HT204264: iCloud Photo Library

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Cledson

Q: save copies of my photos on my computer

I have been trying to secure the originals of my photos but Apple's tutorials are trash and don't help. Please, anyone????

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 19, 2016 11:26 AM

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Q: save copies of my photos on my computer

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  • by léonie,Apple recommended

    léonie léonie Apr 19, 2016 12:30 PM in response to Cledson
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    Apr 19, 2016 12:30 PM in response to Cledson

    Where re the photos on your iPhone?  Are you using iCloud Photo Library not?

    And what kind of computer do you have? A Mac? A Windows system?

     

    • If you are not using iCloud Photo Library, you can simply connect your iPhone to your computer by USB,. Then download your videos and photos just like from a connected camera.
    • if you are using iCloud Photo Library, it will depend on your settings on your iPhone, what to do. 
      • If you are using "Optimize Storage" on your iPhone, download your photos directly from iCloud, because the photos are not necessarily on your iPhone.  Open the page www.icloud.com and sign in with your AppleID. Then open the Photos.app on that page and download all photos and videos to your computer.
      • If you are not using "Optimize Storage", your photos are in your Camera Roll and you can download them using a USB connection.

    So, how are you storing the photos on your iPhone?

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover May 26, 2016 1:53 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    May 26, 2016 1:53 PM in response to léonie

    Hey there Leonie. I have this same question. I can find answers to backup to a MAC but not to a PC. If I find answers to backup to PC, they are not clear and cause me even greater confusion. I have an iPhone 6 Plus 64GB with 8.4.1 (12H321). I have not upgraded to the latest version 9.3.2 because I'm afraid to. I've heard so many bad things about it, I'm just leaving mine as it is.

    My question is similar to Cledson's. How do to backup my originals in iCloud Photo Library to my PC safely without losing them? I had iCloud Backup originally but then because I read several articles about how great the iCloud Photo Library is, I switched it to that. Currently I have iCloud Photo Library enabled with Optimize iPhone Storage checked and Upload to My Photo Stream enabled also. II also have Backup enabled, but I know it doesn't backup the photos because I have iCloud Photo Library enable. I only have one device, my IPhone 6 Plus with iCloud Photo Library on it. I have nothing on my laptop is a HP Pavilion dv7t with Windows 7 64 bit.

    When I had iCloud Backup I just downloaded them to my PC using a USB connection. I probably needed to just keep that instead of changing it to iCloud Photo Library with Optimize iPhone Storage, but I wanted to try to save space on my Phone and I also like the fact that any edits I did in my phone were retained in iCloud Photo Library. On my iPhone my photos app shows 7,438 photos, but when I look under Manage Storage iCloud Photo Library shows only 7382 photos and 56 videos stored in iCloud with 34.4GB, Backups on iPhone, this iPhone with 2.4GB, Documents and Data with 1.7KB and Mail with 56.3MB.

    What I want to know is: #1: How to I get my ICloud Photo Library originals backed up on my Laptop? I saw the instructions you gave to Cledson:

    • "If you are using "Optimize Storage" on your iPhone, download your photos directly from iCloud, because the photos are not necessarily on your iPhone.  Open the page www.icloud.com and sign in with your AppleID. Then open the Photos.app on that page and download all photos and videos to your computer."
    • My question is if I used this method,how exactly to I get them downloaded to my PC? Is there some kind of download button? Also, once they are downloaded to my PC, do they disappear from iCloud Photo Library and my iPhone? Will the iCloud Photo Library overwrite anything that I had prevously backed up using the USB connection? (Even though I have iCloud Photo Library and Photo Stream enabled, I am still currently using the USB connection to get my IPhone pictures from my device to my PC which I last did yesterday because I wasn't clear on your method)

    #2: Once I get them downloaded, if I delete any photos on my iPhone with iCloud Photo Library, does this mean they will also be deleted on my PC or vice versa? If I lost my phone and had to erase it, would all the photos on my IPhone be deleted in the phone as well as in iCloud Photo Library; therefore losing all my precious pictures?

    #3: Do you think I should just go back to iCloud Backup and backup my pictures using the USB connection as I have been? How would I go about this safely?

    Sorry to be so wordy, but I really need help. I spent all day yesterday reading various support articles from Apple and other Web Sites and got more and more confused. Thank you for any help you can give me.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 26, 2016 2:30 PM in response to unicorn lover
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    May 26, 2016 2:30 PM in response to unicorn lover

    It is easier to backup your iCloud Photo Library if you have a Mac.  Then you can simply sync the Photos Library on the Mac with iCloud and copy the synced library to a backup drive or use Time Machine.

    your PC does not have the Photos.app installed, so you have basically the web interface at www.icloud.com.

    When you open your web page there and sign in with your appleID, launch the Photos.app.

     

    Then open the "All Photos " album.  Click "Select" and select all photos or a large subset of photos.  Then use the download button.

     

    That will download copies of the photos to a folder on your PC.  The photos will remain in iCloud and on the iPhone.

    #2: Once I get them downloaded, if I delete any photos on my iPhone with iCloud Photo Library, does this mean they will also be deleted on my PC or vice versa?

    No, downloading from www.icloud.com will just create copies on your PC. If you later delete photos from the iPhone and iCloud, the photos on your PC will stay. I would make an additional backup copy on an external drive, so you will always have two copies of your photos on different devices.

     

    #3: Do you think I should just go back to iCloud Backup and backup my pictures using the USB connection as I have been? How would I go about this safely?

    That is up to you. iCloud Photo Library is basically a syncing service.  It is great to keep the photo libraries identical on an iPhone, iPad, a Mac.   If you are using it only on your iPhone, the only advantage would be that "Optimize" storage will allow you to keep more photos on the iPhone then would fit on the iPhone. But you need always internet to be able to browse and edit the photos.

     

    If you do not need the syncing with other devices, it is more convenient to keep only a selection of your most important photos o the iPhone, without iCloud Photo Library and sync the iPhone using USB and iTunes.

     

    Before you disable  iCloud Photo Library download the Photos to a PC and make a backup.

    Then delete enough photos to make it possible to disable "Optimize Storage" on the iPhone. Wait for allphotos to download to the iPhone.

     

    Once all photos are back on the iPhone disable iCloud Photo Library, if you want.

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover May 26, 2016 9:30 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    May 26, 2016 9:30 PM in response to léonie

    Thank you so much, Leonie! You have helped me tremendously! One more question: do I also need to disable Photo Stream when I disable the iCloud Photo Library? Also, I have never used iTunes before. Each time an update is available, it takes forever for it to load and right near the end, it always fails so I've never used it. I always use Auto Play in Windows 7 with the USB connector. Is there a way to do the backup on the PC and also have one on iTunes as well? If so, could you let me know how I would go about doing that? Thank you again for all your help.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 27, 2016 1:39 AM in response to unicorn lover
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    May 27, 2016 1:39 AM in response to unicorn lover
    Thank you so much, Leonie! You have helped me tremendously! One more question: do I also need to disable Photo Stream when I disable the iCloud Photo Library?

    You can use My Photo Steam to stream new Photos to your PC. That is independent of the iCloud Photo Library preferences.

     

    Please ask the second part of your question in the iTunes forum - our experts there will be better able to help with that: 

    https://discussions.apple.com/community/itunes/itunes_for_windows

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover May 27, 2016 6:22 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    May 27, 2016 6:22 PM in response to léonie

    Hey Leonie! Again, thank you so much for you prompt replies and concise answers. You have helped immensely! I'll check with itunes for my other question. May God bless you always!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 27, 2016 6:25 PM in response to unicorn lover
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    May 27, 2016 6:25 PM in response to unicorn lover

    You're welcome

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover May 28, 2016 4:03 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    May 28, 2016 4:03 PM in response to léonie

    Hey Leonie! Again, thank you so much for you prompt replies and concise answers. You have helped immensely! I'll check with itunes for my other question. May God bless you always!

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover May 28, 2016 4:11 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    May 28, 2016 4:11 PM in response to léonie

    Hey Leonie! You're going to kill me. I attempted to download all the pictures in my All Photos Album today but once I clicked on all Photos and they all displayed, there were pictures missing. However,if I go to Moments, they all appear by date. Also, after opened the all photos album and all the pictures displayed, there was no select button. When I go to Moments, all my photos are there, displayed in consecutive order by date. If I hover over the empty top right hand side of one of the moments, Select will appear (I guess it was hidden). I can click on select and it checks all the pictures for that particular date. Is this the only way I can select all my photos to download them. It'll take me forever to select each group by the date. I thought there might be an easier way. If I click on Albums, no Select comes up either. Sorry to bother you again. I'm so frustrated at this point.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 29, 2016 10:35 AM in response to unicorn lover
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    May 29, 2016 10:35 AM in response to unicorn lover
    I attempted to download all the pictures in my All Photos Album today but once I clicked on all Photos and they all displayed, there were pictures missing.

    How did you check, if Photos were missing?  The "All Photos" album is sorted by the date of the Import, not by the capture date.

    I am seeing all photos in this album, but in an unexpected order.  And this album takes a long time to load.

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover May 29, 2016 9:24 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    May 29, 2016 9:24 PM in response to léonie

    Hey Leonie: The reason I thought pictures were missing was because they were in a really weird order. I had tried to compare the pictures in the iCloud Photo Library by Moments which were ordered by the date. I was comparing the dated moments photos to the All Photos Album on my iPhone trying to locate them. Because they were not in any kind of chronological order on the iPhone, as I scrolled through them, I must have missed some of them. I had an iPhone 5 and all the photos in the Camera Roll on that phone were all in the correct order. However, when I got my iPhone 6 Plus last July and the Verizon customer service rep. set it up, all the pictures were all scrambled after she transferred everything to the new phone.

    As long as I'm able to get all my photos downloaded to my PC, I guess I'll have to live with them all being out of order. I guess that's just the way they're going to be. I know you explained about how to get all of the photos in the All Photos Album from iCloud to my PC, but as I said earlier, when I click on the Photos app in iCloud and select all photos I didn't see any way to specify "all photos" to download them. There is "Select Photos" next to the word Upload on the right hand side above the pictures, but I didn't know how to select them all. Do I need to select each one individually to download them from the All Photos album? The only other way I could see was to click on Moments and then Select each group of pictures by the date, which will take a while. If that's the only way I can do it, then I'll do it that way. I just thought maybe there was some quicker way to select them all from the All Photos album in iCloud. Perhaps if there is a way to select them all at one time, I thought maybe you could let me know about that. I know there are a lot of photos and I figured it will probably take days to get them all on my PC, but if I can just get them on there I don't mind. Thanks again for any assistance you can give me.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie May 29, 2016 9:38 PM in response to unicorn lover
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    May 29, 2016 9:38 PM in response to unicorn lover
    There is "Select Photos" next to the word Upload on the right hand side above the pictures,
    • Click "Select Photos".
    • Click the first photo in the album.
    • Hold down the Shift key and scroll down.
    • Click the last photo in the album while still holding down the Shift key. All photos will be selected. (I tested in Safari and Firefox)

     

    To scroll quickly it helps to have the scroll bars enabled to show alway in the System Preferences > general.I have the scroll bars set to jump to the spot that is clicked.

  • by unicorn lover,

    unicorn lover unicorn lover Jun 1, 2016 2:35 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iOS Apps
    Jun 1, 2016 2:35 AM in response to léonie

    Hello again Leonie...

    I'm still having trouble trying to get my photos to download. I sign into iCloud online, click on Photos, then click on Albums, All Photos and double click the All Photos album to open it. Everything fine at this point. I checked to be sure I could scroll through the pictures before attempting to select them using your instructions. There was a hidden scroll icon on the right hand side that I could use to scroll through the pictures, or it will also scroll with the wheel on my mouse. However, when I went to Select Photos, I clicked on the first one, held down the Shift key, then proceeded to try to scroll through the pictures. My scroll wheel wouldn't scroll and I couldn't get the hidden scroll icon to come up on the right hand side of my screen, so I wasn't able to select anymore than just the first picture, which I then unselected. I'm using Google, which was just updated to Version 51.0.2704.63 m yesterday. I use a HP dv7 Pavilion laptop with Windows 7, 64 bit and I couldn't locate a Systems Preference-General in my Control Panel options in System and Security or in my Network and Internet category options. I did a search for Systems Preference and nothing came up in the search. I did click on the desktop to see if there was any settings there to always show the scroll bar but the only thing I could do there was adjust the number of lines the wheel could scroll at a time.

    I decided to try to use Firefox, version 43 (it wouldn't update to the newest version 46). I was able to open the My Photos album, select the first picture then scroll all the way through to highlight them all with no problem. However, when I hit "download" i received a message that 7440 photos would be downloaded, but when I tried to specify My pictures folder to save them in, instead it went to HP downloads automatically and immediately began downloading the photos before I could select the folder I wanted to save them in. Each image was being individually downloaded with a new window populated with a new folder for each image in the download folder! I sure didn't want 7440 separate pictures in separate folders in my master download folder! They were being downloaded so quickly I wasn't able to hit cancel on each one before another one was downloading. I was in a panic at this point and I was frantically hitting cancel on each window that came up and was finally able to get back to the first window where the download originally began and I think it stopped downloading. I didn't know how to cancel the download in iCloud or how to check to see if it was actually still downloading to a folder somewhere, so I just signed out of iCloud. I received a message that I might lose anything that wasn't saved (that petrified me) but I signed out anyway. I did log back in to iCloud and it appears as if my photos are all still there. So at this point, I'm not using Firefox again and go through that fiasco! When I went to just check on one of the photos that did download, there was no image and no file name, just a blank image of a piece of paper with DCB6.tmp, dCB7.tmp and so on. I'm so sorry that trying to follow your simple instructions turned into such a disaster. At this point, I just don't know what to do. I guess I'm at a standstill and it doesn't look like I'll be able to download my photos after all. I feel as if I'm such a dunce. It should be such a simple thing to get these photos saved on my PC! If you have any other suggestions I sure would welcome them!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jun 1, 2016 2:53 AM in response to unicorn lover
    Level 10 (105,731 points)
    iLife
    Jun 1, 2016 2:53 AM in response to unicorn lover

    I can only test on Mac, sorry.

    I'll try to find one of our PC users to check this out.

    Which browser are you using?

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