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How do I download photos from iCloud directly to an external disk?

I am looking for a very basic thing:

I want to copy / download multiple photos and videos from my iCloud (via Photo App) to an external HDD.

The photos have been taken with my iPhone, and have already been uploaded to iCloud, so I can see them both on my iPhone(s) and my MacBook. However, when I select the files I want on my MacBook Photos App and click Export, the Photos App tries to first download all the files to my local disk instead of directly to the external one — there are about 40GB of data, so I don't have that much free space on my MacBook, but that shouldn't matter because I should be able to download them directly to my external drive.

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), Photos App

Posted on Sep 19, 2018 12:15 AM

Best reply

tygb

Level 9

64,588 points

Posted on Sep 19, 2018 3:26 AM

Connect an external hard drive to your Mac , click on finder and take cursor on top menu bar > Go > Home > pictures > directly drag and drop the Photos Library.photoslibrary over the external hard disk icon to get it merged see this article System Photo Library overview for Photos on Mac - Apple Support

By default, your System Photo Library is stored in the Pictures folder on your Mac, but you can move it to another location on your Mac or store it on an external storage device.

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How do I download photos from iCloud directly to an external disk?

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