There is provided an optical transmission system including: an optical transmitting apparatus including: a first processing circuit configured to process a transmission signal to be transmitted, a second processing circuit configured to process overhead data, the processed overhead data being multiplexed to the transmission signal, a retaining circuit configured to retain the overhead data, the retained overhead data being multiplexed to the transmission signal; and an insertion circuit configured to generate an identifier to be inserted into the retained overhead data; and an optical receiving apparatus including a detecting circuit configured to receive the transmission signal transmitted from the optical transmitting apparatus, and detect the identifier, wherein, when the overhead data is a predetermined state, the first processing circuit multiplexes the retained overhead data into which the identifier is inserted and the detecting circuit detects the identifier.