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restore icloud photos without upgrading storage

I have 13,000 photos in iCloud. I want to download them, and then stop using iCloud for photo storage. I know of two ways to accomplish this, but both have problems.



1. I could go to icloud.com and manually download the files. However, I do not see a select-all option. Clicking on each photo one by one 13,000 times is too much.\


2. I could connect to iCloud from the Photos app. However, even though I am only downloading (not uploading), I can't find a way to connect Photos to iCloud without first paying extra for more storage space since my current photo library is even larger.



What should I do to get my photos from iCloud?

Posted on Sep 16, 2018 9:20 PM

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See this thread for merging two photo libraries How to restore photolibrary from Icloud,

A second method is export photos from system photo library to a desired location say download folder in finder , then connect an external hard drive to the Mac then transfer the photos from download folders into the external hard drive , and all your photo data is saved .

If you desire how many selected photos see this article Select and deselect photos in Photos on Mac - Apple Support are to be deleted in system photo library folder , you should select them and delete to recently deleted folder see this article Delete photos or recover deleted ones in Photos on Mac - Apple Support ( its your choice to delete them permanently immediately or after 30 days the photos will be removed from the iCloud server ) .

In this way the complete photo data is still on external hard drive , but the space is reduced in photo library .

See this article to export photos Export photos, videos, and slideshows from Photos on Mac - Apple Support

Posted on Sep 16, 2018 10:47 PM

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3 replies
Question marked as Best answer

Sep 16, 2018 10:47 PM in response to Mt. Fuji

See this thread for merging two photo libraries How to restore photolibrary from Icloud,

A second method is export photos from system photo library to a desired location say download folder in finder , then connect an external hard drive to the Mac then transfer the photos from download folders into the external hard drive , and all your photo data is saved .

If you desire how many selected photos see this article Select and deselect photos in Photos on Mac - Apple Support are to be deleted in system photo library folder , you should select them and delete to recently deleted folder see this article Delete photos or recover deleted ones in Photos on Mac - Apple Support ( its your choice to delete them permanently immediately or after 30 days the photos will be removed from the iCloud server ) .

In this way the complete photo data is still on external hard drive , but the space is reduced in photo library .

See this article to export photos Export photos, videos, and slideshows from Photos on Mac - Apple Support

restore icloud photos without upgrading storage

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