"getting your photos ready for backup" forever

[daveziffer]

The Google Photos app normally backs up still photos within seconds of my taking them, and uploads movies within minutes. Last night (4/1/17) I shot a movie that is just 2:36 long, and it never uploads to the Google online photo gallery. When I open the Photos app on my phone and click on the eternally cycling "1" image (indicating that it is uploading one image), it opens up a box saying "Getting your photos ready for backup" and just sits there. I ran this all night with the app open (I realize the app doesn't need to be open) and with the phone charging, and this morning it is still "Getting your photos ready for backup". To test whether their service is down, I snapped a still photo and it uploaded immediately, which means that the service works, at least for still photos. So it is just the movie, which plays fine on my phone but never uploads. Is anyone else experiencing this as of 4/2/17?

 

[daveziffer]

Additional info. There seems to be something weird about this one video that just won't upload. I open the video and specifically click on the "cloud" icon near the top to force it to upload individually. This opens a dialog box that says "Uploading - 1 left" showing a progress bar, but there is never any progress. So despite the fact that the Photo app clearly realizes that this video needs to be uploaded, and that the video is a mere 2:36 long, the Photo app seems incapable of doing the upload. I've tried restarting and power cycling and nothing works. Any ideas?

 

[daveziffer]

OK so I stumbled onto my own solution. I closed the Photo app (on my phone) and opened the Gallery and opened this video that would not upload using Photos. From the (three-dot) menu on this photo there was an option to upload the video (I don't remember now what the option said exactly). From there I was able to force an upload that actually worked. The video uploaded in about five minutes. It now appears in my online Google Photos, and when I open the Photos app on my phone, the app says "Backup Complete" rather than showing that it is uploading one video. Apparently it is possible for the Photos app to get into some internal inconsistency where it thinks that a video should be uploaded but cannot upload it. I should add that when I shot the video it was in a situation with weak WiFi, and that the first attempt to upload it over that weak WiFi failed in the middle of the upload, which is probably how Photos got into this strange state.

 

[xberserker]

OK so I stumbled onto my own solution. I closed the Photo app (on my phone) and opened the Gallery and opened this video that would not upload using Photos. From the (three-dot) menu on this photo there was an option to upload the video (I don't remember now what the option said exactly). From there I was able to force an upload that actually worked. The video uploaded in about five minutes. It now appears in my online Google Photos, and when I open the Photos app on my phone, the app says "Backup Complete" rather than showing that it is uploading one video. Apparently it is possible for the Photos app to get into some internal inconsistency where it thinks that a video should be uploaded but cannot upload it. I should add that when I shot the video it was in a situation with weak WiFi, and that the first attempt to upload it over that weak WiFi failed in the middle of the upload, which is probably how Photos got into this strange state.

Kudos on this. I had issues with uploading 4K videos. I used ES File Explorer File Manager to view the file and choose to upload to Google Photos 1 by 1. This is a great workaround for the 4GB video files.