5 ms·

+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 pho

+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 9mo 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 9mo 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.
mbirth 9mo ago
Or use the great osxphotos tool that works with Apple Photo’s SQLite database to let you manage all the photos in your library. https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos
- Barbing 9mo ago
  Demo .gif sold me (Been meaning to make a software demo gif gallery, best way to understand many categories of apps)
reconnecting 9mo ago
Someone gave me a new iPhone (120GB) and a new MacBook Pro and asked me to download all their photos from iCloud. Long story short, after 120GB of photos were synchronised to the iPhone, the MacBook Pro refused to copy them, and now there's no storage left on the iPhone. Also, Photos on Mac doesn't have an option to download photos directly, so the only valid option Apple offers is to download them through the web interface (max 1,000 at a time). There is no official way to download iCloud library that is over phone capacity. Period.
- fizwidget 9mo ago
  That doesn’t sound right. My photo library is larger than my iPhone’s storage yet downloads fine on my Mac. Just need to make sure “optimise storage” is enabled on the iPhone and disabled on the Mac. Once everything’s downloaded on the Mac, you can either export through the Apple Photos menu or just copy the “originals” directly from the Photos bundle.
  - fakedang 9mo ago
    And people say Linux is hard to work with....
  - reconnecting 9mo ago
    This works because you had synchronised your iPhone with your Mac previously. If you start with an empty Photos library and phone, it is impossible to put all the photos on the phone and thus transfer them to your Mac.
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
    - fizwidget 9mo ago
      No, I’ve downloaded the entire library to a new Mac. It worked fine.
      - 9mo ago
nottorp 9mo ago
I once exported my photos out of the iwhatever library. They weren't in the cloud, Apple hadn't managed to trick me into turning that on. What I remember is that I opened the library in finder and in mc, got scared by the readable-only-by-machine directory structure and used a 3rd party tool to export them to date labeled directories.

lostlogin 9mo 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 9mo 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.

mbirth 9mo ago

Or use the great osxphotos tool that works with Apple Photo’s SQLite database to let you manage all the photos in your library. https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos https://github.com/RhetTbull/osxphotos

Barbing 9mo ago
Demo .gif sold me (Been meaning to make a software demo gif gallery, best way to understand many categories of apps)

reconnecting 9mo ago

Someone gave me a new iPhone (120GB) and a new MacBook Pro and asked me to download all their photos from iCloud. Long story short, after 120GB of photos were synchronised to the iPhone, the MacBook Pro refused to copy them, and now there's no storage left on the iPhone. Also, Photos on Mac doesn't have an option to download photos directly, so the only valid option Apple offers is to download them through the web interface (max 1,000 at a time). There is no official way to download iCloud library that is over phone capacity. Period.

fizwidget 9mo ago
That doesn’t sound right. My photo library is larger than my iPhone’s storage yet downloads fine on my Mac. Just need to make sure “optimise storage” is enabled on the iPhone and disabled on the Mac. Once everything’s downloaded on the Mac, you can either export through the Apple Photos menu or just copy the “originals” directly from the Photos bundle.
- fakedang 9mo ago
  And people say Linux is hard to work with....
- reconnecting 9mo ago
  This works because you had synchronised your iPhone with your Mac previously. If you start with an empty Photos library and phone, it is impossible to put all the photos on the phone and thus transfer them to your Mac.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - fizwidget 9mo ago
    No, I’ve downloaded the entire library to a new Mac. It worked fine.
    - 9mo ago

nottorp 9mo ago

I once exported my photos out of the iwhatever library. They weren't in the cloud, Apple hadn't managed to trick me into turning that on. What I remember is that I opened the library in finder and in mc, got scared by the readable-only-by-machine directory structure and used a 3rd party tool to export them to date labeled directories.