What is cloudphotod on Mac?
By Junaid, maker of Taskglass · Last reviewed
Uploads and downloads your photos and videos for iCloud Photos.
cloudphotod is the iCloud Photos agent. It's responsible for syncing your photo library with iCloud: uploading new photos and videos and downloading ones from your other devices. The first sync of a big library can take many hours or days.
- Category
- Apple service
- Made by
- Apple
- Safe to quit:
- With care
Shown in Activity Monitor as cloudphotod
Why is cloudphotod using so much CPU or memory?
- Syncing a large library, especially the first time
- Importing many photos or videos
- Downloading originals because 'Download Originals' is on
What to do
- 1Check progress at the bottom of the Library view in the Photos app
- 2Keep the Mac plugged in and connected, and let it run overnight
- 3Pause syncing temporarily from the Photos app if you need the bandwidth
Safe to quit? With care.
macOS relaunches it; syncing just pauses and resumes.
Related processes
Part of the Taskglass Process Library