How do you select multiple photos in iCloud?

Apple is known for exceptional design with intention, and thought put into every detail. Why wouldn't that carry over to their business model as well as their product design, and how one affects the other?

This implies a mistake. A miscue. A misreading of their market. This is constructive. I'll agree to disagree.

This states a conspiracy. Not constructive in any way. Absurd. Consistent with conspiracy theorists.

And technically, makes no sense whatsoever. Truth be known, this "missing feature" is likely costing them revenue right now, not building it.

Are you kidding me with this? Wow so we cannot question Apple at all on here?

Yes. Seriously. Not kidding. You accepted that condition when you signed in.

Apple Support Communities Use Agreement

you both seem to be die hard militant Apple people who will never ever question Apple and disparage any who do.

??? I explain things to those who do not seem to understand them.

Militant? Exactly how have you been disparaged?

Ok... and here, again from a bit further down.

Ok well according to YOU i'm in the wrong place.

Actually, according to Apple. I did not create the terms and conditions.

You are going off on the wrong person.

I think i just found the solution. I downloaded iCloud app for Win and it took me a while to figure out how does it work.

Anyway, all you have to do is run this app then go to the task bar next to clock, right click on its thumbnail and click download. Then you can choose photos by year or simply tick ALL. Photos are downloaded to selected folder. Works like a charm 🙂

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.

Feedback

I'm going to loose 4,000 pics in a month because Apple thinks a select all function isn't important. I'm so ****** right now.

Before you risk losing your photos, jump through the hoops and download them in small batches as I pointed out previously. It will take a few hours of clicking, but you will have your photos safe.

See LACAllen's work-around in this discussion: Re: iCloud - Can't select mass photos

You can use the Share menu to select all photos in a moment.

Use the SHARE icon to select the entire moment. then click away to remove the SHARE feature, but the entire moment stays selected

Then use the Download button.

If you are on a PC, I strongly recommend you follow the instructions on this page:

Set up and use iCloud Photo Library on your Windows PC - Apple Support

It takes a while to get all of the steps done, but it is worth the while!

In the end you have the best of both worlds with all of your photos on your own PC where you can select them and organise them any way you want.

You cannot delete photos from your iPhone using iCloud Photo Library, and keep those photos in iCloud. iCloud Photo Library is a single source library, so anything you do anywhere will be done everywhere. It is a sharing service intended to share all of your photos with all of your devices.

If you want an archival cloud service to safely store your photos, you need to use something like Dropbox or Flikr. iCloud Photo Library is a syncing/sharing service only. It is not an archival service.

If you have Optimize Photos turned on in iCloud Photo Library on the phone, then iCloud Photo Library will dynamically replace full resolution photos on your phone with thumbnails.

If you want to control the photos that are on your phone, and you want them to be different than the entire set up photos in your iCloud Photo Library, then you need to turn off iCloud Photo Library on your device, and then sync photos to your device from your computer. Or, you can share photos to your iPhone from your iCloud Photo Library by using iCloud Photo Sharing.

But if you want iCloud Photo Library turned on on your iPhone, then it is going to house as many full-resolution photos as it can based on the amount of space available, and then reduce the remaining photos to thumbnails. But they all will be there on the phone. And if you delete them from the phone, you delete them from the Library:

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

iCloud Photo Library Help - Apple Support

Cheers,

GB

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.

Feedback

I'm sorry but it's not working according to your help for me:

"To select multiple files or folders that are listed together, click the first item you want to select, hold down the Shift key, then click the last item."

Something has changed? Can you help me please? - Many thanks in advance.

Re: How do you select multiple photos in iCloud?

"To select multiple files or folders that are listed together, click the first item you want to select, hold down the Shift key, then click the last item."

Something has changed?

Yes , the last update of the iCloud web interface made it impossible to select multiple photos using the shift key. I hope Apple will fix this soon.

Hold down the command key while clicking each photo individually to select them all.

Or see LACAllen's work-around in this discussion: Re: iCloud - Can't select mass photos

You can use the Share menu to select all photos in a moment.

Use the SHARE icon to select the entire moment. then click away to remove the SHARE feature, but the entire moment stays selected

Then use the Download button.

niafckM wrote:

But in this multi-connected devices system, a device with limited storage becomes full in very short time. Then you need the system to pull every files out easily and clear them all. And iCloud does not offer this function!! It is major malfunction I should say.

Sorry, but that is how it was designed, so if it is working as designed, it is functioning perfectly.

niafckM wrote:

And there is great option to replace images in device with optimized version. Then the originals only place in iCloud. And I cannot get them out !!! The only options left for me then is moving photos one by one at a time-which costs at least few days to do it- and the other is constantly upgrading iCloud storage.

What do you mean, you can't get them out? Are you indicating that you want to download all of the originals from iCloud for some reason? If not, then what is the issue you are describing?

niafckM wrote:

I should say this can be major reason that I change whole system from Mac&iOS to Win&Android. Apple should work on it. They should make system easy and light, intuitive like they always do. iCloud system is a vulgar trick. It's not right, it's not good. It not only wastes users time, but also hinders their system DOF.

OK, so you must have seen the multiple links provided where you can let Apple know what you think: Apple - Feedback. Tell them.

There is no trick here. Just a total misunderstanding of iCloud and how it works. If you don't like it, then use Dropbox or Flikr. The macOS and Mac have zero to do with it. There is no inherent "cloud" service that works the way you want with Windows and Android. You'd be using the same services there as you would here - Dropbox, Flikr, Google Photos, Amazon Cloud. Just use one of those and don't use iCloud if you do not like what it is designed to do. It's not that complicated.

GB

Before attempting to tell me what my opinion is, maybe you should take some time to educate yourself on this topic:

iCloud: What is iCloud?

You will notice the words "up to date" used a lot in that article. That's the sharing part....

I'm done with you now, so do not expect further correspondence on this topic from me to you.

GB

Well, sounds like you are talking about something entirely different. If your niece is using iCloud Photo Library, and she wants the photos in iCloud Photo Library on her phone, all she has to do is turn on iCloud Photo Library on her phone (and, I would also recommend Optimization as well).

Every single photo in the iCloud Photo Library will download to the phone. It takes some time, since they have to download over your Wifi or Cellular, and the speed at which they download will depend on the speed of your connection as well as to how many photos you are downloading.

Here are some articles about iCloud Photo Library that would probably be a good starting point for you to determine the best way to get your photos to where you want them:

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

iCloud Photo Library Help - Apple Support

Best of luck,

GB

And for anyone that tries to explain to me what the purpose of icloud is (just to browse photos), I get it. I use Photoshop and Lightroom but when my photos are being saved in "optimize" mode, then they dont show up in those programs!

Apparently you don't Otherwise the lack of fine control on icloud.com would not be an issue for you or others.

If you got your 1000+ photos on iCloud.com, use the tool(s) that put them there to manage them. As suggested, the Photos app is one. You must use a Mac. so the Photos app on the Mac has the tools you can use to effectively manage your library, where every change you make is synced to iCloud.com.

iCloud.com was never designed to stand alone from any of Apple's photos apps. It is not a full featured application. It has a subset of features that may not meet your needs.

That you want the purpose of iCloud explained to you may mean it has little to no value to you. So be it. Do not use it in that case.

Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

If you wish to have Lightroom or Photoshop have access to your locally optimized photos, ask them to integrate that into their applications.