So as stated, i can upload them all to the instance of Nextcloud. I did that so i could re-download them after a phone reset. But i go into the Photo folder and am able to select all and click save to photo gallery. but only like 5 photos come down out of about 2000
Self bump…
It sounds sort of like you’re trying to re-export your photos outside of Nextcloud again rather than let sync do its thing.
I’m using the Android client and you may not be, but they’re both just hybrid sync/browse clients. Think about it this way: The auto upload functionality grabs photos created outside of Nextcloud then brings them into Nextcloud. At that point - other than sharing a few photos here and there via specific apps - existing photos stay in NC. And they are accessible on your phone or wherever.
Have you tried just enabling Sync for the Photo folder in question or, for that matter, just browsing them now that they’re stored in Nextcloud?
I feel like I’m doing a bad job explaining this. I’m blaming being tired 
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So here is what i did, i had to rest my phone. i did not want to upload 5GB to icloud and figure the rest out for NC. so i did the auto upload camera roll form the NC iSO app. Then chekd the account on the web and photos saved…thats great.
Now i have reset the device and signed back into NC app on the device. if i toggle on Auto upload photos, that does not bring them down from the cloud, that only takes local photos and puts them up to the NC instance.