"iClooud Photos" folder does not show up as advertised; is empty

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mwitthoft Author

Level 1

8 points

"iClooud Photos" folder does not show up as advertised; is empty

Online help says that in Windoze 10, a folder "iCloud photos" will show up under ThisPC.

Nope. It's not there.

If you dig around you can find it buried in \users\MyName\Pictures.

But it's useless because NO FILES APPEAR in that folder. Yes it has a subfolder "Shared" which is also empty.

Turns out the way to get your darn photos off the phone is via web browser to icloud.com , so why all the misleading instructions about using an iCloudApp and the mythical useless folder on the PC?

Maybe this was designed by the same geniuses who designed iTunes.. UGH

Windows, Windows 6

Posted on Oct 12, 2020 8:11 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mwitthoft Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 18, 2020 10:55 AM in response to chris_g1

Okay, I got it to work by clicking "Upload and store your PC photo library in iCloud", which is exactly what I don't want to do.

Hopefully it's not going to go snooping all over my computer sucking up images and moving them to the cloud.

The boffins at iCloud seem to have serious difficulties understanding the difference between

. Copy from iPhone to PC

and

. Copy from PC to iPhone

which are, in fact, different things.

The help pages should really just say direct your web browser to iCloud.com because that works fine and you don't have to install anything on your PC.

By the way, the scroll bar on iCloud.com doesn't work. The only way to scroll is via the PgUp / PgDn buttons.

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Answer 2

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Oct 16, 2020 3:26 PM in response to mwitthoft

Hi there mwitthoft,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you’re trying to view photos saved to your PC, using iCloud Photos but are not finding the expected folder.

To resolve this, let’s take a step back and make sure iCloud Photos is set up correctly, using these steps: Set up and use iCloud Photos on your Windows PC.

If the photos don’t load correctly, move to the more in-depth steps here: If your iCloud Photos aren't loading on your PC

If that doesn’t resolve the issue, tell us which iPhone and iOS you’re using and if you run into errors when trying to set up iCloud Photos. If so, what do the error say?

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Answer 3

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Oct 16, 2020 5:14 PM in response to mwitthoft

mwitthoft,

We appreciate the additional information regarding viewing photos from your iPhone on your PC.

Have you already set up iCloud on your iPhone, and enabled Photos? This page has guidance on that, if needed: Set up iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Once that's set up, you'll want to set up iCloud Photos on your Windows PC, using the same Apple ID that you use with your iPhone. Then you can follow the steps to download your photos and videos that are stored in iCloud, to your PC. There are steps to guide you in the first link in our previous message.

If you run into an issue downloading the photos from iCloud, let us know a few details about what happens.

Cheers!

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Answer 4

mwitthoft Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 16, 2020 4:03 PM in response to Leanne_68

No. I'm trying to get photos that are on the iPhone, and load them to the computer where I can photoshop them.

Use iPhone camera.
Take a picture
Want to see it on a large screen and photoshop it.

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"iClooud Photos" folder does not show up as advertised; is empty

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