How do I download all of my photos from iCloud to my PC?

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Level 1

1 points

How do I download all of my photos from iCloud to my PC?

Hello everyone,

So, with the newer version of iOS, there came an option to save space on the iPhone and store all the photos in iCloud. That's great and all, but...

I used to download all the photos into my PC to keep (and then delete them from my iPhone). Now I am facing a problem...

The photos get automatically uploaded after a short period of time and I can't download them from my iPhone anymore. I tried dowloading all the photos through iCloud.com, but this is an impossible task, as you have to save photos one by one.

Bottom line... I am stuck, without being able to get all my photos to store on my PC.Can anyone please help me with this? Is there an easy way to get all those photos onto my computer? I can't imagine that Apple didn't think of this... So I am crossing my fingers that the apparent lack of solutions is just due to my lack of knowledge!

Help me!!!

iPhone 5, iOS 8.4

Posted on Aug 2, 2015 2:33 AM

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Answer 1

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 3, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Milcs40

Anyone? Help me......

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Answer 2

damaag

Level 4

1,742 points

Aug 3, 2015 11:06 AM in response to Milcs40

Hello

Good question

Here is the link for the walkthrough

Archive or make copies of your iCloud data - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 4, 2015 5:41 PM in response to damaag

No... that does not help me! In fact, before I have posted my question, I read that "walkthrough" and tried to find a solution online, to no avail...

Just to be clear, I want to copy the content of the iCloud Photo Library... All of it.

The "solution" on the link above is:

If you enabled iCloud Photo Library, your photos and videos are automatically uploaded to iCloud at full resolution. To make copies of these photos and videos:

In iOS 8 or later, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos. Then select Download and Keep Originals andimport the photos to your computer.
In OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 or later, open the Photos app. Choose Photos > Preferences, then select Download Originals to this Mac.
If you want to download a few photos or videos, you can use iCloud.com to download the most recent version of photos and videos to your computer.

As you can appreciate... There's not much there in regards to what users with PCs running windows can do to get those photos (besides the third point, that implies I would have to download 1000 photos, one by one).

So yeah, my question still stands... I find it odd (to say the least) that there is no apparent "easy" solution to download all the photos from my icloud photo library (without owning a Mac). Not only odd... I find it silly! 🙂

So... anyone else has any idea?

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Answer 4

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 5, 2015 1:13 PM in response to Milcs40

A little bump to check whether anyone could tell me of a solution for my "problem"!

Cheers

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Answer 5

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 8, 2015 9:46 AM in response to Milcs40

Is there anybody out there? 🙂

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Answer 6

Aug 8, 2015 5:02 PM in response to Milcs40

Hiya, I am also attempting the same thing tonight, as far as I can tell, you can click Albums, All Photos, then 'select photos' then grab all your photos and click download, but my laptop went a bit manic after that and didn't download everything. The trouble I am now facing is that all of the files are being given a new date created, and so they are all out of order :-(

Cant find any help, getting just about ready to scream!

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Answer 7

Cam G NZ

Level 1

0 points

Aug 19, 2015 1:12 AM in response to Milcs40

I have the exact same issue, I have 1100 photos that I want to download and I have searched all over the net for a simple solution to no avail. I have tried using icloud.com but it does not work properly. For example I will select 50 photos and then click download and it will only save some of them, in this case only 21 out of 50. Selecting photos 1 by 1 is hopeless.

Apple seems to think using 'My Photostream' is an option but it only gives you the photos from the last 30 days so this is pointless. It used to be so easy on my iPhone 4 as you could just browse to the phone in windows explorer and copy and past all of the photos from the folders on the phone, now they have hidden all but the recent photos. Why do Apple make what should be a simple task so difficult?!

PLEASE HELP!!!

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Answer 8

Sep 6, 2015 12:11 PM in response to Cam G NZ

It's amazing that this is so difficult that it requires a topic here @ Apple. I'm dealing with the same issue. Although I am now dealing with 3500 photos ... which I am trying to move over to my new Synology NAS device.

My iPhone settings :

iCloud photo library checked

Optimize iPhone storage checked (oops, i shouldn't have done that)

Upload to my photo stream checked (that was dumb!)

Go to icloud.com and try to "download all" and you sadly see the option is missing ...

Plugged my iPhone into my PC, and tried getting my photos from the device ... nope, they aren't there (see above oops)

then I tried downloading the icloud app on windows, and then following the instructions listed above. No, there is only a folder "my photo stream" which has only 413 photos ... missing 3100 photos. Not sure why the application won't make an exact copy of the database on icloud.com?

So i spent the last hour manually clicking about 500 photos and clicking "download" and chrome crashed as it tried to load 500 downloads at once ...awesome.

Anyone have an real solution for this?

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Answer 9

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Sep 7, 2015 1:14 AM in response to nerdyone2015

Well... real solution... there is one... If you buy a Mac! 😐

It is quite shocking that there in no apparent solution for people on PCs.

Do people from Apple ever look at these forums? Can we hope that anyone officially responds to this issue?

Either allow us to mass download photos from iCloud.com directly, or create a program that allow us to interact directly with our iCloud folders... Give us a true cloud support!!! As it stands, we are just being bullied and forced to buy a Mac to recover years of photos we thought were being safely stored in our iClouds (that I pay for every month, by the way....)!

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Answer 10

hurage

Level 1

11 points

Sep 7, 2015 11:48 AM in response to Milcs40

I guess there won't be a proper solution, they want us to buy a Mac.

I was fed up with this, I don't need a Mac, so I activated my Google Photos and disabled iCloud Photo Library. Many of my friends did this also. This whole situation is very unfortunate and frustrating...

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Answer 11

Sep 8, 2015 5:00 PM in response to hurage

Definitely not buying a Mac, am not fond of beta testing their products neither. There should be a warning on the icloud option "if you're not using a Mac, do not turn on this "feature""

Anyways, I got the photos I needed off icloud.com after hours of mind numbing clicking and have cancelled my account and turned off everything icloud on my iphone. I've switched to Dropbox and turned on their camera sync option which is working as advertised.

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Answer 12

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 8, 2015 5:11 PM in response to nerdyone2015

nerdyone2015 wrote:

Definitely not buying a Mac, am not fond of beta testing their products neither. There should be a warning on the icloud option "if you're not using a Mac, do not turn on this "feature""

Anyways, I got the photos I needed off icloud.com after hours of mind numbing clicking and have cancelled my account and turned off everything icloud on my iphone. I've switched to Dropbox and turned on their camera sync option which is working as advertised.

Thanks for the opinion, I filed it.

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Answer 13

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Sep 9, 2015 1:08 AM in response to Csound1

I am not sure if you are an official Apple representative on these forums...

If you are, this is not a thread to post opinions... rather to look for technical help!

There has to be a way to access all the photos we have been uploading on our clouds (a paid cloud service, in my case) and download them in a feasible/easy way to my personal computer (that is not a Mac).

So... could anyone please help us solve this big problem that icloud photo storing is creating?

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Answer 14

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 9, 2015 7:30 AM in response to Milcs40

I Was not addressing you and with your attitude I don't intend to.

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Answer 15

Milcs40 Author

Level 1

1 points

Sep 9, 2015 7:45 AM in response to Csound1

I am sorry if my "attitude" puts you off... That was not my intention.

I am merely trying to find help... and sadly, no one is seemingly able to help me with a very concrete and precise problem... A problem I will think would be really easy to deal with.

I am sure you can understand my frustration of having close to 1000 pictures that are precious to me, hidden in a cloud service I pay for and without no realistic way to get them. So, sorry if my frustration made you think my attitude is bad...

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