How to transfer ALL iCloud photos to iMac?

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Level 2

213 points

How to transfer ALL iCloud photos to iMac?

I have about 1,000 photos in iCloud and would like to transfer them to my iMac, but I have found no way to "Select ALL" so they can all be downloaded to my iMac at once; the only way I have found to download photos from iCloud is to select them individually, then download, which would be very time-consuming.

I have searched the support community for a method to accomplish this but, so far, have found none, other than uploading my entire photo library from my iMac to iCloud and having iCloud then keep full-size copies on my iMac. But, since I have many more photos on my iMac, and this would require a paid iCloud subscription instead of the free 5GB I currently have, I am loathe to use this method.

Thanks for any suggestions.

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), 8 GB

Posted on Aug 19, 2018 11:00 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tygb

Level 9

64,598 points

Aug 20, 2018 4:48 PM in response to E. Kennedy

See this article Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

First , open your photo application , in system photo library - take cursor on top menu bar > edit > click on select all .

On your Mac with OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 or later, open the Photos app. Choose Photos > File > Export.

Click on export in above screen shots , open finder in the downloads folder you will find all your photos .

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Answer 2

E. Kennedy Author

Level 2

213 points

Aug 20, 2018 4:59 PM in response to E. Kennedy

thanks for the help, FoxFifth and tygb.

Tygb, I wasn't able to "select all" as I had hope to do, which meant I would need to command-click each picture to highlight it, while at the same time not unselecting the previously-selected photo. However, taking your solution as a starting point, I discovered that, if I select/highlight the iPhoto Events folder, then command+a, all the individual events will be highlighted at once. Once that is done, I can then proceed as you suggested and File>Export the entire contents of the iPhoto Events folder, after which the photos may all be selected in the same manner, then go to the menu bar>Image>Delete Albums which, if I do it in that order, will hopefully empty my Photos library and then I can sync my iCloud Photos with my Mac Photos and, I hope, empty my iCloud Library, freeing up that space on my iPhone, while saving my photos to my Mac. The only downside would be that these photos will no longer be accessible from my iDevices.

Thanks, again!

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Answer 3

FoxFifth

Level 10

469,107 points

Aug 19, 2018 3:50 PM in response to E. Kennedy

One option would be to use two Photos libraries on your Mac. Create a new one and designate it as the System Photo Library and then turn on iCloud Photo Library. Since the new one would be empty when you create it there will be nothing to upload. The disadvantage of course would be that your photos would be in two libraries on yur Mac.

See:

Designate a System Photo Library in Photos - Apple Support

The following is about moving a photo library but also has information about creating and opening multiple libraries: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

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How to transfer ALL iCloud photos to iMac?

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