ICloud Photo Library: batch download photos

Not anymore. APPLE went out of its way to remove the 'select all' option so they can sell more storage. If holding people's photos hostage wasn't bad enough I just had the unpleasant experience of dealing with their incompetent tech support which has taken me from frustrated to completely nonplussed.

I explicitly and repeatedly stated that I was trying to download all of the photos currently in iCloud to my PC. The support tech took me through a bunch of nonsense steps and then had me download the iCloud for PC app which it turns out also DOES NOT allow you to download your existing pics en masse. What a waste of time! The icing on the cake was when this bozo tried to explain to me that backing up my iCloud pics to my computer was not actually called a backup and that I had used the wrong term. Look up the word 'backup' in the context of computing before correcting your customers, you hack!

I am having the same problem on a mac. If I go to icloud, I cannot shift click or draw a window around them to download them. There is no way I am downloading over 1000 photos individually.

Shame on you mac for making this harder than it used to be!

Also - the photos app on the laptop used to enable manual back up - now when I plug in my phone this is no longer the case. This is VERY disappointing and a manipulative way to get mac users to keep paying for increased online storage.

does not work for me,the shift click option only works in Photos on the Mac. It does not work when used the way you describe, not even in icloud on Mac. Do you have any special configuration option in place?

This no longer works in 2017, at least using the Chrome browser. There seems to have been a changed (Win10 + Chrome) in iCloud where CTRL/SHIFT keys with Left Click or even CTRL+A for Select All (standard windows command keys) doesn't work.

Selecting multiple using CTRL+Left Click still forces you to download 1 photo at a time in separate pop-up windows ... VERY inefficient Apple.

I am still baffled as to how Apple does not include basic functionalities such as ''Select All'' in their so-called apps.

Very disappointed in Apple, a huge waste of time. Will have to be clicking the photos one by one and then gradually unsubscribe to iCloud and eventually give up Apple all-together.

Ive "solved" this by changing browser, in FF I got same issues as everybody else, multiple dialog boxes however in chorme download starts without dialog boxes popping up and seems reliable so far.

I haven't managed to multi-select pictures though. Ive tried just any key on my keyboard.

Would be nice to know if someone is working on this, Apple..!? I like the small photo on phone, large photo in cloud option but I have always maintained my own backup. I would like to download all my photos at once and not select one at a time.

I tried to do the same thing, download all my photo library but it's actually impossible to do it easily on PC.

So i just found someone with a macbook to use the "photos" application on his mac...

So yes, i hope they will implement something like a button to download a zip with all your photos on icloud.com

Or implement the photo library sync on PC in the icloud software

What would be really great is if iCloud Control Panel could sync photos onto your PC (Similar to Dropbox and how this functionality works on Mac). I am starting to regret keeping the master photos in the cloud as I just keep paying to increase the size of my iCloud storage, and can't get my photos onto my PC. HELP APPLE!

Same Problem. Just realized that I can not do what I always postponed: Download originals from iCloud Photo Library and delete them there. I, too, keep paying Apple for keeping my photos hostage on their Servers.

I just figured out a way to do it. If you want to download a big chunk or all photos.

Go to to iCloud.com, photos, albums, all photos, click select, click the first photo, scroll to the last and shift click. That should have selected all of the photos, now download.

Wow. And what happens, if you really want to save them on your hard disk? If you want to download 4000 photos you get exactlty 4000 dialog boxes that ask you for the directory where to save the data. One after another. That keeps you busy ... let me see .. until Christmas 2028.

If you plug your iphone into your computer, Windows usually has a pop-up window and one of the options is to import photos and videos. It works great for me, and then iCloud does allow bulk delete online.

Safari on a Mac by default saves files in your chosen folder without opening dialog boxes. If you are using Chrome you can uncheck "ask where to save files" before starting your batch download. Maybe you also want to chose a specific new folder just for this download.