How to select all photos in iCloud

I came here to find the answer to this question as I was trying to download a large batch of specific photos from iCloud, only to realize I had already solved the problem. A while back, I synced my PhotoStream with iCloud and PhotoStream automatically downloaded (and auto downloads) all the iCloud photos. I had 29,000 photos. I seem to recall it taking a few days of letting it run in the background to get it all onto my iMac. And I couldn't "pick and choose" one album over another. But once it's in my photo stream, it's much easier to drag-select than it is in iCloud (since there is NO drag-select feature there or any legitimately useful batch select mechanism at all really). I hope the PhotoStream option will be helpful input for you.

I solved it accidentally: ( I could not find the Select All button and cntrl+A and/or pressing shift button did not work)
on top left of the icould/photos , under the "iCloud Photos" you see a sidebar. the first top item is Photos, then Albums, then All Photos, Videos, ....
I made the mistake to go to All Photos, while you should go to Photos (the first item on the sidebar). when you click on it, you can see all your photos categorized by time and place tag. in front of each headline (including time and place) move your cursor to the rightmost place, two items appear: " + " (for adding to album) and "sharing item". press sharing item (which is an upward arrow coming out of a box), and all the photos in the category get selected/highlighted. now do not click on any of the pop-ed up items. but just go to top of the page right and next to your account name and the deleting button, you find the Download button (a downward arrow coming out of a cloud) press it and you can download all the photos in the category.
you can repeat this for all categories you want.

it is not like you can download all photos altogether, but I think it is better than downloading each one-by-one.

SOLUTION! (Maybe Imperfect)

After downloading hundreds of photos, selecting one at a time, I decided I'm done with iCloud and stumbled upon a way to download all the photos:

On your iPhone, in Settings-->Photos, if you disable iCloud for photo storage, it asks you if you'd like to "Download photos & videos" to your iPhone. Click on that, then connect to your Mac and then use Image Capture to download the photos from the phone.

😟 Bummer I figured this out after all the work. Not to mention that the downloading process skipped TONS of photos. Probably because I downloaded them in batches and didn't wait until downloads completed before selecting the next batch, which works fine with other apps, etc.

I know this isn't the place to say this, but I don't care; I'm breaking up with Apple. One frustrating issue after another on two iPhones, two iPods & two Macs, for four of us. I'm sure some problems are user error, but Google Drive is intuitive and just works for us , always. I feel like the very rich Apple has become mean. I'm very sad, I've been an Apple guy since 1989, but it's time to say goodbye. I'm just glad I could retrieve my photos.

this is a disgrace that apple have restricted this feature I have 300 photos. it will take me 3 days to downalod each one individually .... come on .... No more apple product for me what a waiste of time

FineyFine wrote:

this is a disgrace that apple have restricted this feature I have 300 photos. it will take me 3 days to downalod each one individually .... come on .... No more apple product for me what a waiste of time

You don't have to download each one individually. You have to select them individually. But holding down the ALT key (on Windows) or the Command key (on a Mac) allows you to keep selecting them until all are selected (or as many as you want to download at once - I would suggest that you do it in smaller batches, like in batches of 50 or 75). Then you tap on the download button, and all of the selected photos will get downloaded.

GB

Took me a while to figure out the most effective way to get all of your photos / videos onto your windows box.

The following is a link with details and some of my notes.

If you go to this link you:

http://osxdaily.com/2016/05/26/download-photos-from-icloud/

Search in the page for this:

How to Download All iCloud Photos to Windows PC

follow the instructions.

Some notes.....

You will have to install the iCloud for windows desktop app.

Opening the iCloud app you can specify windows directory locations.

On window search bar: iCloud Photos and click

Download photos and videos on tool bar.

All

.... will put in directory you specified in the iCloud app.

I had over 1600 pictures so it took a while to download all of them.

I am so bloody ready to be done with Apple forever over this. Seriously. How childish of this company. They obviously are either so inept as software designers/programmers they are an embarrassment to the industry. Or they are purposely being obtuse about why they are not adding this simple feature. There is some strategy they refuse to answer. This is beyond the pale. I am nearly done with apple. I got so frustrated by this I seached on the web for an Application the said it could download any files including icloud off my iphone directly like a file system. IExplorer. And low and behold, apple patched it so it doesn't work after I paid $57 dollars just for this bloody one feature. I want to download my 3000 photos off my iphone and i have spend literally 2 days trying to solve this. Google's phones has no issue here.
Apple i am done, this is it. If this issue isn't solved i am leaving the thousands of dollars of apps, etc that I have spent for apple, and moving over to google. Because this kind of bs is exactly why apple is going to die. When Steve Jobs was running things it was bad enough, not it seems even worse. At least Steve would give you a solution even it it meant it was his way of doing it. Now they refuse to let you have basic functionality, they want to do it automatically for you, in some archive that is completely useless, and not compatible with other photo editing software, etc.
I am really so beyond the pale frustrated right now.
Apple you are missing the bloody entire reality of this situation. I know everyone who owns an iphone is frustrated over this one issue. Not allowing people to see their files as a file folder. And then download at least images, movies, etc. If you cannot do that, then you are incompetent, because it is clearly not hard programming, or two, you are trying to purposely prevent people from having easy ways of doing things you think is not how you want to do it. Then you test your stupid system with 3 photos and download one and think you have a brilliant solution

Apple fix this issue which has been in iphones for over 10 years now.

Hey guys! I've been frustrated by this stupid bug for so long, as so many people I see on web. But I found a "smart' way to do that (since Apple doesn't bother to provide a normal function. Still can't believe it). So to get rid of all the pics you need to go to Moments and hover over the right side next to the title for each "Moment", then click +. It'll select all those pictures to make an album, but you can just throw them right into trash instead and never see this endless garbage again 🙂

I have the solution---> pay for dropbox's services instead (or use free version), it's essentially the same as icloud except they have an option to SELECT ALL........ all of this in a total of just one god **** click will select as many pictures as you desire. Icloud approaches this a little different apparently. imagine trying to select 3000+ pictures with the only current way of holding down command and still clicking 3000+ f***ing times. aand after this then applw has the audacity to tell me "well maybe you need to click lighter on your mouse" when I bring it to them in two pieces.

THIS ACTUALLY WORKS! It's a lot of steps and obviously apple is trying to keep you from doing this so you'll buy more space.

First you must download the iCloud for Windows or Mac app. Once you install it (and restart your computer) you open the app and click on options next to the photos. Under download to your pc, change the destination to an external harddrive if you have a lot of photos.

Now follow all this:

https://www.copytrans.net/support/how-to-transfer-your-photos-from-icloud-to-you r-pc/#icloudforwindows

Write an automated script to do attribute selection.

I remember writing javascript using console to select all canvas elements viewable on the page. It might help. Only thing here is you should have all the image (canvas elements) loaded on the page.

I figured out how to do it with my new computer. I have an HP Omen with windows 10. Seriously all I did was plug the phone into the usb and transferred to pics in computer. There was even a select all. Don't know if I found a glitch or what but try and see. Good luck and God bless

Agree 100%, I have no respect for the company any longer. They let you upload 10,000 pics at a click, but require 10,000 clicks to reverse it. Apple is sh.. like the rest. Retiring very soon and one bullet should be able to go through the Mac, ipad, and iphone easily!!! Computers can fly a plane, control 100 drones in tandem, and trillions of other awesome technologically impressive tasks, except Apple cannot figure out how to let people manage there files appropriately.

SickOfApplesBS wrote:

Agree 100%, I have no respect for the company any longer. They let you upload 10,000 pics at a click, but require 10,000 clicks to reverse it. Apple is sh.. like the rest. Retiring very soon and one bullet should be able to go through the Mac, ipad, and iphone easily!!! Computers can fly a plane, control 100 drones in tandem, and trillions of other awesome technologically impressive tasks, except Apple cannot figure out how to let people manage there files appropriately.

If you have a Mac that you are trying to download your photos to, it is a simple thing to select "Download Originals to this Mac". If you are attempting to download them elsewhere, why not explain what it is you are trying to do specifically, and we will see if we can help.

GB

I agree. To help, use the PhotoSync app and PC companion link. It costs $4 and downloads all the photos to wherever you want. You can also set it to erase once you’re done. Does it over WiFi.

That was the best solution I found.