there was an error downloading this photo from your iCloud photo library

So, no solution for this? Tons of people seem to have this problem and I've never seen a solution that anybody has said worked for them. All I know is that Apple has put all my photos into low-res **** since I started using iCloud, and I can't get them back. I've reset, logged out and in, etc. Still get "Cannot Download Photo". Seems like this ought to be simple. I take pictures, Apple uploads a copy to the cloud, fuzzes up my local copy, and when I want it back it should just happen. So why doesn't it?

I find it a bit ridiculous that this was posted three years ago and people are still having this problem...maybe instead of pumping out new phones Apple should worry a bit more about fixing issues on their existing products.

I doubt any of your media would have been deleted by following the steps of those previous posters. Most likely the media has been deleted from you iPhone if icloud photo library was enabled. By signing out of your Apple ID in icloud you will automatically disable icloud photo library. Once you re enable icloud photo library all your media will be gradually restored again from icloud.com. Don't worry about anything being lost.

If you didn't have icloud photo library enabled, the media would remain in your camera roll. When icloud photo library is turned off, the camera roll will reappear in the photos and camera apps. Any third party apps you've granted permission too from the app store may also display the camera roll. Once icloud photo library is re enabled, the camera roll will disappear and be replaced by an album in photos called All Photos. Wait awhile shortly after turning on icloud photo library after signing into icloud in settings again with your Apple ID credentials. Everything will gradually restore at varying speeds depending on your WiFi network speed. You must use WiFi to restore any media such as photos and videos from icloud to your phone or other iOS device. You cannot restore anything over a celluar mobile network.

Even if you icloud photo library was nerve turned on the media would have been backed up within the camera roll to icloud with your other iPhone data. With the camera roll replaced by All Photos while icloud photo library is activated, the media will not be backed up twice with icloud photo library and the iPhone icloud backup. To conserve space and prevent duplications, Apple has removed the camera roll for users using icloud photo library. I think the major downside with using icloud photo library has been the impracticalties. Either your photos and videos are everywhere on all Apple devices or they're not where at all. If you move a photo or video to recently deleted while icloud photo library is turned on with one device, exactly the same change is replicated everywhere else on other devices using the same icloud photo library.

Simply following those steps above by other posters could not have possibly resulted in any data lose. You literally would have had to wipe your iPhone without doing any backup or manually delete everything individually. No previous poster instructed you to perform any of those actions. I do not believe you have lost anything. If you hate the icloud library feature, I could not really blame you. Space is conserved on devices with lower storage by using the optimise your storage feature in Photos settings with icloud photo library. There is really no need to everbdelete a photo or video for saving space while using icloud photo library is enabled if you're using optimise your storage. This saves space anyway. If people didn't want to see something, they could hide the photo or video. Once again, all changes occur within the centralised icloud photo library database. Hide an item on one device, you will find it hidden on every device. These are the issues one must be forced to endure by using icloud photo library.

Best

Continuing on my post above, in case they really are missing from iCloud, I also found that there is a recently deleted folder which stores deleted photos for 30 days. You can try that. Here's the link.

Get help with missing photos - Apple Support

Thanks, that helps for the future. I had switched it off, but the issue was getting all my low-res photos back to high-res on my iPhone. Through persistence, what I've found is that by using the Photos app, not the Camera app, I can get them back from the cloud one by one by trying to edit them. About 90% of the tries I'll get the "Cannot Download Photo" error, but occasionally it will complete. So eventually I may be able to recover all the photos from the iCloud to my iPhone. At which point I'll cance iCloud and never use it again!

For folks who are saying your photos disappeared when you signed the device out of iCloud, have you tried going to

iCloud - Sign in

on a desktop with lots of free storage? (My desktop is a Windows machine and it works fine, so I suspect it will work on anything, i.e. you don't need to have a Mac to try this.) You can use the same ID and password as you use to sign in to iCloud on your iPhone/iPad. My photos all show up there.

The reason I'm suggesting this is, I'm wondering if your troubles on the iPhone/iPads is that your storage on those devices may be low? If that's the problem then you can at least reassure yourself that your photos are fine by viewing them on your desktop.

I think the only way photos can actually disappear from iCloud is if you delete them on your device while you are still signed in to iCloud. For example don't delete the photos and then sign out of iCloud. Sign out of iCloud first, and only delete the photos after you have signed out of iCloud.

Hi. Pllllease help me clarify this a little more. I am having the same issue and cannot edit any of my videos i have saved on my icloud. I use my photos app and go to the video and press the little button for editing and it gives me the " cannot download video, there was an error downloading this video from your icloud photo library" what did you do? Did it work?

Please everyone

Follow this fix

Simply turn off the low power mode and the the exclamation mark at the bottom right of the picture will start turning into a circular ‘’loading’’ symbol and your picture will be accessible in seconds.

Please be connected to wifi or have cellular turned on in your iCloud photo settings to enable the download of the picture after turning off low power mode.

Enjoy!

I have done all of that, turned off low battery, closed all open apps and shut down but I still get the error.....I have not signed out if my iCloud though - too scared to in case I lose everything - is there actually an Apple fix for this?

EASY FIX:

go to settings > Account > icloud account > photos > check off "download and keep original photos" and uncheck "optimize photos".

That should do it, but it will take some time for the iphone to actually download all the photos. make sure your on wifi and that your not running battery saver. restart your phone atleast 1 time.

This is ridiculous. Apple why don't you solve this???

Lately I have been having a lot of issues with the Photo iCloud storage. Photos don't load or it takes 2-3 tries (yes not 1 or 2 but more tries) to edit pictures, or you get the icloud error message.

My resume you cannot trust this service if you need it for documents it will fail you!

i Just had this issue because cellular data was off for downloading photos, and my Wi-Fi was off. Seems obvious but because the error message was so generic it took me a very long time to sort it out.

I tried this one but when I signed in and then checked my photos, i couldn’t find anymore those photos which has an error downloading from icloud photo library. what should I do? How can I recover those photos again?

While this does help sometimes with getting some of my most recent photos to download, it doesn't always work, and is less consistent for my older photos.

I took a picture of some whiteboard sketches last week and I need them to work. I've tried accessing them 6 times over the last 3 days, at different battery levels each time, and I have yet to be able to get it to load. Unbelievably frustrating.

This has nothing to do with the issue discussed here.

It's similar, but it's not the actual problem.

Because the exclamation point and the blurring and the inability to edit or share with other apps happen without the low battery mode being turned on.

I think that's the problem. It's what I'm having anyway.

I never use Low Battery Mode and I still have the same issue happening.

Can't find a solution, still. Unforetunately.

I shut down iPhoto. Restarted. Turned off all other apps. No luck.

iPhone takes a copy out to iCloud (right when I shoot it) and leaves me with a blury one that I can't edit or share.

Uploading it is the point of me turning on syncing with iCloud. But, there's this issue of not being able to load the recently taken photo that happens almost 70% of the time.

Very frustrating. Help is needed & greatly appreciated.

Thanks