iCloud Photos is a great iPhone feature that saves every photo and video you take to the cloud, so you can access your library from any device at any time. Any changes you make to your collection on one device are replicated across all your other devices.
But, sometimes, things go wrong in the pipeline, and your Apple devices stop syncing your photos. If for some reason, your iCloud Photos are not syncing properly, you may lose some precious photos and cherished memories. So, to avoid that pain, let’s go through some steps if your photos are not syncing with iCloud.
1. Check Your Settings
Let’s review whether you have the correct iCloud Photos configuration on the device that is currently not syncing to iCloud. First, open the Settings app to check that you’re signed in to the same Apple ID you used to set up iCloud Photos.
If you’re already signed in to the correct Apple ID, the second step is to make sure iCloud Photos is enabled on your device. Tap your Apple ID name at the top of the screen, go to iCloud > Photos, and check that Sync this iPhone is turned on.
2. Check Your Internet Connection
Because iCloud is a web-based service, iCloud photos may not sync if you have a poor Internet connection. To make sure your connection is good, check to see if other apps can connect to the Internet or try launching a new web address in your browser.
If the problem is with your internet connection, try resetting your router or troubleshooting your cellular data to see if that resolves the issue. You can also try resetting your iPhone network settings.
If your connection is fine but you are trying to use cellular data for iCloud Photos, you will need to enable this function first. Otherwise, your iCloud Photo Library won’t show up on your iPhone.
To do this, first turn on your iPhone’s cellular data. Then go to Settings > Photos > Mobile data. Toggle on Mobile data, and you can also choose to toggle off Unlimited updates if your data plan allows.
3. Check Your iCloud Storage
Another common reason for photos not uploading to iCloud is lack of storage. Every Apple user gets 5GB of free iCloud storage, but that’s hardly enough—especially if you regularly take tons of photos.
You’ll need to check your current usage to make sure you haven’t run out of storage. Open the Settings app , tap your Apple ID name, then choose iCloud. You’ll see a description of your current storage at the top of the page.
If you’ve maxed out your free iCloud storage, you’ll either need to free up some iCloud storage space or upgrade to one of Apple’s paid storage plans.
4. Optimize Your iPhone Storage
Depending on the quality of the photos you choose to upload to iCloud, you can quickly max out your iPhone storage, causing iCloud Photos to not update correctly.
By default, all your photos and videos are saved in their original, high-resolution format on your device and in iCloud Photos. But you can use the Optimize Storage feature to save storage space on your iPhone.
Optimize Storage allows iCloud Photos to manage the size of the library on your iPhone. When this option is on, your original, high-quality photos and videos are stored in iCloud, while the compressed versions remain on your device. You can download the full-resolution version from iCloud at any time via Wi-Fi or cellular.
To enable this option, go to Settings, then tap on your Apple ID name. Now, go to iCloud > Photos > Optimize iPhone Storage.
5. Restart your iPhone
If the fixes above fail to solve your problem, try rebooting your iPhone. This will fix any software glitches that may be preventing your photos from syncing to iCloud. If you need some guidance, here’s how to force restart any iPhone.
6. Update Your iPhone
An older version of iOS can be the cause of a number of performance issues, including the issue where iCloud photos are not syncing to your iPhone. Check your phone for software updates and install them to fix any bugs that may be the culprit of the problem. To get started, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
7. Plug in your iPhone to charge
iCloud syncs photos when the device is plugged in and connected to Wi-Fi. So, if iCloud Photos is not syncing properly, find the nearest outlet and plug your iPhone in. Then, make sure your iPhone can connect to Wi-Fi while you leave it alone to charge and sync.