5 Ways To Download All Of Your iCloud Photos
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- 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 
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apple makes this so hard
And they do it on purpose...
Frustrating as hell
Made me almost go insane a lot of times
True
Legit. Accumulated 50,000 photos and videos over years and years. Getting them out of there is a nightmare…not to mention preserving metadata.
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".
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!
Gary, all of your videos are awesome. Thank you for this one. I especially like how you explained the advantages of each option.
Tremendously helpful video, and the timing is perfect for several projects I'm working on. Thanks, Gary.
Still more than 15 years... the most helpful Mac/Apple guide.
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.
Excellent! A very useful and informative video tutorial today! I’m saving this one! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️
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.
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!
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.
This is the most helpful video I have seen in a while! THANK YOU!!
Another great video! Thank you for helping me become the Mac Specialist in my family!
Killer vid. I always learn watching you explain!
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.
Thank you for this video, you’re awesome!! I have way too many photos/videos to be downloading them in increments of a 1000.
The last 2 ways are very useful for non MAC users. Thank you so much.
Very useful tutorial. Many thanks!
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
Thanks very much, Gary, for this incredibly helpful video! Our photos should be safe now.
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!!
What a timely video! Thanks!
Literally AMAZING! So very helpful - Thank you!
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?
Kudos for your videos, that always makes any Mac user's life a lot easier! Many thanks!
I was thinking about this. Very useful video.
Enormously helpful. Thank you so much.
excellent video. my external drive withe my photos library crashed. great way to get my photos back on a new external drive
Thank you so much! Extremely helpful!
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.
Getting acquainted with my mac, this is perfect!
Excellent Explanation 👏.. Really Helpful
Really useful. Many thanks!
super helpful, thank you so much!
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
I will be coming back to this video. Thank you Gary
Excellent. Nice job Gary
Excellent. Very helpful.
Awesome! Thank you Gary.
Thanks!!!! Really helpful
Good video and thanks a lot!
very helpful & well explained thanks
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
Great tutorial…Thank you! I just maxed out the 2 terabytes, it’s time to move everything on an external hard drive.
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.
Dude! You are awesome! Thank you!
dude your the best !!!
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!
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.
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
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?
Privacy data solution was very good. Thank you!
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
Excellent!
Excellent... thank you
super helpful
You are a frickin genius
You are my hero!!!
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.
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
Spectacular!
Thanks Gary 👍
Thanks man
Thanks bunches
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!!
In Photos, Settings.
excellent thanks
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.
❤thank you!!!!
Nice present 🙏💕
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".
method 1 worked for me
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.
Yes.
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?
how did you solve this? thanks
Is there a way for two people in family share the library? Thanks
Yes. ruclips.net/video/HpXdwjCx3WE/видео.html
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!
would also love to know the answer to this!
Thank you for the last method. I have over 20000 photos and downloading 1000 at time doesn't seem like much fun to me.
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!
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.
Awesome.
With the last option, can you download it directly to an external hard drive, without it being on your computer temporarily?
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?
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.
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🙄
God bless you.
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?
Do you mean in the browser? It would go to your Downloads folder, but you can change that in Safari Settings.
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.
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).
Hi! Thank you so much for these awesome videos! I have a question for you. I am having a hard time getting iCloud Photos from my phone onto my MacBook. When I download them from iCloud the HEIC or Live Photos format is not downloading. It is being converted to 2 files with the same name- a JPGS and a .mov. I tried all of the advanced downloading options from highest quality to original format to just clicking the regular download and my results are always the same- the Live Photos break down into 2 files with the same name but one is a still image and the other a .mov. Do you know by chance why the original HEIC format isn’t downloading? Also curious what you think a good alternative to the PHOTOS app is?
Yes, that's right. If you want them as "Live Photos" then just use iCloud Photos as normal. Is there a reason you aren't doing that since it seems to be what you want.
What do you mean by as normal? Is there a way to email you? Basically I am wanting to get the “Live Photos” to download to my desktop in their normal format, but they are converting to jpg / movs with all the download and advanced download options, I am on a MacBook I know this is an issue with PCs can’t figure out why it’s happening on a MacBook
@@wildernessofwaves I mean just turn on iCloud Photos and view the same photos on your iPhone and Mac. Then you'll see your Live Photos in the Photos app and not have to download them. At least that's what I got from your initial comment. But if you are already doing that, and just want to export your photos from your Mac Photos app to files, then there's no way to do that with Live Photos. You get the two files. Live Photos requires an app like the Photos app to be able to handle them, so an export splits them up.
That was a wonderful video presentation. Thank you so much.😊
Is it possible to download my photos from iCloud onto my windows PC?
A few of these would work for that on a PC. Using the iCloud app for Windows would probably be an option too.
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.
Given my Mac mini has only 256Gb of internal storage, my photo library (700Gb+) is sitting on an external 1TB SSD and I'm also backing it up through Time Machine on a separate external 2TB SSD. This way, I always have 3 copies of my photo library, including iCloud and it works well.
Next time, go with a much bigger Time Machine drive. SSD gives you speed, but you don't need speed for a backup. You need size. Go with a 12TB (or thereabouts) HDD instead.
@@macmost Thanks for your advice, this is appreciated. Keep up your good work, I'm a big fan of your channel!
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
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?
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).
Thank you for this video I was in the middle of downloaded 1,000 at a time from icloud.... no biggie it would just take me about 90 trips to get them all downloaded. I don't know why... however the apple guy that we first got our iphones with put my whole family on one account which has messed up everything for years. I finally had had enough, can't wait to finally be free and on my own account lol!
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 ?
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.
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?
This video was from "10 months ago" as you can see. So that was before Sonoma, yes.
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?
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: ruclips.net/video/yM-hbmpTfgI/видео.html
Thanks so much Gary. This has been mega helpful today. I wish i'd seen it sooner. Would you know if there is free software that would check for duplicate photos on my external hard drive? - The time and effort you put into all your videos is greatly appreciated. I'm always checking for new ones.
Do you mean in a Photos library on your external, or as just files sitting in folders?
Ah, just in folders sitting in files.
@@KimMunday No good way to do that. You just have to look through what you've got and clean things up manually. Organize the files while you are at it.
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?
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.
@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
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.
These are great tips and I appreciate the video and your dedication! I've been trying to figure out the best solution for quite some time and keep putting it off because it's just such a pain in the butt. I'm at a point that I'd love to clear our phone storage of old photos without buying more icloud space. I've tried downloading them through the method where you request the photos data download link from apple, but the issue I encountered with that method, is that the metadata doesn't seem to follow the downloads... is there a solution to that?
There's no options with that method, so I would suggest using some of the others.
I need this video right now. Plenty storage on my Mac . I don't want to pay Apple £££ months after month after month until ... ?? forever?? I was thinking of using Apple "help" but not so sure about that one. So thanks a lot brilliant Apple Mac tutor Gary! Hopefully it's not too hard. .
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.
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.
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
Good video! Wondering if there is a way to setup Apple Cloud to be able to see selected photos to all your devices? My issue is I have have one Photos Library with over 40.000 pictures I have enough space on both devices. I want to keep all 40,000 on my mac Laptop, I just don't want to see all of them on my Iphone. Is there a way fix this issue?
You can't pick and choose which ones you "see" but you can accomplish your goal of saving space. Just turn on the "Optimize" feature. This is exactly what it does. See support.apple.com/guide/photos/optimize-storage-in-photos-on-mac-phta9b4673b4
Do these methods preserve metadata for the photos and videos? Such as device taken on, date taken, Live Photos, portrait photos and so on?
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.
Great video. One. question - when you copy the photos library file (the container of all your photos and videos) to an external drive, how can you access the images/videos inside of that container?
Thanks
In the Photos app like before. Don't try to access them directly in the Finder.
@@macmost thanks. I've decided to use the method of downloading originals to the Mac then the CMD-A (copy all) and have exported them to my NAS.
I used to do that with the iPhone connected to a Windows PC and accessed the photos folder via Windows Explorer. But this method that you've shown us doing it from the Mac is much quicker (and easier to do).
Thanks again for the videos. It's appreciated.