How do I download my iCloud Photos to my external drive

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple 

And its preferences Change preferences in Photos on Mac - Apple  open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article Back up the library in Photos on Mac - Apple 

Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy.See this article also

Photos library - Move your Library to an external storage device

Note : to transfer photos from photo application select the desired photos Select and deselect photos in Photos on Mac - Apple Support to the connected external hard drive Connect and use other storage devices with Mac - Apple Support (

Hello sonny1450,

If you open the Photos app on your MacBook Air and Select All (Command + A), it will automatically select all photos. From here you can click (HOLD) and drag them to your external hard drive. I tested this with ~2500 photos/videos and it took a few seconds to register, so click and hold and wait until it grabs them all and then move them. Additionally once you move them give another few seconds (minutes) for them to download.

It really depends on how many photos you're trying to download. The more, the longer it'll take to register.

This is the easiest way I've found and have explained to others.