I am having the same issue. I got another 1,000 to download last night when rebooting but since then I have rebooted 20-30 times and nothing is happening.
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iPhone iCloud Original Photos Not Downloading
- Thread starter Z6128
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I am curious how are you able to fit 23K photos with original full size on 256GB phone? I have 7K photos and 1K videos and I do not have room. So I uploaded everything from my XS to iCloud and set my new 11 Pro as new phone. All the photos are now on the phone but stored in the cloud and it takes almost no space. However I noticed that I will not be able to watch or share videos for example unless I am connected to a network.
So I guess my long story question is - is there a way for me to download at least some of the photos to my phone?
I am willing to bet most with this issue restored their iOS 13.0 phone from an iOS 13.1 backup.
Yes they share a database but there is an incompatibility issue with iCloud between 13.0 and 13.1 databases.
The only way to fix this now is to start fresh and setup the phone as new if running iOS 13.0.....or hopefully you still have your 13.1 backup and you can upgrade your new device to 13.1 and then restore from the 13.1 backup. If at any time you have overwritten the 13.1 with a 13.0 database you are SOL.
Yes they share a database but there is an incompatibility issue with iCloud between 13.0 and 13.1 databases.
The only way to fix this now is to start fresh and setup the phone as new if running iOS 13.0.....or hopefully you still have your 13.1 backup and you can upgrade your new device to 13.1 and then restore from the 13.1 backup. If at any time you have overwritten the 13.1 with a 13.0 database you are SOL.
iMessage in iCloud has nothing to do with a general iCloud backup man. Those messages are stored separately from a backup
Sorry was this thread about iMessage? I must have completely misread the thread title and every single post in this thread that referenced photos. But i guess there was one that mentioned iMessage so there's that. Thanks for your input man. The issue is with the database, not with the iCloud backup. It is a settings issue that gets overwritten from iOS 13.0
down to 4,400 from 6,700 - maybe by Christmas ill have all my original photos on my phone 
If you have 1,000 videos then I guess that'll be why - I have twelve ?. Video eats memory, esp. at such high resolutions. I drag all the videos out of Photos into a separate folder on my iMac periodically so that they're not mixed in with my stills.
Another 400 or so pictures trickled down overnight for me, so am now 'waiting' for the last 5,200. I've moved from 49GB to 56GB of 85GB, so it's not a small amount of data being moved, but it will take another 4 days at this rate.
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This morning a little movement of 100 items, at this moment nothing! Calendar issues seems to be resolved at this moment.
Still 3913 items to go!
Still 3913 items to go!
Total disaster!!! I also keep all my original photos on my phone. That is why I have the 512GB. My XS Max has 400GB of photos. My new 11 Pro Max is stuck on 92GB. It has been over 3 days and nothing. I am keeping my XS Max intact until this is solved. I don't trust Apple with my photos. Well, Amazon is the opposite. The stupid Amazon Photos duplicated all my photos since the system believes when you upgrade your phone you have "new" photos. Ridiculous!!!!
With all due respect, that's not a "total disaster" is it? You still have your pictures, you just don't have all of the full-sized versions on your new phone just yet. Keep it together.
It's not right, and it's hopefully temporary - I would be pissed off myself if this was a permanent situation. Personally I'm prepared to cut them some slack for the time being, as this week is surely likely the biggest ever movement of Apple-held data globally (millions of new iPhones restoring, iOS13 upgrade of tens of millions of existing devices, iOS13.1 betas etc).
I'd also suggest that - if your pics are as important to you as mine are to me - that you also do not rely on just iPhone / iCloud & invest in an additional backup routine too. An external HDD would be a start. I have my iMac (full-size originals) backing up incrementally to a NAS, which is itself also backing up to Amazon Glacier. Currently about 2TB including all my Lightroom RAW files and last month it cost 48p.
It's not right, and it's hopefully temporary - I would be pissed off myself if this was a permanent situation. Personally I'm prepared to cut them some slack for the time being, as this week is surely likely the biggest ever movement of Apple-held data globally (millions of new iPhones restoring, iOS13 upgrade of tens of millions of existing devices, iOS13.1 betas etc).
I'd also suggest that - if your pics are as important to you as mine are to me - that you also do not rely on just iPhone / iCloud & invest in an additional backup routine too. An external HDD would be a start. I have my iMac (full-size originals) backing up incrementally to a NAS, which is itself also backing up to Amazon Glacier. Currently about 2TB including all my Lightroom RAW files and last month it cost 48p.
Last Night I went from having 7447 left to 2222. But what I did was shut down my phone, plug it in, restart phone and launch photos app.
Today, it is stuck at 2,222 no matter how many times I restart the phone and leave it plugged in. I am wondering if it works better over night cause there is less traffic on iCloud.
Today, it is stuck at 2,222 no matter how many times I restart the phone and leave it plugged in. I am wondering if it works better over night cause there is less traffic on iCloud.
Not downloading is great, At least you know it is downloading.
The problem I have seen is that there is no such message shown. And you are worried whether the photos will come or not.
Been a complete disaster for me too. Thought I was going nuts.
I have the "optimize iphone storage" but it's not even downloading the thumbnails.
What's kind of helped for me is I switched to full resolution, waited about 10 mins, then switched back to optimize storage. I've since seen movement. That being said, I'm not sure if it is downloading the thumbnails unless I zoom in enough, hover over the missing images, and then have them appear quickly.
Either way, something is very wrong with the icloud restore, and I don't think it's their servers getting hammered.
I have the "optimize iphone storage" but it's not even downloading the thumbnails.
What's kind of helped for me is I switched to full resolution, waited about 10 mins, then switched back to optimize storage. I've since seen movement. That being said, I'm not sure if it is downloading the thumbnails unless I zoom in enough, hover over the missing images, and then have them appear quickly.
Either way, something is very wrong with the icloud restore, and I don't think it's their servers getting hammered.
Anyone having any luck after installing 13.1? My counter is still showing the same number. Turning off and on, cancel download and resume, keep original and full download, nothing works! Please Apple fix this!
anyone have thoughts on turning off iCloud photos, removing the photos completely, then plugging into iTunes and syncing photos that way, and then turning iCloud photos back on? or will that just duplicate everything?
According to my experience, they won't come... at least not anytime soon ;-)
I have this issue since installing iOS 13 beta 1 and so far it's here to stay. I've tried switching the full downloads off and on, even turning off iCloud Photos completely. Only thing I didn't try so far, is factory resetting the phone (XR) and restoring from a backup - but according to the posts above that probably won't change anything anyway.
I've also reported this bug numerous times during the beta phase, didn't change anything though. Apple has only acknowledged that this behavior is reported "by more than 10 users"
I have this issue since installing iOS 13 beta 1 and so far it's here to stay. I've tried switching the full downloads off and on, even turning off iCloud Photos completely. Only thing I didn't try so far, is factory resetting the phone (XR) and restoring from a backup - but according to the posts above that probably won't change anything anyway.
I've also reported this bug numerous times during the beta phase, didn't change anything though. Apple has only acknowledged that this behavior is reported "by more than 10 users"
This is mind blowing. It has been 5 days since I got the new iPhone and I still have over 60% of my photos showing a blank square with a cloud. Photos are the most important thing I have on my iPhone and Apple could not care less if they are missing or not.
WRONG!!!! It is not that only full-sized pictures are missing. When I go to Photo app I see over 60% of my pictures showing a blank square. There are no small versions available. It is simply blank. It has been 5 days since the upgrade and nothing changes.
well that's different isn't it? - most of the posters have thumbnails, and their full size pics are still in iCloud & just not syncing.
photos missing altogether is not good.
photos missing altogether is not good.