iCloud for Windows - Does not download full quality images

Have the same problem with the new Iphone 12 mini.

Via windows app I get only the 2048x1536 .jpg.

If I go directly to icloud website I can download the full ones (4032x3024).

It is also strange, that only the "normal" images getting transferred like 2048x1536 .jpg.

If I take photos in a portrait mode then I get even two photos in full resolution - one "normal" and the other is blurred one.

I found one reason why this happens. I changed the Camera settings on my iPhone 12 Pro Max to use "High Efficiency" format - this had the unintended side effect of "iCloud for Windows" App now downloading low resolution videos (720p instead of 4K). This is a shame, as I was hoping to stick to High Efficiency, but switching back to "Most Compatible" seems to fix the iCloud download problem.

When you right click on the .heic file you downloaded from the website, does it have any data in the details tab? Mine didn't.

I've been working on alternatives until it's fixed, I wanted something I could run alongside iCloud as I still use it manage my albums on the phone. Dropbox worked very well but there's no control over what it uploads from the camera roll so it wanted to upload all 18,000 photos. It's also very expensive as their smallest package is 2TB, massive overkill as I haven't yet used my 200GB on iCloud.

I've settled on PhotoSync for now, it's a small amount per month and allows full resolution photo transfer over WiFi to a different folder, automatically or on demand. It's much faster to open the app and press the button to sync new photos than it is the wait for iCloud anyway and you can select what you want to transfer or skip. The .jpg files it creates look great and have all of the metadata intact. I still have iCloud downloading its tiny versions so I will hopefully see when it is fixed.

Here is my workaround that goes with iCloud Drive (for everyone who doesn't want to use third-party apps).

You can set an Apple Shortcut to copy all media found in library (e.g. created or edited last x hours/days) to iCloud Drive.

iCloud Drive syncs to your PC/Windows like iCloud Photos does, but with the original files copied from Photo Library.

You can set an automation then, witch will sync e.g. every hour/day.

Job done.

Greetz from Munich, Germany

Just another update, I just figured out how to download the unmodified original in iCloud Photos on the web (by long clicking the download button), and I am able to get a full resolution heic download. So it does seem the backup to iCloud is ok, just the iCloud for windows is only downloading low resolution versions. This bug needs to get fixed soon, I use iCloud for windows to make offline backups of my photos.

I have observed the same thing, however I suspect it's not iCloud for Windows doing it.

As a test, I uploaded a 4032 x 3024 file manually to the iCloud website from my PC and it reports the correct dimensions and size in the iCloud Photos folder in Windows Explorer (first line), whereas the iPhone 12/iOS 14.3 image shot with the phone's camera (second line) reports smaller dimensions. The second image is actually also 4032 x 3024, and if I download the original manually from the iCloud website it downloads the 4032 x 3024 size. All of my iPhone X images from earlier in the year also report 4032 x 3024 size in Windows.

So at least iCloud for Windows seems to be downloading exactly what it sees in the cloud. I've looked at the network requests my PC makes to the Apple cloud, and I don't see anything that looks like it's requesting different resolutions for only some images.

Unfortunately I don't have 2 iOS devices, one new and one old, to do a comparison. If anyone does, you might be able to see if varying devices or iOS versions is the difference.

I've the same issues here with an iPhone 12 and iCloud for Windows v11.6 (from Windows 10 App store). Before I used an iPhone 6 and iCloud for Windows downloaded all images in full resolution. Now with iPhone 12 all JPG images are downloaded with reduced resolution. (I do not use HEIC format). I'll use OneDrive photo sync function until iCloud for Windows is fixed.

I have the similar issue. But different from other answers, which have to do with iCloud version or phone models, my case is iCloud storage full.

My 50 GB iCloud is full since March 2021. The photos since then are not uploaded to iCloud. I can only see the photos before March 2021. I tried to free some space in June 2021 by backing up and deleting some photos on my iCloud but it turns out I got 2048 x 1536 resolution photos on Windows iCloud Photo. I could do nothing but move forward to deleting them.

After that, many of the photos that were once 2048 x 1536 became the 4032 x 3024 version (not all at once but gradually replacing)!

So I guess the mechanism behind it is, the photos on iCloud itself are in the the full resolution. But depending on the remaining iCloud storage space, different version will be synchronized to the computer. (Strange mechanism)

To get the full version, you may try to free some iCloud space first.

I'm looking for as much information as I can because I also have this issue with iCloud for Windows 7.21. I bought a 12 Pro Max and have been using it alongside my X while I transition over.

If I take a photo with the X I get a 4032x3024 JPEG and if I choose, a HEIC of the same resolution. The HEIC I can download from the iCloud website matches. If I take a photo with the 12 Pro Max I get a 2048x1536 JPEG and HEIC, I can only get the full sized one by downloading it from the website.

Doesn't make much sense, how can it work fine for one phone and not the other? Very tempted to cancel my iCloud storage and move to Dropbox, I've already confirmed that the camera uploads in that have no issue uploading full sized JPEGs.

I've set iCloud for Windows up on a second Windows 10 PC to see how that behaves, it will be a while as it still has to download the 7000+ photos I have!

I have a 12 mini and noticed this as well, though I'm using the iCloud from the Microsoft store. I have the .heic extension installed, so I do get .heic files listed in my icloud photos folder on windows. The photos taken with my iphone 12 mini are 2048x1536 instead of the 4032x3024 that they should be (the size of photos from my old 2016 SE and ipad pro 10.5).

Edit: I just tried downloading it from icloud.com, and I got a 2048x1536 jpg. If I share the file via telegram, it shares it as a .jpg, but in this case, it's a full 4032x3024 resolution (but not heic). Seems there's some sort of a bug. In my case, it doesn't seem like icloud has the full resolution version at all, which is worrying.

Yes, the iPhone 12 .heic I downloaded from iCloud web had all the metadata as it should.

In my case, I use Synology, and was trying to get Synology Moments to backup my whole phone, but their iOS app upload isn't very good, and gets hung up and you have to start over. So, I was trying to get iCloud for Windows to download all the images, so I could just transfer them over, but with it having issues with iPhone 12 photos, it's not going to work either. Thankfully, I've not taken that many photos with my new phone, so I may just go the iCloud for Windows route for the bulk of the images, and manually export the iPhone 12 images.

It's just so strange, what's different about the iPhone 12 pictures that iCloud for Windows treats them differently. All my photos are 12MP, my SE photos are .jpg, so at first I thought maybe it was because the iPhone 12 are .heic, but my iPad Pro photos are also .heic and they show up full resolution.

I submitted this to apple.com/feedback, and linked this discussion. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon (but with the holidays, best could probably hope for is January).

When I first noticed this, I was on v11.5, and there was a v11.6 in the Microsoft Store, so I upgraded, but the issue persists.

Here it is:

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f74fc6a212fb4157a86ac51896c95847

You have to create a subfolder "media" in iCloud Drive --> "shortcuts"

You have to set ur own parameters in shortcuts in which conditions the photos should be selected (e.g. hours or days created)

Then you have to create an automation with same time interval (e.g. hours or days) and select "run shortcut" with the shortcut mentioned above

How odd, checking with Lightroom in my case the Windows app downloaded .heic has all of the tags. Definitely not acceptable to have them missing.

I didn't realise Lightroom would process the .heic files, I'd be quite happy to process and re-export the .jpg files myself if the original file wasn't the wrong resolution. I also noticed looking at the metadata just in Windows Explorer that the Windows app downloaded .heic files from my iPhone X are 32-bit where the ones from the 12 Pro Max are only 24-bit. From the website they are both 32-bit.

There's definitely something odd going on with the way the Windows app downloads iPhone 12 photos. Second PC is still downloading so still don't know if that will handle the photos differently.