iCloud windows don't have option for "download photos"

I have resolved the same issue today with the help of Apple Support, and it's really straight forward:

1. Delete the iCloud app downloaded from the Microsoft Store
2. Download and install the one from Apple on this link - download iCloud for Windows on Apple's website

THAT'S IT!

The one on the Microsoft store does not give you the options, but the one from Apple does.

Hey rubyvoo,

Thanks for posting about downloading your iCloud Photos content to your PC. I'd be glad to help you en sure that you have that content safely stored on your PC prior to emptying out your iCloud Photos.

You're already on the right track by having iCloud for Windows downloaded and configured. Take a quick look at the "Download your photos and videos from iCloud Photos" section of Set up and use iCloud Photos on your Windows PC for info on how to make sure those items are downloaded to your PC.

That should get you taken care of. If a question comes up, be sure to post it.

Be well!

Hey rubyvoo,

Check out the "Download photos and videos to your PC" section of Upload and download photos in iCloud for Windows for a bit more insight on how you can download the previous items.

Hopefully that'll help.

Take care.

Have same issue. Running Win10 Version 1903 (Build 18362.778) which meets the recommended requirements. iCloud for Windows is Version 11.1.71.0. iCloud just updated itself and changed my configuration. Put photos in different location from where I want them, holds them in the cloud vs. downloading local, etc.

These are the only choices I now see:

Further. The newest version of iCloud for Windows (from the Microsoft Store) does not have that array of options, only like screen print above. I have another Win10 laptop that had the choices, turns out the iCloud software was downloaded from Apple (not the MS Store version). To keep everything playing nicely together (PC desktop, PC laptop, iPhone, iPad) I got rid of the Apple version on the laptop. It does not appear you can change the folder path, so it's going to create an iCloud Photos folder in your Pictures folder. Not what you might want if you have other sync interfaces with that folder and don't want a third - i.e. it might be preferable to have iCloud do its syncing elsewhere on your hard drive. That having been said, it's working as advertised and I've disabled the other sync program I use (iDrive) for that particular folder.

Finally, if you have the space available and don't want to mess around with some pictures local and others in the cloud, just right click the Photos folder in the parent folder (the iCloud Photos folder) and check the Always keep on this device option, and every photo that get uploaded from your camera will automatically download and be local on the device. Just remember, that if you remove it from your phone for example, it's going to be removed from the PC even though it's local at the time. Move it to another place (folder) on your HD if you really want to keep it despite what happens on your phone or the iCloud website...

Hi,

I have the same issue. I have an upload option but no download option on Icloud for Windows, nor do I have an ICloud Photos

icon anywhere on my PC where I can open it up to the screen in the example you referred us to where it says downloads.

Just stumbled upon this post. Did anyone find a fix to get the additional options as opposed to only 2 in iCloud Photos settings? I read through the other comments but wasn't sure if anyone found a "fix" yet. Any help would be appreciated to get my iCloud Photo library to sync with my PC.

Ok thanks big time for replying. I was able to download my 26K photos by going to iCloud.com and downloading 1000 at a time (the max Apple allows from iCloud.com. I appreciate your input on other ways to do it. If you or anyone get the iCloud for Windows to function as a "syncing" tool in regards to photos as is supposed to be it's function using iCloud library, I sure would appreciate any update in this thread.

So it appears with iCloud rev 11, the ability to download to the old downloads folder has been removed. If I'm reading that correctly that is very disappointing. I used that feature regularly to import photos into a local photo library and into Lightroom.

Just to make matters worse, when you download the files from the cloud, the file date is the current date rather than the date taken from the meta data - back to plugging in the phone to download - a giant step backwards. It is great that Apple wants us beholden to their cloud, but I have 100s of thousands of images - that is just not possible.

I'm disappointed too. All my photos used to automatically get downloaded to my Downloads folder. All of a sudden I noticed it stopped doing that. I assume my iCloud for Windows auto updated, its now on version 11.2. Now that option is gone. This function was literally the ONLY reason I installed iCloud for Windows to begin with. Paid a small fortune for my iPhone. Can't believe they would remove this function. It's going to create MORE work for me to save and backup my images. Sorry Apple, but I have uses for my photos that go beyond the cloud service. I'll be looking for other cloud options that have that function. Please let me know if you know of a good one.

I have this issue as well. It appeared to stop around 2nd June 2020. I have 160GB of photos that I curate on my PC with a iCLoud download to a specific folder and now there is no option available in the latest MS iCloud App. Not impressed.

I keep getting the message to update my iCloud app . It kept failing because of a problem with outlook which I don't even use, but that is another issue. I ended up reinstalling the iCloud app with the latest version. This was a big mistake for me since I need to redirect the photo download to an external drive. My labtop does not have the storage for the volume of pictures I have in the cloud. This worked fine in the previous iCloud version where I could specify the download location. Now I have the 2 options of upload PC photos to the iCloud (which I don't want) and specify the shared download album location. This is literally useless to me. I want to backup my photos to an external drive and maintain my own copy. I no longer can do that. I also found that if I deselect the photos or iCloud Drive from the app settings it deletes the copy of any already downloaded files without giving the user an option. Why make this app worse? I don't understand these design changes. I'm going to try using a shortcut for the photos folder to redirect the download. if that doesn't work I will just have to delete the app. I also notice I no longer can download by year from the app which I found useful in the past.