Photomator broke my iCloud sync

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
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2023-06-08 13:04:18

I have a bunch of Photos on my Photos app (on a MacBook) and I just got the Photomator app for the Mac (Lifetime license if that makes a difference). I open up Photomator and immediately go to work happily editing all my Photos and getting good results. I deleted a bunch of Photos also. Y'know the ones that have a motion blur of your feet when you're trigger happy with the shutter.

Anyway, so I have 10,492 Photos now on my Photomator App. I have edited about 200 of them already. When I check my Photos app I have 10,492 Photos also. So I make an edit in Photomator and save it, and it immediately reflects the changes in the Photos app. No issue! Just the way I like it.

The problem is. the Photos app doesn't sync up to iCloud (Or maybe Photomator doesn't sync to iCloud), because the edits I make in Photomator don't show up on my iPhone. For 3 days now I have been editing and deleting photos on the Photomator app (10,492 Photos on the Mac) and I have 10,509 photos on my iPhone.

I checked iCloud and it shows me 10,509 photos. So the sync to iCloud isn't working. Coz if it never makes it to iCloud, it will never make it to my iPhone.

If the photos never make it to iCloud, of course the edits I make won't make it to iCloud, and checking my iPhone that's true. No edits present.

Prior to installing Photomator there were no issues.

I even tried taking a photo on my iPhone of my dog so that it ends up in my Photos app and eventually into Photomator. You know, if it doesn't sync one way, try syncing it the other way. Nothing.

I also tried editing a single photo in the Photos app to see if the Photos app would start the sync up and in the process the edits I made using Photomator would also go along for the ride. Kind of like pushing a manual car to get it going if for some reason the starter doesn't work.

Didn't help.

I have used 526GB of the 2TB that is available on iCloud so I have plenty of free space. My iPhone has 416GB available so no issue there also. I have good internet, a bunch of patience, a big cup of coffee, and a small dog.

I have had no issues for a few years now. And now my iCloud sync is broken right after installing Photomator.

Another user in the forum said he tried signing out and signing back into iCloud and that ended up causing more problems for him.

I'm not sure if I'm asking too much from Photomator. Maybe what I'm using it for is not the intent of the app? I want to take photos on my iPhone, come back to my Mac and find them there. Edit them, hit save, and go back to my iPhone so I can show my photos off to the girls.

Am I expecting too much from Photomator? Should I go back to editing in the Photos app? Am I doing something wrong? What do I do now?
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2023-06-08 19:44:42

Just started following the community for Photomator as I have started playing with it on my Mac.
I prefer using Photos itself for checking out my photos and deciding which to work on (which is why I actually liked Pixelmator Pro better initially because it worked with Photos as an extension which apparently Photomator doesn't - at least not yet - I assume because of the browser setup for the application). Anyway I open a photo in Photos but don't click Edit. I right-click on the photo and click on Edit With Photomator, which will then open up with the photo I started with. If I then proceed to edit the photo in Photomator and then hit DONE Photos will come up with a message whether to allow Photomator to make changes to the photo. I say yes, the changes are made to the photo in the Photos library and also appear on my iPhone also.
Also, if I start with Photomator, open the photo from the Photomator library screen, make any adjustments and click DONE, again Apple Photos will ask for permission to allow Photomator to make changes, I click OK and again, the changes are shown in Photos both on my Mac and my iPhone. (Have not had the opportunity to see if they also show on my iPad or my wife's iPhone as the photos I have been playing with are in a Shared Library.)
Hope this helps. (Sorry it was a bit long-winded.)
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2023-06-08 20:17:12

Hi Swandy,

Thanks for the info! I actually watched Pixelmator support answer other questions (and not mine) so I assume they probably don't know what's up either. So I have taken the bold step and disconnecting the Photos app on my Mac from iCloud and I'm going to do the same with my iPhone in a couple of mins, then the process of setting up iCloud again and downloading it all once more.

That's interesting about it working in the Shared Library. I'll wait for what might now be a mess on my system to now get sorted out and test it. Just curious what happens if you work on a photo in your main Library? If you do an edit direct in Photomator in your Main Library, do the changes get pushed to your iPhone?

I didn't try out the Photos > Right Click > edit in Photomator. I was brave enough to open Photomator direct and edit in there. Though I did get the same prompt which asked me if I want to allow the modification. And I allow it and check the Photos app and it's all good coz the edits do show up in Photos. But not synced to my iPhone. I think my issue is getting stuff syncing with iCloud after Photos has the edited versions. For whatever reason, it's not being pushed like yours is.

That seems to have started exactly when I installed Photomator. I'll report back once I have things back to normal hopefully.

Imagine I have photos on my iDevices going back to 2008, and everything has been working well, never had issues with photos even over many hardware changes. Until 15 years later when I installed Photomator.

Now, that's saying something about the impression I have of Photomator lol.
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2023-06-09 02:29:51

Sorry I should have explained better about the "shared library" as Apple has used that term for two different types of shared libraries. It is not the type of "shared" library that you set up and invite other people to join. It is set up when two people (I believe it is only allowed with two people but not sure) with separate Apple IDs (like me and my wife) want to share the entire contents of both our "personal" libraries. (I have been waiting for Apple to allow this type of "sharing" since most of our family photos are in my library - both on my iPhone and Mac - and my wife loves to look through them.) I select what photos I want to add to the "shared library" and my wife does the same on her iPhone. (You can also set the standard camera app on an iPhone to automatically add all new photos to the "shared" library instead of your "personal" one. I did this on our recent trip to Israel/Jordan since we were both taking photos with our iPhones - this way we could see all the photos we had taken.) Hope that is clearer.
I can try one of the photos in my "personal library" meaning the ones I have not added to the "shared library" with the Edit With Photomator and I am sure the edits will also appear on my iPad and my Mac libraries, just won't on my wife's iPhone because those photos aren't in her library.
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2023-06-09 12:20:28

Thanks for clarifying that Swandy. So it took the night to sync back almost all my photos to the Mac and I remember biting my nails in my dreams while I waited for the transfer to complete.

There are 2 less photos on my computer than on iCloud now lol.

Now the edits I make in Photomator do sync up to iCloud. I verify that by logging into icloud.com to check the Photos app on the web browser.

Though now I have a new message when opening up some images:

Image

Not very clear on what I should do here but I keep opening up the Sidecar files and modifications do show up in iCloud. Problem is, each time I open up the images that message keeps popping up. I donno... Doesn't feel like this is a v3.something software more like v0.3. There was a time when you saw v3 and expect that it was mature and stable software.

I haven't tested on my iPhone yet coz I'm still waiting to download everyting back from iCloud on there but it looks a lot more promising.

Thanks for the help Swandy! Here's to hoping this will last another 15 years :)
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2023-06-10 14:55:02

The sidecar files are made as a way for Photomator (and I also believe Pixelmator Pro) to make their adjustments non-destructible. If you open the photo in Photomator, you should not get this message as it should be automatic. And when I allow Photomator to make adjustments to the photo in Photos and then open the photo in Photos itself, that message doesn't come up because the adjustments were transferred and saved in the Photos Library. I believe perhaps you are seeing this when opening the Photomator adjusted photos in the web/cloud version of iCloud. I don't think you will see it when your Photos library finishes its syncing (again assuming you gave permission for Photomator to make adjustments to the photo in the Photos library. (Hope that makes sense.)