Unable to upload photos from iMac to iCloud

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Level 1

4 points

Unable to upload photos from iMac to iCloud

I have over 50,000 photos and videos on my iMac and iCloud. However it says it "Couldn't Sync" almost 7000 items to iCloud. It's weird because when I look at the photos it apparently couldn't sync it is random ones - like I have taken 20 photos on a single day... 18 synced fine and two didn't.

So I have 7000 photos in an "Unable to Upload" folder of sorts, that I would love to recover as some are very special to me.

I am unable to do anything with these pictures - if I try to export them I get an error message saying "The export operation failed to create a file for the photo identified below"... and it lists the file saying Unknown error(0). It's not a space issue as I have plenty on both my iMac and iCloud account. Please help.

iMac 24″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Aug 14, 2025 4:41 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

17,047 points

Aug 15, 2025 6:52 AM in response to Dadadee

Dadadee wrote: …No, if I select a photo and try to edit it, I get a yellow warning triangle that says “Cannot start editing. Photos cannot load edits for this image”.

OK-- so the connection with the originals is broken. One possibility is that the originals were never loaded into Photos. In Photos' Settings>General

Importing>Copy Items should be checked, so see if it is. It is the default, but something might have happened. If it's not checked, or has been unchecked in the past, it sets up a Referenced Library where the Original picture files are kept in Finder folders and are not added to the Library at all. A Referenced Library is really for testing purposes, and accidentally creating a Referenced Library has caused lots of troubles for people. Almost no one has a Referenced Library. Checking "Copy" makes a Managed Library in which Photos hangs on to all the Original picture files in its Library and has full control over them.

So, at one time, the original pictures were in Finder Folders somewhere on your Mac. Can you find those? If so, we can re-connect them.

I have a Referenced Library for messing around, and when I try to edit a picture with a missing file I get this:

If you don't get that, we may have to try something else.

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Answer 2

Aug 14, 2025 10:43 AM in response to Dadadee

These problem pictures-- can you edit them? What happens when you select a picture and go into Edit Mode?

I'm asking because, if a picture has lost the connection with its original file, then you can see the preview version, but it can't be edited, so this might tell us what's going on…

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Answer 3

Dadadee Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 14, 2025 12:37 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you for responding.

No, if I select a photo and try to edit it, I get a yellow warning triangle that says “Cannot start editing. Photos cannot load edits for this image”.

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