings app (this told me it would delete all PhotoStream photos on the iPhone, so I cancelled)

Eventually, after an hour or so, in desparation I forced the iPhone to power-down, and turned it back on.

Today's photos then started appearing straight away on the iPad. In the time it has taken me to type this, most of them have now arrived already.

share|improve this answer
Unfortunately, even a reboot of the iPhone did not copy my Camera Roll photos to iPhone's Photo Stream. One possible explanation could be that Apple is currently working on their Photo Stream data base? – K.-Michael Aye Oct 6 '12 at 23:30
up vote 2 down vote

I found this post after having the same issue - needing to grab an image from Photo Stream that wasn't coming up.

I found that I had wandered outside my WiFi range, and had reverted to a 3G connection. Upon reconnecting to my WiFi, Photo Stream immediately updated (and I mean immediately :)

I checked this by opening my Photo Stream within the Photos app, and taking a screenshot. Within one second my phone started uploading the new image, and within 10 seconds it was live within my Photo Stream.

If you're having long delays check your WiFi connection - This may not be the only reason for a delay, but it helped me in my situation.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

Go to iCloud Preferences > Photo Stream. Uncheck "Enable Photo Stream", then click apply. Turn Photo Stream back on in preferences (check "Enable Photo Stream"). After a few seconds, iPhoto will start to download all the photos again. Depending on the number of photos, and your bandwidth, it may take awhile.

(Disable Shared Photo Streams on the SUBSCRIBER device, then enable again.)

share|improve this answer
I couldn't disable Photo Stream as it asked me to confirm the deletion of all images.. – André Hoffmann Aug 8 '12 at 20:57
up vote 1 down vote

I figured out if you turn off Photos and start again it starts working.

share|improve this answer
does not work for me. – K.-Michael Aye Oct 6 '12 at 23:28
up vote 1 down vote

I've been searching this question too. I found that if you go to the iCloud control panel and uncheck the photo stream box. Hit Apply. Recheck the photo stream box. For me. hiting Apply again, my pc started to pull down the new photos right away.

share|improve this answer
1  
It's not so much right away, when hundreds of photos of the stream have to first be downloaded again. – K.-Michael Aye Oct 6 '12 at 23:31
up vote 0 down vote

In a similar situation, just keeping the Photos app open on the iPhone caused photos to start syncing immediately for me. (iPhone4/iOS-5.1.1)

share|improve this answer
How do you even define 'immediately' when you said you just keep Photos app open? How long did you have to wait? Any physical answer renders 'immediately' to be incorrect. ;) – K.-Michael Aye Oct 6 '12 at 23:32
I don’t see what’s wrong with this answer. At least for iOS 6, I can confirm that if the Photos app on the iPhone is open, photos are synced to Photo Stream without delay. This is also indicated by the spinning network indicator in the menu bar. – myhd Oct 16 '12 at 8:47
up vote -1 down vote

I was trying to load 1200 photos to my new phone, kept geting time out type message, i tried 200 and it loaded. 200 more over and over until they all loaded.

share|improve this answer
3  
How exactly did you throttle a photo stream sync of 1200 photos so only 200 synced at a time? It sounds great, but it's not clear how to accomplish this task. – bmike♦ Nov 12 '12 at 14:57
up vote -3 down vote

I use wireless transfer app to transfer photos. It is really easy to use with wifi around.

share|improve this answer
Welcome to Ask Different! Answers on Ask Different need to be more than just a link. It's okay to include a link, but please summarize or excerpt it in the answer. The idea is to make the answer stand alone. Please take a look at the FAQs for more info. – gentmatt Sep 26 '12 at 9:25
This doesn't really use PhotoStream, does it? – bmike♦ Oct 6 '12 at 21:21

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.

protected by bmike♦ Nov 12 '12 at 14:58

This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.