iCloud on Windows Maxxing Out

iCloud on Windows Maxxing Out: a reader asks…

I have a Windows 11 computer and use an iPhone. I installed the iCloud app on my PC to sync my iPhone photo library with my PC a while ago, and everything worked fine until last week. Now, all of a sudden, my computer’s fan is always at full speed, and when I look at the Task Manager applet, it shows iCloud using a lot of CPU and network resources. When I open the iCloud app, it shows that it’s syncing my photos, and it seems to keep restarting (the number of photos synced and pending keeps resetting). What should I do?

Several other readers have experienced this problem, most likely because an update to Windows or the iCloud app caused a conflict. While message boards suggest less drastic options (like restarting the computer, ending the task in Task Manager, and then restarting iCloud), the most reliable solution seems to be uninstalling and reinstalling the iCloud app on your PC. Here’s how:

1. Open Settings (right-click the Start menu and left-click the Settings menu option). Select Apps on the left-side menu of the Settings window, then Installed Apps on the right-side. Scroll down to the iCloud app and click the three horizontal dots on the right. Click Uninstall, then confirm that you want to uninstall the app. When that’s done…
2. Restart your computer.
3. Log in, open the Microsoft Store, find iCloud, and install it. When installation is complete, run the app and log in to your Apple account.

When iCloud runs, it will resync your Photos, which could take hours depending on how many photos you have. However, it should use far fewer system resources than before. Be patient, and once the iCloud app shows all your photos are synced, you can consider two additional actions:

By default, the iCloud app sets both Apple Photos and iCloud Drive folders on your PC to save hard drive space, only showing thumbnails in those two locations. If your computer has plenty of hard drive space, you can set those directories to keep a copy of the photos on your computer for faster access (and as a backup location for all your photos besides iCloud). Your PC defaults to saving to the hard drive because many PCs are laptops with limited hard drive space.

1. Open File Explorer, and right-click on the Apple Photos icon on the left side of the window. That brings up a menu.
2. On that menu, left-click on the option “Always Keep on this Device”.

You shouldn’t need to do this with iCloud Drive, as the default settings in the iCloud app should do this for you. You may not even see the option to do this when right-clicking on the iCloud Drive icon in File Explorer.

Once this is done and your photos have synced to your computer, you should see significantly lower system resource use, and your fan noise should return to normal.