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how can I just save entire photos to MacBook take off iCloud

is there a way to take all your photos off phone and have them on just on MacBook


Posted on Mar 7, 2023 1:17 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 8, 2023 12:39 AM

Are all your Photos from your Mac and your iPhone are currently in iCloud?


Then you can proceed as described here: Use iCloud Photos to store photos in iCloud – Apple Support (UK)

See the fourth paragraph "Stop using iCloud".

Things to note:

  • You have to make sure, all photos from your iPhone have been uploaded to iCloud.
  • On your Mac the option "Optimize Mac Storage" needs to be turned off, so all photos from iCloud have been downloaded to your mac.


  • Then make a copy of your Photos Library on your Mac on an external volume and try to open it in Photos by double-clicking the copy. If you get a warning that photos with missing originals will be removed, the download from iCloud has not yet finished and you have to force the download by viewing all photos enlarged, then make a new copy.
  • Once all photos are savely on your Mac and backed up to an external volume, you can disble iCloud Photos, first on your mac, thenon your iPhone.


Added: I am seeing at the top of this page, that you have been reading about Shared Albums. SHared albums are nice to share photos for viewing, but are not suitable at all to archive your photos. The photos will be downsized for sharing, so we will not annoy friend and family by sending them huge amounts of large image files, and also most metadata will be stripped for privacy reasons. Shared albums are useless for archiving photos because of the reduced quality and the missing metadata. You have to download directly from iCloud Photos to save your photos in a full quality, with thelocations and other metadata.


1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 8, 2023 12:39 AM in response to crazybfox

Are all your Photos from your Mac and your iPhone are currently in iCloud?


Then you can proceed as described here: Use iCloud Photos to store photos in iCloud – Apple Support (UK)

See the fourth paragraph "Stop using iCloud".

Things to note:

  • You have to make sure, all photos from your iPhone have been uploaded to iCloud.
  • On your Mac the option "Optimize Mac Storage" needs to be turned off, so all photos from iCloud have been downloaded to your mac.


  • Then make a copy of your Photos Library on your Mac on an external volume and try to open it in Photos by double-clicking the copy. If you get a warning that photos with missing originals will be removed, the download from iCloud has not yet finished and you have to force the download by viewing all photos enlarged, then make a new copy.
  • Once all photos are savely on your Mac and backed up to an external volume, you can disble iCloud Photos, first on your mac, thenon your iPhone.


Added: I am seeing at the top of this page, that you have been reading about Shared Albums. SHared albums are nice to share photos for viewing, but are not suitable at all to archive your photos. The photos will be downsized for sharing, so we will not annoy friend and family by sending them huge amounts of large image files, and also most metadata will be stripped for privacy reasons. Shared albums are useless for archiving photos because of the reduced quality and the missing metadata. You have to download directly from iCloud Photos to save your photos in a full quality, with thelocations and other metadata.


how can I just save entire photos to MacBook take off iCloud

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