iCloud Photos data download transfer to Mac: Best practices and file handling

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Level 1

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iCloud Photos data download transfer to Mac: Best practices and file handling

I requested a data download of all of my photos stored in iCloud.

I'm trying to figure out "best practices" for transferring these downloads to my Mac, and from there to a removable hard drive. There are over 200 GB of photos in my iCloud, so the data is in six "chunks".

After I transfer a chunk to my Mac, sometimes the result is a folder containing sub folders. Some of the sub folders contain photos, and others such as a folder labeled albums contains several .CSV files.

Question #1: if I had to restore my photos, how would I handle the CSV files as on the story?

Question #2: sometimes after I transfer a chunk to my Mac, instead of a folder, I see a zip file? Why do I get different results for different transfers?

Thanks for any help in understanding how this works.

Mac mini

Posted on Aug 15, 2026 5:01 AM

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Answer 1

WheelieNick

Level 9

69,508 points

Aug 15, 2026 5:11 AM in response to j9lemmon

When downloading massive data archives from Apple's privacy or data transfer portal, chunks often arrive as structured folders or compressed .zip files depending on browser auto-extraction settings, while album .CSVfiles act purely as text-based organizational metadata rather than container files for images.

Handling the CSV files during a restore

If you ever need to restore your photos from your external drive, you can safely ignore the .CSV files for the actual image data because your raw photos and videos reside inside the separate media subfolders.

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Answer 2

Aug 15, 2026 11:53 PM in response to j9lemmon

Instead getting a .zip copy of your Photos data from https://privacy.apple.com you could:

a) Make a Photos Library to the internal disk and in Photos.app and set it as "Use System Photo Library" and "iCloud Photos" and "Optimize Mac Storage (optional, so your internal disk is not filled up)" in Photos > Settings... > [wait for the items to populate] > [select desired images & movies] > File > Export Unmodified Originals, or > Export (edited items) > choose large enough external disk as the target for the exported items. After verifying and backupping that external drive to another external drive you might delete the Photos library from the internal drive.

b) Or preserve the items in Photos library. Make a Photos Library to a large enough external disk formatted as APFS or MacOS Extended (GUID, case insensitive -- exFAT or other formats are NOT supported!) and set it as "Use System Photo Library" and "iCloud Photos" and "Download Originals to this Mac (so all items are stored locally on that external drive)" in Photos > Settings... > [wait for the items to populate]. Then periodically backup the external drive to another external drive with Carbon Copy Cloner.

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