5 Ways To Download All Of Your iCloud Photos

macmost.com/e-2969 If you need to backup your Photos library but are using the Optimize option, it may seem impossible. But there are at least 5 ways to get all the photos from iCloud safely backed up to an external drive or other location.
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00:00 Intro
02:08 1. Download Originals and Copy Library
03:00 2. Export Unmodified Originals
05:02 3. Use a Second Library
07:11 4. Download From iCloud.com
08:03 5. Request a Copy Of Your Library From Apple
09:34 BONUS: Transfer To Google Photos
#macmost #mactutorial

[@ihatechoosename]

apple makes this so hard

[@allaboutferrets]

And they do it on purpose...

[@christinavakas]

Frustrating as hell

[@isa792]

Made me almost go insane a lot of times

[@sanjayprasad4897]

True

[@trevorwoodward3696]

Legit. Accumulated 50,000 photos and videos over years and years. Getting them out of there is a nightmare…not to mention preserving metadata.

[@user-ww1zl7rf8m]

I have been downloading pics a few hundred at a time! it takes forever! the request copy of your data is going to change my life, thank you!

[@jkerrin]

Gary, all of your videos are awesome. Thank you for this one. I especially like how you explained the advantages of each option.

[@cherylf2133]

Tremendously helpful video, and the timing is perfect for several projects I'm working on. Thanks, Gary.

[@loisskiathitis8926]

Excellent! A very useful and informative video tutorial today! I’m saving this one! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@AndrewDarlow]

Excellent overview! Another option that works well is to use a different Mac or Windows computer (if you or a family member has an extra one to use, possibly with an external drive attached) so that you don't have to jump through as many hoops, and you can keep it going without having to think about it.

[@MiguelTonetJr]

Still more than 15 years... the most helpful Mac/Apple guide.

[@kingfisch]

Excellent information! I've been looking for this information for a long time. Number 5 was completely unknown to me. I'm saving this video. Thanks!

[@Jimgoodwin846]

Very timely Gary. My new computer will be here next week. My new hard drive came yesterday and I was contemplating how I’m going to get all my info from my MacBook Air to go in my new one. Thanks again for a great video.

[@CSPatel90]

Glad I watched till the end of the video. I am merging my old photos library into an already existing iCloud library on a new Macbook I got. I am now downloading my (already existing) iCloud library to my local drive before attempting to load my old library to iCloud.

[@hattix73]

Amazingly comprehensive and easy to follow. This took so much legwork or guesswork out of what I need to do. I have 1.6 TB of photos and videos and I wonder which option would be the least painful or "fast".

[@morganj1997]

I also have 1.6TB--let me know if you have an answer by now! Thinking of downloading the entire Library as a backup (like option 3) and then deleting all the files I don't absolutely want to keep, hopefully down to just about 5000 files instead of 65000+

[@mauriciomeyer4615]

@@morganj1997 Any answer now? Privacy site download without metadata... bought an Mac just for this... sigh.

[@GowriShankerBellu]

The last 2 ways are very useful for non MAC users. Thank you so much.

[@GigioRmz]

Thanks for this video! I've been looking for a way to download and back up my photos, and your video has been super helpful.

[@jvolz283]

Another great video! Thank you for helping me become the Mac Specialist in my family!

[@Mrearthtravel]

The last method was the best!! Really great video. I spent so much time finding a way to move my huge photo library from icloud, but this video will likely solve my problem!! I will try it out. Thank you!!

[@sethlockard9802]

Killer vid. I always learn watching you explain!

[@mr.joonkwon]

This is the most helpful video I have seen in a while! THANK YOU!!

[@mosesandamendaflores9169]

Thank you for this video, you’re awesome!! I have way too many photos/videos to be downloading them in increments of a 1000.

[@carolinebarlow4795]

Thanks very much, Gary, for this incredibly helpful video! Our photos should be safe now.

[@georgee3401]

Very useful tutorial. Many thanks!

[@lauraaqui219]

i love your videos they are so helpful and useful, ever since i got a macbook, i started to follow your channel because ive never used a macbook before so i had to learn it all from your youtube channel thank god for that you really saved me so much hassel. thank you so much. Laura in uk

[@seansull]

You are amazing for this. Capturing all the nuance and details of apple’s software. You are the very definition of an expert!! Thanks so much

[@flocela]

What a timely video! Thanks!

[@StacyParrish1]

Literally AMAZING! So very helpful - Thank you!

[@anubhabpattanayak2957]

Kudos for your videos, that always makes any Mac user's life a lot easier! Many thanks!

[@anandcs-andy4228]

Thank you so much for your guidance.

[@allaboutferrets]

Serious Question: Hi Gary, appreciate the video. I've downloaded my library to my Mac, I've located the most space taking files from my Photos Library on my computer ("Show Package Content..."). Here's the question: Knowing the MacOS file name, how do I find these in my Photos App to permanently delete them?

[@ruechel]

Nicely done, sir! Best one is the last one. Apple makes it notoriously hard to do this because they don't want to lose their icloud business. As a photographer, it's super cumbersome to work with anything iCloud so I'd rather have copies of the originals on an external hard drive. Thanks again!

[@macmost]

If you simply have the "Optimize" option off then you have the best of both worlds: Everything in iCloud so you can see your photos on all devices, plus all photos (originals) on your local drive too.

[@harrycampbell2668]

Gary at last I have found a simple way to get originals on to an external drive Thank you,just one question after downloading my photo library to my external drive and returning to my Mac library how do I get new sets of photos and videos originals into my external photo library

[@geoffdunkak]

excellent video. my external drive withe my photos library crashed. great way to get my photos back on a new external drive

[@donbradman334]

Thank you so much! Extremely helpful!

[@nuwannilanka]

I was thinking about this. Very useful video.

[@paigeme886]

Thank you! With files/ documents, I simply dragged a files that contained documents and some photos from the iCloud region & into the home region of my Mac ( I mentioned that on another video). All documents and pics that were in those files will definitely have downloaded & be on my actual hard drive? I’m worried now lol! I also dragged a bunch of files directly from iCloud to an external drive and assumed they would be on the hard drive to now. But based on this, it sounds like they may not be?

[@sharonreder1249]

Enormously helpful. Thank you so much.

[@joygayanes6764]

Thanks for the info how about if you will just download limited photos and videos from iCloud becase your phone is running out of space

[@dharmateja623]

Excellent Explanation 👏.. Really Helpful

[@ladyru63]

Getting acquainted with my mac, this is perfect!

[@MowgliX]

Thanks man, I think you must be an angel. You have an amazing ability to explain things in the easiest way possible and in a way that actually works. How did you figure out all this? I am very impressed with that and grateful for this excellent guide! The problem I have is that if I do a complete reset of my Mac, a clean install and then restore the data from a current Time Machine backup, everything works smoothly. Except the Photos app. Photos will ignore the restored copy of the Photos Library package and will re-download absolutely everything, and since I have around 40,000 photos and 200 videos, that will take forever… All night. Why is it so dog slow? It’s not the 56k modem era any longer. I have a lightning fast fiber connection but iCloud sync is as slow as molasses.

[@kbstabs5982]

Really useful. Many thanks!

[@strallent]

Great tutorial…Thank you! I just maxed out the 2 terabytes, it’s time to move everything on an external hard drive.

[@macmost]

Maybe just move your videos? The way I handle it is pictures are in Photos, videos are kept as files elsewhere. That keeps the size of my Photos library way down.

[@user-gr6zp4nd9u]

Thank you so much! I'm so fed up with iCloud. I could not for the life of me figure out how to get my photos out. I'm looking forward to trying these steps

[@randallyons8745]

I will be coming back to this video. Thank you Gary

[@AiKai28]

Privacy data solution was very good. Thank you!

[@compassionatepeercounseling]

Awesome! Thank you Gary.

[@troyladoux1953]

Excellent. Very helpful.

[@adamgoulding5328]

Thanks for this, just a quick question. I have "Optimise Mac Storage" turned on. I would like to download all the photos orginals to iCloud. But I would like to know what size in term of GBs would be the additioanl download. My hard drive is a 2tb and is over half full allready. Is their anyway I can find the download size of turning off "Optimise Mac Storage".

[@TuriyaMoka]

hi! I had a question, for option 5, does it remember the created date of each of the photo? when I downloaded from iCloud directly all of the dates were changed to the date I downloaded the photos.

[@stuarthartley7428]

Excellent. Nice job Gary

[@skisunshine]

very helpful & well explained thanks

[@carlupthegrove262]

Excellent... thank you

[@sarahmacjones]

super helpful, thank you so much!

[@joshmoxey.]

Last option is so clutch. Thanks Gary

[@Answering123]

Good video and thanks a lot!

[@emperornugz89]

Thanks for the help! with the prices apple is charging for local storage i've been trying to find a way to get my icloud to sync to my eternal drive rather then the tiny ssd. Your tutorial hit it on the nose.

[@fabiokotinda]

Thanks!!!! Really helpful

[@natalieburns]

With the last option, can you download it directly to an external hard drive, without it being on your computer temporarily?

[@jackharper6746]

method 1 worked for me

[@liftstretchrepeat]

Bro thank you so much. I was ready to pull my hair out trying to do this but then #2 saved me. I couldn't do #1 for some reason because I don't have that "settings" button when I open photos. Weird, but #2 worked 👍so can't complain

[@harrycampbell2668]

Gary I’m using method 3 I have switched my system photo library but the beach ball is spinning what do I do please Harry

[@robertmarkusneiger6810]

excellent thanks

[@nickdrexler-art]

super helpful

[@desertpatient]

Thanks bunches

[@anderpalma]

tried the method 3, but my ssd was not ready to be used like that for a mac, so make sure you have prepared and formated your new instance beforehand, so you don't actually loose some photos.

[@dr.limouni]

Thanks Gary 👍

[@josephrainnie]

dude your the best !!!

[@roelkuiper9919]

Thank you for this in depth tutorial. I have a question though; I tried using the direct iCloud method, where you sign in and select the photos to download. I have an external drive I want to use on my Mac, but when I did a test photo and hit the download button, no choices come up for where to download to. It just downloaded it to my Mac straight away. I do not have enough space to store that many photos on my Mac. How do I enable using my external drive?

[@macmost]

Do you mean in the browser? It would go to your Downloads folder, but you can change that in Safari Settings.

[@H.O.M.I.]

Dude! You are awesome! Thank you!

[@Pythonzzz]

If you go with the last option to get your pictures through the privacy request, do you get the full resolution versions of everything? I think I’m going to try this route since I’m not in a rush and downloading in batches of 1000 is a hassle. I just want to make sure I won’t get compressed or lower quality images. Thanks!

[@rebeccahand6847]

would also love to know the answer to this!

[@LiannaLovelle]

You are a frickin genius

[@jgilly6511]

The BEST video I have found for downloading my 33,000+ photos to a backup drive! My question is, how do I redirect my photo library after I have completed this (I used the option to create a new photo library in the external hard drive) But I am not sure how to get the photo library back to the way it was on my mac. Thank you for help!!

[@macmost]

In Photos, Settings.

[@ihymns]

Excellent!

[@brettbjornson]

Thanks man

[@zchovan]

It’s like you’re reading my mind on topics I need to do!!! Do albums I create in my library sync with iCloud??? I want to make new albums and if I make a new blank library in the future and sync that one, I’m curious if it will remember my albums.

[@macmost]

Yes.

[@deniceferko-adams362]

Thank you for your video. I have the space to do the first option and in testing it on 10 photos, the exported photos are now in 5 different folders because they were taken on different dates. Did I do something wrong? Do any of the options avoid putting the photos into folders by dates?

[@macmost]

When you export you have the option to use folders or not.

[@janpravica5346]

Thanks for this. I have two of/on topic question. I had an Iphone 11 pro and recently got a 15 pro. Before it was not an issue but now when an iCloud syncs the photos to my comp my portrait photos on the computer show as normal photos. No blur behind. I think I managed to solve this by going to iCloud and click "More download options" and select "Unmodified originals". I don't like this because it is not automated in a way it was with the previous phone. Now comes the second question. What about the function where the phone recognises a person or a cat or a dog and makes a portrait option. How do I activate that and then download it accordingly?

[@macmost]

Not sure what you are doing here. You talk about iCloud sync and then switch to taking about exporting photos (Unmodified originals). Those are two different things. When you sync to your Mac it should look the same on your Mac as on your iPhone while in the Photos app. Maybe you are using a much older version of macOS as compared to iOS? So you don't have the portrait photos options on macOS? For instance, for the People function to see pets, you'd need macOS Sonoma on your Mac just as you'd need iOS 17 on your iPhone. That feature is new to those 2023 versions of the operating systems.

[@shadishay]

thank you so much for this extremely informative and helpful video. I did option 3 (new library on external hard drive) and it is currently downloading all my photos/videos. However my next step is where I am a bit confused on how to proceed. I would like to delete older photos/videos from my icloud to free up some space. What is the best way to do this? If i delete directly off the site, I will no longer be able to sync with this new library as it will then delete the same older photos/videos due to syncing. If I keep making new libraries, I'll be duplicating files over and over. What's your advice on clearing up space on icloud without affecting the new library backup/avoiding duplicates?

[@alumenyame8351]

how did you solve this? thanks

[@paulwoaert]

Hello. My situation is this : I only have one Apple ID and unique and I take photos and videos only with my iPhone. So if I disable the synchronization iCloud in my MacBook Air (256g) settings, iPhone photos and videos (synchronized in iCloud) will stop being exported to my Macbook? I did something a few months ago: I moved the photo library of my MacBook to my external 2T ssd (following the instructions in the video whose title is "How to Move Your Apple Photos Library to an External Drive»). Obviously, when I connect this external ssd to the MacBook, synchronization with the iPhone still takes place, except that these photos and videos are now in my external ssd and no longer in my Macbook, which therefore protects the storage space on the Mac's hard drive. The only drawback with this moving of the Photo Library of Macbook to external ssd is that when my external ssd is not connected to the Mac (which often happens because any device connected to a usb-c port -- active or not -- consumes the Macbook's battery), it deprives me of being able to watch or use these photos and videos. I have an important question: extracting videos and photos from the Photo Library to an external ssd(but WITHOUT the Photo Library) seems impossible. This explains why I chose to move the Photo Library itself. The other solution, I guess, would be to send by Air Drop the photos and videos of the iPhone to one of the folders of the Mac or the external ssd connected to the Mac (?). Last thing : you say that the photos and videos hosted by iCloud are not in the resolution or quality originally produced in the iPhone. So if I send, for example, by email, from my Macbook, a photo from its photo library (obtained by iCloud synchronization with the iPhone), it will not be the original optimal quality? But then how can we have the original resolution video in the Mac ?

[@macmost]

There's a lot to take in here. I won't be able to digest and answer it all, sorry. For your first question though, if you disable iCloud then yes, when you take a picture on your iPhone then your MacBook Air won't see those photos and you have told it not to look for them.

[@kakitchan6950]

I've tried the option 3 that creates a second library to duplicate iCloud photos. However, what wasn't mentioned in the video is that this option requires external drives with the filesystems of APFS or MacOS extended. My Mac is running Sonoma 14.1.2 and it seems like older MacOS was used in the video?

[@macmost]

This video was from "10 months ago" as you can see. So that was before Sonoma, yes.

[@kandymich4861]

So how do you do this on a windows or Linux

[@maelinterwee7938]

You are my hero!!!

[@littlestar830]

I have been trying to use the export method, however, I actually already have a backup folder set up on my hard drive from another time when I had backed up my library. I used to be able to view all the photos and videos on Finder without opening the Photos app and then selecting and dragging them to my external drive folder. The advantage of this was that when it found that the pictures were already in the folder, it would ask if I just wanted to skip or replace them so they wouldn't be duplicated. For some reason, I can't do that anymore and when I just try to select the Photos app and drag it to the external drive it just starts transferring and making copies of what I already have stored in there. How can I transfer and make sure there aren't any duplicates of what I already saved in previous backups?

[@macmost]

First, don't drag and drop as you get exports not the originals. Use the Export Unmodified Originals command I show in the video. Maybe that will work the way to want too (worth a try). Otherwise, I would just start a fresh new backup to make sure you have one copy of everything.

[@catnapper3923]

Spectacular!

[@Dagocart]

i had issues with exporting more than 400 photos some were missing

[@geralynkamahaocamarillo1818]

MAHALO soo much, Gary! Youʻre always spot on with your information! By any chance, would you have any information on why my iPhone photos are not syncing to my iCloud even though I have enough storage on both my phone and iCloud? THANK YOU again for creating ease in grace with all of your wisdom!

[@macmost]

Just check your iCloud Photos settings on both devices. Use iCloud.com to determine if the problem is the photos getting uploaded (they would be at iCloud.com if they are) or downloaded to the other Mac. If you can't see anything wrong in the settings, then call Apple Support so they can walk you through things.

[@preuton]

I just noticed that if you take a photo in 16:9 the iPhone (13) saves the photo in 4:3 format. But when i view the photo in the photo app it displays it in 16:9 format. However when i export unmodified the photo it saves it in 4:3 format. So the camera always takes the picture in 4:3 format even selecting 16:9. But shows it as 16:9. It just crops the 4:3 photo🙄

[@user-hs1jh9pp5x]

On a Mac, is the xxxx.photoslibrary package file size supposed to be similar to the icloud size used up? I've about 1TB of icloud used for photos but after I spent 3 days download the "originals", the xxxx.photoslibrary folder size is only about 5GB as reported by finder. Where exactly are the originals found? I'm sure I selected the "Download Originals to this Mac" and waited 3 days, but 5GB file size doesn't looks right. However, when checking the disc info of the 4TB drive, I did see about 1.1TB of disc space being "used". I've formatted this 4TB drive just for this purpose. Any comments will be appreciated - I just want to be sure I've indeed got all originals downloaded for sure ;)

[@macmost]

Hard to know what could be wrong there, sorry. But I wouldn't worry about the size. Just look and see what's inside.

[@zrohit]

Is there a way for two people in family share the library? Thanks

[@macmost]

Yes. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqG7laqgeN1mjac

[@MarkHolmes]

Great video gary! On that very last part of transferring to Google, does it really transfer full resolution to Google or slightly compressed versions, as I believe Google charges for full resolution.

[@macmost]

It should be the full resolution photos. Anything less wouldn't make sense. Not sure how Google charges for things or how it could know if they are full resolution or not (compared to the original).

[@darcia9316]

How can we keep switching our Systems Library between our internal and external drive? How does that work? Bc it also says it deletes the photos that are stored in the Mac if we with to the external drive as our System Library?

[@macmost]

You don't. You have ONE system library for Photos and that is the one that syncs with iCloud. It doesn't make any sense to change its location. Tell me what you are trying to accomplish and maybe I can point you in the right direction...

[@GrumpyOB1]

Do you always get the original file as when I’ve taken RAW photos, I can only obtain a JPEG as a copy rather than the original RAW image.

[@macmost]

If you export Unmodified Original you get the original.

[@AgWhatsUp]

Do these methods preserve metadata for the photos and videos? Such as device taken on, date taken, Live Photos, portrait photos and so on?

[@macmost]

Metadata, yes. Test it and see (you can view metadata in the Preview app for instance). Not sure about Live Photos though or portrait layers though. Those can't be easily represented in normal formats. HEIC works. Test the method you want to use on some to see. Of course any method that keeps it in a Photos library would keep everything.

[@shtthemnky]

God bless you.

[@michaelhaggerty1790]

Gary, any idea which of these methods (if any) preserves the create date? When I download pics/videos off of iCloud the create date is the download date, not the date the pic/video was taken.

[@macmost]

Don't confuse the FILE creation date with the metadata creation date of the photo inside the file. If you open the file in Preview, you get look at the EXIF info and see the metadata date. Importing it into an app like Photos again will use that metadata as well.

[@michaelhaggerty1790]

Yes, I understand that difference. I want to file create date to match the metadata create date as this makes it much easier to sort and review photos in Finder. When you take them directly from your phone they maintain this correlation. Do you know if there is a way to get them off of iCloud while maintaining file create date matching the metadata create date?@@macmost

[@stephensmith8474]

Great information. Tried the last item getting info from privacy apple site. I choose 25gb file size and eventually two zip files where created and made available. Problem is in downloading them. I have fiber internet and it is solid but when I start downloading the first file it eventually dies after several gigs have been downloaded. I almost suspect it fails on Apple's side. I am sure we all stream many gigs of data watching TV and I have downloaded 100 gb games from steam and never have a problem. Anyone have any thoughts or tips?

[@macmost]

I tested this out myself and had no issues downloading. Maybe your ISP selectively throttles? Streaming is always treated differently than downloading (otherwise Netflix, etc, wouldn't work at all for anyone). I also think Steam does some package-like system for downloads too. Steam may even pay ISPs for better downloading bandwidth (not sure, but I know some services certainly DO).

[@Markus-fk7by]

@macmostvideo I used the fifth option via the data privacy option. Now I have many photos that can not be sorted by date anymore. They could beforehand in iCloud Photos, but now I have a lot of pictures with cryptic names and rarely date information. How can I get them via the privacy option with adequate metadata? Or is there a way to sort them still? I have a lot of photos.. I appreciate your help. Thank you

[@macmost]

How are you trying to sort them? Keep in mind metadata is inside the files and is different than the file info like the file date. An image file can have a created date that is right now, but the metadata inside the file would hold the date and time the photo was taken.

[@TroyM89]

Trying to download chunks at a time to my windows. Unfortunately it zips them and denies access

[@Nora-tp7dp]

❤thank you!!!!

[@abchappell01]

That was a wonderful video presentation. Thank you so much.😊 Is it possible to download my photos from iCloud onto my windows PC?

[@macmost]

A few of these would work for that on a PC. Using the iCloud app for Windows would probably be an option too.

[@taloire43]

Many thanks Gary. That is very useful but, if I understand you correctly, the internal library is also stored on iCloud. If that it right, can I safely use iCloud as my photo back up?

[@macmost]

iCloud provides some safety as if you lose your Mac or it is destroyed, then you still have your photos in iCloud. But it doesn't protect you from things like you accidentally deleting some photos. So most people want a real backup other than just having your photos in two places. For the general concept: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r36QmZWjpbmZnas

[@shakilmirza4368]

Is there a way from this downloads where you don't lose the date (day and time) of the original photos taken when downloading to the computer?

[@macmost]

In all of them you should still have the original date. But remember that is "metadata" INSIDE the file. You see it in the Photos app or if you look at the metadata inside an app like Preview. Don't confuse that with the FILE DATE which is the creation or modified date of the file, not the photo inside it.

[@estherkwok6492]

Hey Gary, if I just want to download one or two specified videos from icloud, what way I should use to do it? great Thanks

[@macmost]

So from your iCloud Photos library? Just view them in your Photos app. If you want to export them, export from there.

[@estherkwok6492]

@@macmost Great great Thanks!!!