6 ms·

Surprisingly, there is no official way to download all (400 Gb) photos from iCloud. Here is an open-source command-line tool to download all your iCloud photos.

cdrnsf 10mo ago
I'm not sure it's surprising. Apple doesn't want you to leave and making something as important as your photos difficult to move helps with that.
- lostlogin 10mo ago
  What’s missing? The files are there on the Mac, they are there to download on the cloud (various mentions of method mentioned here).
  - reconnecting 10mo ago
    There is NO button on Mac to download photos from iCloud. You can only do this from your phone and then synchronise them to your Mac.
    - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
      You can use the Photos app on your Mac and download originals
    - mr_toad 10mo ago
      There are two options in the file menu - you can export the originals, and there is an option to export them as .jpg.
      - reconnecting 10mo ago
        From iPhotos (Photos) app to hard drive. Subject is to download photos from iCloud.
        lostlogin 10mo ago
        When you first turn on iCloud Photos, it can take a while to upload your photos to iCloud. You can continue to use Photos while your photos are being uploaded. To have iCloud Photos sync photos to all your devices, sign in to the same Apple Account to turn on iCloud Photos on all your devices. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/phtf5e48489c/mac https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/phtf5e48489c/ma...
    - coder543 10mo ago
      Yes, there is a button on Mac: https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-phtf5e48489c/mac#:~:text=one%2E-,Turn,in%20iCloud https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-pht... As long as you are signed into the Mac with the same iCloud account used on the iPhone, this will download them all. No, you do not need to get them all downloaded to the iPhone ever for any reason for this to work. Period. You need to stop repeating that, because it is wrong. How many people have to say the same thing? Yes, you will have to go into a hidden folder to access the Originals once they're downloaded if you want to copy them somewhere else, but it's like two clicks.
      - reconnecting 10mo ago
        I've been using Mac since Mac OS X 10.4 (~2005) and was under the same impression. However, in reality, when you use the same Apple account on both devices with the Photos app on macOS (yes, with the 'Download Originals' checkbox enabled), it only downloads photos that you upload from your phone. And if you look at the iCloud tab in the Photos app, it says 'Automatically _upload_ and store all your photos and videos in iCloud', so it works from Mac to iCloud, and doesn't help to download full iCloud library.
        coder543 10mo ago
        No, you are not correct. How many people have to tell you this? It absolutely works the way I said it does, because I have seen it work that way. Just because you accidentally turned off iCloud Photos in your Apple Account settings on that Mac (or some other similar issue) does not mean it does not work this way when properly signed in. If you want something to try, go to System Settings -> Apple Account -> Photos and see if "Sync this mac" is turned off. It needs to be on. There could be other ways that this feature is disabled, but that is one of them. Not seeing something work is not evidence that it does not work. You have not seen it work, but that is not proof it does not work. Seeing it work is evidence that it works. I have seen it work. Other people have seen it work that way, and their replies are all over this thread. Apple documents that it works this way. Yes, it will upload photos to iCloud if enabled, but it also downloads them.
    - lostlogin 10mo ago
      One of us is missing something. In Photos.app I clicked download originals. The photos are there on my Mac. It’s bit gross to get at them though - right click on app > show package contents. Are you wanting a way that doesn’t involve the photos app? You can do that from iCloud over a browser.
      - reconnecting 10mo ago
        If you open the Photos app (macOS) connected to iCloud with an empty library, there will be no photos until you import them from your phone. Hope this is clear now. iCloud via browser has a limit of 1k photos per download.
        deleted 10mo ago
        [deleted]
        lostlogin 10mo ago
        This is not correct. You don’t need an iPhone for Photos.app to work. There are plenty of problems with Photos.app but the issue you describe isn’t by design.
        reconnecting 10mo ago
        My bad — it appears that Monterey wasn't syncing with iCloud due to "Performance." Photos on Monterey hides the status message at the bottom of the page, and I had to pull the page down twice to finally see it. Thank you for proving me wrong.
        lostlogin 10mo ago
        Oh god. I’d forgotten about that tiny dialogue box. 98,281 items to sync. I hope it comes right quickly.
    - wookmaster 10mo ago
      Select all, Files > Export. It's simple to download iCloud Photos.
- Tempest1981 10mo ago
  From 2024: > Users of Google and Apple’s photo cloud services can now transfer images between them. It was already possible to export photos and videos from iCloud to Google Photos, but now it can also be done the other way around: from Google Photos to iCloud. https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/122196/google-and-apple-now-allow-transfer-between-their-photo-cloud-services/ https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/122196/google-and-... (2023 Data Transfer Initiative (DTI))
kccqzy 10mo ago
That’s not true. On any Mac or iPhone you can choose the iCloud Photo Library storage option to download all instead of letting the system optimize the storage. And if you turn off iCloud Photo Library, it will also try to download it all. I know this because I stopped using iCloud Photo Library and that was how I got all my photos downloaded.
- hu3 10mo ago
  that's good to know. can I then download the photos from iPhone to a backup hard-drive or transfer to a folder in my computer?
  - hackpelican 10mo ago
    Yes over USB 2.0 until recently.
- possiblerobot 10mo ago
  +1 to this method. After optimise storage is disabled on the Mac, wait for all photos to download. Then, open the photos library bundle and you'll see every photo there, full res. Copy them wherever you like. Also, if you leave optimise storage disabled and continue to use Photos, every photo will be cloned in any local or cloud backups of your machine. This strategy creates additional photo redundancy separate from iCloud while still benefiting from library syncing.
  - lostlogin 10mo ago
    This was my strategy too, but with a disgusting script which quit photos.app, rsync the photo library to a network share, then reopened photos.app so that it kept downloading from iCloud. Not sure if the open/close is required, but I didn’t want to find out.
    - lencastre 10mo ago
      I don’t fully trust iCloud Drive / Photos therefore I use FSViewer to download all photos from my iOS device du jour (making sure to keep the HEIF formats), this way I get the Edited (slo-mo, live, portrait, usw) and pristine versions as Jobs intended. All kidding aside, after the gray area gate of 2017-2021 I had to find a more reliable backup workflow. As of today I only use iCloud Drive / Photos to extract some RAW photos that for some reason some picky apps don’t save to the photo album (looking at you ProCam 8.0). I made several tests including hash comparisons and imagemagick diffs and I am quite pleased.
nemothekid 10mo ago
I think if you are on PC. But on Mac with the Photos App Cmd+A > File > Export Unmodified Originals
- reconnecting 10mo ago
  There is no straight way to download photos from iCloud to Mac.
  - wookmaster 10mo ago
    The comment you're replying to just gave one, I did it recently for 70k photos. select all > export. That's it. It just took 30 hours.
  - marscopter 10mo ago
    Photos > Settings > iCloud > Download Originals to this Mac.
reddalo 10mo ago
Technically, there is: users of the European Union can get a full export of all data that Apple has about them, including all the stored photos. It can be requested from here: https://privacy.apple.com/ https://privacy.apple.com/
- catskull 10mo ago
  I was able to request a photo dump as a non-EU customer using this link.
- ireadmevs 10mo ago
  How does the archive they provide look like? Many zip files? I would like to retrieve them and offload to another storage service but I don’t have local storage enough to hold all of it at the same time, unpack and then reupload. I would need to do it in stages.
  - lostlogin 10mo ago
    While that’s a pain for you, it’s also a pain if they have multiple files for those that have enough storage. Photo management is a bit of a nightmare as it’s an awful lot of small(ish) files.
  - Tempest1981 10mo ago
    Yes, many ZIP files. You can select the ZIP file sizes, from 1 to 25 GB, iirc. Although a few end up larger than 25 for some reason. And took 1-2 days for Apple to "prepare".
  - prawn 10mo ago
    You can request a chunk size and then it prepares them. I specified max chunk size and it took almost a week to give me a list of file downloads from 45-60GB each. 31 zip files to download.
- reconnecting 10mo ago
  It sounds really weird that instead of making a separate utility, or allowing you to download iCloud Photos in the native Photos application on Mac, Apple requires you to go through a legal procedure. I'm OK with clicking a button to download all photos to Mac, but there is no such button. Or maybe there was one previously, but it has now disappeared.
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]

cdrnsf 10mo ago

I'm not sure it's surprising. Apple doesn't want you to leave and making something as important as your photos difficult to move helps with that.

lostlogin 10mo ago
What’s missing? The files are there on the Mac, they are there to download on the cloud (various mentions of method mentioned here).
- reconnecting 10mo ago
  There is NO button on Mac to download photos from iCloud. You can only do this from your phone and then synchronise them to your Mac.
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    You can use the Photos app on your Mac and download originals
  - mr_toad 10mo ago
    There are two options in the file menu - you can export the originals, and there is an option to export them as .jpg.
    - reconnecting 10mo ago
      From iPhotos (Photos) app to hard drive. Subject is to download photos from iCloud.
      - lostlogin 10mo ago
        When you first turn on iCloud Photos, it can take a while to upload your photos to iCloud. You can continue to use Photos while your photos are being uploaded. To have iCloud Photos sync photos to all your devices, sign in to the same Apple Account to turn on iCloud Photos on all your devices. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/phtf5e48489c/mac https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/photos/phtf5e48489c/ma...
  - coder543 10mo ago
    Yes, there is a button on Mac: https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-phtf5e48489c/mac#:~:text=one%2E-,Turn,in%20iCloud https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-pht... As long as you are signed into the Mac with the same iCloud account used on the iPhone, this will download them all. No, you do not need to get them all downloaded to the iPhone ever for any reason for this to work. Period. You need to stop repeating that, because it is wrong. How many people have to say the same thing? Yes, you will have to go into a hidden folder to access the Originals once they're downloaded if you want to copy them somewhere else, but it's like two clicks.
    - reconnecting 10mo ago
      I've been using Mac since Mac OS X 10.4 (~2005) and was under the same impression. However, in reality, when you use the same Apple account on both devices with the Photos app on macOS (yes, with the 'Download Originals' checkbox enabled), it only downloads photos that you upload from your phone. And if you look at the iCloud tab in the Photos app, it says 'Automatically _upload_ and store all your photos and videos in iCloud', so it works from Mac to iCloud, and doesn't help to download full iCloud library.
      - coder543 10mo ago
        No, you are not correct. How many people have to tell you this? It absolutely works the way I said it does, because I have seen it work that way. Just because you accidentally turned off iCloud Photos in your Apple Account settings on that Mac (or some other similar issue) does not mean it does not work this way when properly signed in. If you want something to try, go to System Settings -> Apple Account -> Photos and see if "Sync this mac" is turned off. It needs to be on. There could be other ways that this feature is disabled, but that is one of them. Not seeing something work is not evidence that it does not work. You have not seen it work, but that is not proof it does not work. Seeing it work is evidence that it works. I have seen it work. Other people have seen it work that way, and their replies are all over this thread. Apple documents that it works this way. Yes, it will upload photos to iCloud if enabled, but it also downloads them.
  - lostlogin 10mo ago
    One of us is missing something. In Photos.app I clicked download originals. The photos are there on my Mac. It’s bit gross to get at them though - right click on app > show package contents. Are you wanting a way that doesn’t involve the photos app? You can do that from iCloud over a browser.
    - reconnecting 10mo ago
      If you open the Photos app (macOS) connected to iCloud with an empty library, there will be no photos until you import them from your phone. Hope this is clear now. iCloud via browser has a limit of 1k photos per download.
      - deleted 10mo ago
        [deleted]
      - lostlogin 10mo ago
        This is not correct. You don’t need an iPhone for Photos.app to work. There are plenty of problems with Photos.app but the issue you describe isn’t by design.
        reconnecting 10mo ago
        My bad — it appears that Monterey wasn't syncing with iCloud due to "Performance." Photos on Monterey hides the status message at the bottom of the page, and I had to pull the page down twice to finally see it. Thank you for proving me wrong.
        lostlogin 10mo ago
        Oh god. I’d forgotten about that tiny dialogue box. 98,281 items to sync. I hope it comes right quickly.
  - wookmaster 10mo ago
    Select all, Files > Export. It's simple to download iCloud Photos.
Tempest1981 10mo ago
From 2024: > Users of Google and Apple’s photo cloud services can now transfer images between them. It was already possible to export photos and videos from iCloud to Google Photos, but now it can also be done the other way around: from Google Photos to iCloud. https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/122196/google-and-apple-now-allow-transfer-between-their-photo-cloud-services/ https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/122196/google-and-... (2023 Data Transfer Initiative (DTI))

kccqzy 10mo ago

That’s not true. On any Mac or iPhone you can choose the iCloud Photo Library storage option to download all instead of letting the system optimize the storage. And if you turn off iCloud Photo Library, it will also try to download it all. I know this because I stopped using iCloud Photo Library and that was how I got all my photos downloaded.

hu3 10mo ago
that's good to know. can I then download the photos from iPhone to a backup hard-drive or transfer to a folder in my computer?
- hackpelican 10mo ago
  Yes over USB 2.0 until recently.
possiblerobot 10mo ago
+1 to this method. After optimise storage is disabled on the Mac, wait for all photos to download. Then, open the photos library bundle and you'll see every photo there, full res. Copy them wherever you like. Also, if you leave optimise storage disabled and continue to use Photos, every photo will be cloned in any local or cloud backups of your machine. This strategy creates additional photo redundancy separate from iCloud while still benefiting from library syncing.
- lostlogin 10mo ago
  This was my strategy too, but with a disgusting script which quit photos.app, rsync the photo library to a network share, then reopened photos.app so that it kept downloading from iCloud. Not sure if the open/close is required, but I didn’t want to find out.
  - lencastre 10mo ago
    I don’t fully trust iCloud Drive / Photos therefore I use FSViewer to download all photos from my iOS device du jour (making sure to keep the HEIF formats), this way I get the Edited (slo-mo, live, portrait, usw) and pristine versions as Jobs intended. All kidding aside, after the gray area gate of 2017-2021 I had to find a more reliable backup workflow. As of today I only use iCloud Drive / Photos to extract some RAW photos that for some reason some picky apps don’t save to the photo album (looking at you ProCam 8.0). I made several tests including hash comparisons and imagemagick diffs and I am quite pleased.

nemothekid 10mo ago

I think if you are on PC. But on Mac with the Photos App Cmd+A > File > Export Unmodified Originals

reconnecting 10mo ago
There is no straight way to download photos from iCloud to Mac.
- wookmaster 10mo ago
  The comment you're replying to just gave one, I did it recently for 70k photos. select all > export. That's it. It just took 30 hours.
- marscopter 10mo ago
  Photos > Settings > iCloud > Download Originals to this Mac.

reddalo 10mo ago

Technically, there is: users of the European Union can get a full export of all data that Apple has about them, including all the stored photos. It can be requested from here: https://privacy.apple.com/ https://privacy.apple.com/

catskull 10mo ago
I was able to request a photo dump as a non-EU customer using this link.
ireadmevs 10mo ago
How does the archive they provide look like? Many zip files? I would like to retrieve them and offload to another storage service but I don’t have local storage enough to hold all of it at the same time, unpack and then reupload. I would need to do it in stages.
- lostlogin 10mo ago
  While that’s a pain for you, it’s also a pain if they have multiple files for those that have enough storage. Photo management is a bit of a nightmare as it’s an awful lot of small(ish) files.
- Tempest1981 10mo ago
  Yes, many ZIP files. You can select the ZIP file sizes, from 1 to 25 GB, iirc. Although a few end up larger than 25 for some reason. And took 1-2 days for Apple to "prepare".
- prawn 10mo ago
  You can request a chunk size and then it prepares them. I specified max chunk size and it took almost a week to give me a list of file downloads from 45-60GB each. 31 zip files to download.
reconnecting 10mo ago
It sounds really weird that instead of making a separate utility, or allowing you to download iCloud Photos in the native Photos application on Mac, Apple requires you to go through a legal procedure. I'm OK with clicking a button to download all photos to Mac, but there is no such button. Or maybe there was one previously, but it has now disappeared.

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]