I have a very large photo library that are stored on my new 27-inch iMac (3TB HD) of over 34,000 photos and 799 videos (totalling 223 gigabytes) but it is taking forever (now going on 4 days) to get the only photos I am missing from the iCloud library – just 19 iPhone screenshots & 3 iPhone photos – down on to my iMac. Three days ago, I migrated all data from my latest backup of my old iMac to my new machine and it took only 2 hours to move 800 gigabytes which was impressive. Next, I began the process of getting Photos in gear,  starting a standard repair/rebuild of my Photos Library which also took just 5 minutes. Then – we are talking 3 days ago – Photos starting sorting the photos I have on my iMac with what is on my iCloud photo library. The number of photos on my iMac and the iCloud photo library are virtualy the same. The only difference is that my iMac is still waiting for those 19 iPhone screenshots and 2 iPhone pictures that are up on the Cloud and that were were taken in the 3 days since I got my new iMac. 

Those missing photos are on the iCloud, they are on my old iMac, my MacBook Pro, my iPad and my iPhone, but they are not on my new iMac yet, because, as a Senior Level Apple Tech explained, because iCloud has to go through its photo library and compare it to the one in Apple Photos first to make sure the libraries are the same, and then and only then will it move down the 22 missing photos from the iCloud to my iMac.

It is really madness the way the iCloud Library was designed to work with the Photos Library. Even the so-called ”progress message” at the bottom of the Photos “Moments” screen announce that it is either ”uploading” “downloading” & “adding” photos between my iMac and iCloud is misleading. The tech told me that it wasn’t really downloading, uploading and adding pictures but merely sorting and matching to see if what you have on your iMac matches what is on the iCloud library. When I started this 3 days ago, there were 42,000 items being sorted, 24 hours later the number dropped to 36,000, today we are down to 11,000. 

My point is, when the numbers of pictures stored on your iMac Photos library and the iCloud photos library are essential identical, why does it take the iCloud so damn long to get them on to my new machine. Why wasn’t the program designed to prioritize getting the newest pictures down from the Cloud to your iMac, and then finish by comparing both libraries. The iCloud & Apple Photos Library system is really a badly broken, extremely frustrating system.