Download originals of only a specific album in photos app on Mac

Hi,

There is no way to set a specific album to "download originals" - it is all or nothing.

The best way to force a download of specific images is to export them (select all in the album, then file>export). But once you've exported them, then you may as well put them into the other app from the folder you've exported to.

It used to be possible in the older versions of Photos, up to macOS 10.14 Mojave. Then we could simply ctrl-click an albums and use the command "Download originals". But this option has been removed since macOS 10.15. Now you should view a photo enlarged in Photos to force a download from iCloud, before you drag the photo into another app. You cannot force the optimisation, however. That is fully automatic.

I would not use drag -and-drop anyway to pass a photo to another application. This will share the current preview and we have no control over the quality of the preview. It is safer to use the command "Image > Open with ..." or to use "File > Export" and select the quality for the exported version. Then we can be sure, what will be passed to the other application.