Export large Photos Library stored on iCloud

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Level 1

149 points

Export large Photos Library stored on iCloud

I am having the most difficult time exporting my photos/videos from Apple Photos to a hard drive. I have a 3.8TB Photos library stored on iCloud and I've tried to export originals but I get get the error 1005 when exporting on 1000 of files.

I've tried the privacy.apple.com recover. They sent over 100 zip files to download and the site will time out after 10 min.

Anyone have any luck exporting a large photos library to an external hard drive? Appreciate your help!

Posted on Jul 25, 2023 8:57 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

muguy

Level 10

81,943 points

Jul 25, 2023 9:38 AM in response to Big Jay

Yes. It's quite easy: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

You may want a second drive for a Time Machine (or similar) backup too.

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Answer 2

Big Jay Author

Level 1

149 points

Jul 25, 2023 9:34 AM in response to muguy

Hi Muguy. I have a Mac and my photo library file is on my MacBook but I don’t have enough storage on my laptop to download all the photos/videos so I chose optimized Mac storage and all files are in iCloud. I do have an external drive. Do you know if I can move my photos library file to an external drive and then turn off the optimize Mac storage, and download all the photos and videos to that external drive?

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Answer 3

Big Jay Author

Level 1

149 points

Jul 25, 2023 10:31 AM in response to muguy

Thank you so much for your response. I followed the directions on this link and moved my library to an external drive. Now when I try to switch it to a system photo library, I get the message that any photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed.

I can't download the files where the original library is stored because my MacBook has a smaller HDD. Sorry for all the questions but really appreciate your support.

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