I’ve edited a few photos on my iPhone, but my Mac still shows the original versions in Photos. Both devices use the same Apple Account with iCloud Photos turned on, and new photos seem to appear on the Mac normally. It’s just the edits that aren’t coming through, even after several hours. Has anyone had this happen, and what should I check?
I’d check the sync status in Photos before changing any settings, it usually tells you straight away what’s going on.
On the iPhone, open Photos, go to Collections and tap your profile picture at the top. The status shows under your name, stuff like syncing, paused or when it last updated. On the Mac, open Photos, select Library in the sidebar, click All Photos and scroll all the way to the bottom, the status is there too. Fwiw if the Mac itself says paused, there’s a Resume button right there next to the status.
If either one says paused or still syncing, your edits are probably fine, they just haven’t gone through yet. What does yours say?
Just checked, the iPhone says syncing is paused because of Low Power Mode 
Totally forgot I had it on.
Ah, there it is lol. Low Power Mode pauses iCloud Photos syncing, so your edits just wait on the phone until syncing resumes. My guess is the new photos you saw on the Mac went up before that.
Nothing special to do for the edits, they sync like everything else. Turn Low Power Mode off in Settings > Battery (or Control Center if you’ve added it there), plug the phone in and leave it on Wi-Fi for a bit. Btw it also switches itself off once the battery charges to 80%, but turning it off yourself is quicker.
If it still says paused after Low Power Mode is off, these are the common ones to check:
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Low Data Mode pauses syncing too. On Wi-Fi it’s under Settings > Wi-Fi, tap the info button next to your network. On cellular it’s in Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options.
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If your iCloud storage is full, nothing new uploads, edits included. You can check in Settings > your name > iCloud.
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Some status messages come with a Sync Now button, so tap it if you see one.
The iCloud Photos sync troubleshooting page has the full list of status messages and what they mean. I wouldn’t switch iCloud Photos off and on for this tbh. On the iPhone that can ask whether to remove photos or download everything, which is a headache you really don’t need just to fix a pause.
Turned Low Power Mode off and left the phone on the charger. Status changed to syncing 
but the Mac hasn’t updated yet, so I’m giving it more time.
Pretty normal tbh, edits can take a while if there’s a lot waiting to upload. Mine took a whole night once after a big batch of edits, so don’t stress yet. The Mac only gets them after the phone uploads them, so I’d keep an eye on both statuses. The iPhone one tells you whether it’s still syncing, and the one at the bottom of All Photos on the Mac shows when the library was last updated, so you can see if it’s caught up. If the Mac also lists items that couldn’t sync, click View there to see which ones.
If a couple still look old after the iPhone says it’s done syncing, open them on iCloud.com. If the edit shows there, the Mac’s probably just behind. If not, the phone likely hasn’t uploaded it yet, and I’d check for an Unable to Upload album in Photos on the iPhone. Editing a photo in there and then checking if it uploads sometimes does the trick. If it’s the Mac that’s lagging, quitting and reopening Photos on it sometimes gets things moving again.
Update!! left the iPhone on the charger and Wi-Fi overnight and the edits are on the Mac now 
The iPhone isn’t paused anymore and the Mac says it updated just now. Didn’t even need the iCloud.com check. So it was literally just Low Power Mode, didn’t have to touch iCloud Photos at all.
Thanks for the tip about the sync status, didn’t even know that screen was there. I figured since new photos were coming through, the edits must’ve synced too. Lesson learned, checking that status screen first next time 