Waiting for ‘webcourier.push.apple.com’ message

I had this same problem. I just talked to an Apple Support agent and then their senior advisor and they pretty much just said that you need to download a few at a time in order for it to work and there's no way to fix it. On my computer, I wasn't able to download more than 30 at a time which seems ridiculous, especially since they list a limit of 1,000 photos being downloaded at once on iCloud. I have over 9k photos to download so it will take forever to get those downloaded. Perhaps the limit is intended to make it more difficult to keep your photos outside of iCloud.

Soooooo, my husband finally found a workaround that seems to work (almost) perfect for us. Perhaps some of you can profit from our solution:

• Download the icloud App onto your computer (if you don't already have it)
• Open the icloud App on your computer (mine has Windows 10 installed)
• Activate Photos and go to Options, then activate both boxes and confirm your choice

(Nearly) all the photos from my icloud were then downloaded onto my computer (or at least a link because they still had the cloud symbol next to them). It was possible to copy and paste them into a folder on my computer. I still had to transfer the heic files to another usable format (I used the "iMazing HEIC converter") and now I can use them normally. Downloading and transferring takes some time but it's feasible.

I was so desperate because I couldn't get my photos and couldn't do our family photo books anymore. Now I've got them back and can do a backup and start a new photo book. I tried it for one month and there were slightly less photos than it said on my iPhone but I got most of them back and am really relieved.

I really hope this hack will help lots of other people who have the same problem.

I downloaded the iCloud app from Microsoft Store. You will find it with the rest of the apps. I logged in on it and all the photos and videos appeared in a folder called iCloud Photos which I then copied to a pen drive. Using Windows 10. Good luck.

Partial solution - IF YOU WANT THE WHOLE LOT:

Go to privacy. apple. com and log in. It will then come up with a 'Manage Your Data' screen. Under the top section 'Get a copy of your data' , click on "Request a copy of your data". It then comes up with a whole load of different kinds of content you can download, calendars, emails, photos etc. I chose photos. It then asks what the max file size can be (i think it bundles all of your photos together in big folders for download. 1gb, 2gb, 5gb, 10gb and 25gb. I chose 25gb, then it heads off to make you a whole load of folders that you can get to via an email and you can download it all like that.

A work around for sure, and Apple should defo have fixed it or directly let us know that this is a way to get data, but still, hopefully it helps someone out there. Like/thumbs up if it helped.

Not sure if this addresses your problem but this is what I did to overcome the "no download many pics" problem.

1. On my Iphone, selected the photos i wanted and then saved then to a folder on "files" on Icloud. I created a new temporary folder called "Pics".
2. Went to my Win 11 PC. Checked that the Icloud button was selected in the Icloud settings and then through explorer navigated to my Icloud drive on the PC. Openned up the "Pics" folder and waited until all of the photos has downloaded.
3. When all photos had downloaded, I dragged my "Pics" folder, from Icloud drive to to my local storage location and the process was complete.
4. Finally deleted the temporary "Pics" folder on my Icloud- - just o keep things straight.

Worked for me hopefully will help you too.

I need to download 105GB of photos from several iCloud accounts. I have this problem also occurring on a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro - both in Safari and Chrome browsers. (Only the Chrome browser shows the message "waiting for web courier push, etc.) Over the course of five phone calls with Apple Support and about three hours total, I did all their suggestions to troubleshoot including:

1. Ensuring I was connected by ethernet (landline) to the internet - download speed between 330 and 550 Mbps
2. Updating to Monterey (was on Big Sur on both)
3. Logging in Safe Mode and downloading
4. Logging the MacBook Air out of its original Apple ID and into the Apple ID with 90GB of photos to download - big mistake, I am not sure the MacBook Air knows to do now and I should never have done it - but the Apple Support person on my fourth phone call recommended doing that.
5. Finally, getting a hold of a support person in Creative Media and then talking to an advanced support person in that area.

Intermittently, I can get a large batch to download - maybe 5% of the time and I think its the batch of photos that is the most recent.

He researched and found that this is a known issue (which I told to the first or second support person I spoke with yesterday) and stated there is no more troubleshooting to do. Now, I am submitting documentation so that he can get it to the Engineering team for investigation and resolution.

If you are having this issue on your computer, I highly recommend contacting Apple support and having the perseverance to work through the support system. I actually read the posts from this page to one of the people I spoke with along the way.

Cheers!

KennyAD9 wrote:

Question:

While attempting to download photos from my iCloud to my computer/laptop I receive a message "waiting for web courier push.apple.com”. What does this mean and can someone resolve this asap?

I have the same problem. Very frustrating. Was able to download in March 2022 (no issues). So I used a workaround. I downloaded the photos (343) 1.2GB to a file in my iPad and then compressed it (i have a file folder app on my iphone and ipad). I then used an encrypted transfer file that I pay for my business and sent the file (all 343 photos) to my email and was able to download it from that transfer file link. There are several free transfer files out there: Wetransfer (transfer up to 2G) and dropbox to name a few.....I'm hoping this download issue is temporary with Icloud.

I had this same problem. Had been downloading about 100 pix per, then had to reduce to 50 and then 10 and finally 1. I sought answers but found none. I then went back to iCloud photo library and started downloading one at a time. After doing this about 20 times I found that my ability to download large batches was restored. I downloaded a few large batches but was restricted again. Downloaded 1 at a time for about 15 pix then the batch size was upgraded again and I finished. Only had about 500 pix to download in total.

Hi, it might not help all of you but in my case it worked to do it little by little. I wasn't able to download a lot of photos at once, but 20-25 at a time worked :)

Found a workaround, sort of - I connect my iPhone through USB and go in through File Explorer and access the DCIM folder. There pics are in sub folders by month, which is what I wanted in the first place. I move them off to my C: drive using regular Windows copy / paste / delete and there you go. Still, it would be nice if Apple's functionality worked the way it's supposed to, especially when people are paying for it at levels higher that 5GB. So Apple - again, please fix this!

I went to the iCloud Photos, right click, copy, then paste to destination media. It will take several hours depending on the size of the folder.

Here's an update. You can airdrop to your mac or use snapdrop.net for pc. I also realized that videos take up a lot of space so if you click on pics, you can download more files. Hope this helps.

Hello Apple:

I am having the exact same problem as explained above with downloading photos from iCloud.com. I get the same “waiting for webcourier.push.apple.com” message. Yesterday, I was able to download one batch of 1,000 of my photos. Then I could only do 500, then about 30, and then none. Today I downloaded one batch of 500 photos, and after that, none would download. The same message appeared. I need to download about 10,000 of my photos.

Please fix this problem as soon as possible. As it stands, I am paying for iCloud storage but my photos are locked in iCloud.

I too have been able to download over 400 items from my phone in the past, today I was able to download more than 30 ASLONG as they were just photos, after I downloaded my photos I went back in and did my videos a few at a time, but my garsh what a pain in the rear end.

I think I may have found a solution for this. I'm not sure if it was a setting I changed but all of my iCloud photos are now downloading directly to my pc. I received a pop up when I was in iCloud it said that all my photos are being directly stored to my computer. Go to C:\Users\username\iCloudPhotos\Photos and every single iCloud photo I have was sent there. Its a huge mess as I deal with thousands of photos a week but I was able to find the photos I needed for today and save them to a folder