iCloud is a great place to store photos as it means you can access them on all of your devices, from anywhere in the world. But downloading photos to your Mac has its benefits too.
First of all, Mac has greater disk space than other iOS devices and dwarfs the 5GB of free storage offered by iCloud. You can also easily connect an external hard drive for extra storage whenever you need it. As it's recommended to backup your photos in more than one place, keeping them on your Mac makes sense. That way, you’ll be able to access them offline.
Secondly, Mac is the best platform from which to organize, manage, and edit your photos. Apps such as Spotlight and iMovie and third-party tools like Adobe Photoshop give you control over your images that no other device can offer.
Recently, I had the same question and went to the Genius Bar for help. Sync your iCloud photos with Photo App (the native Mac one) 2. Photo App Preferences iCloud tab Tick iCloud Photo Library Download Originals to this Mac and also T.
Then choose Download Originals to This Mac. Photos will now attempt to download all the media stored in your iCloud Photo Library to the external drive. You can interrupt the process by quitting.
But whatever your reasons, you’ve come here to find out how to get pictures from iCloud so let’s get into showing you how to do exactly that.
First, make sure your Mac has enough disk space
If you plan on downloading all of your iCloud photos to your Mac you could be looking at quite a few gigabytes, particularly so if you’re on one of the paid iCloud storage plans. So before you download, you need to check that you have enough space on your disk.
How to check your available hard drive space
On macOS 10.7 or later:
Select About This Mac from the Apple menu.
Click More Info, then click Storage.
On macOS 10.6 or earlier:
Open a Finder window.
Select your hard drive from the sidebar.
Go to the File menu and click Get Info.
If available space is looking limited, you’ll need to remove some of the things you don’t need to make room for the incoming photos.
How to clean up your startup disk
If you’re running macOS Sierra or higher, Mac has a built-in Optimize Storage feature that stops your hard drive becoming full by moving files over to the cloud. The problem is, it moves them to iCloud which might well be already full with photos. So it’s not ideal.
Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on Optimize Storage. You can go ahead and free up space yourself by cleaning up cache files, getting rid of localization files, removing old iOS and iTunes backups, and emptying out the Trash. Be warned, though, not all of these methods are quick and straightforward.
If you like to know how to free up disk space manually, check out our article on “What is Startup Disk Full on Mac OS?”
Right now, though, we’re just going to show you the easy way to get rid of old files and free up space. This way involves CleanMyMac X. This utility tool scans your entire system for junk files and removes them in minutes to free up gigabytes of space.
You can download CleanMyMac X for free here. Do it now.
Download Icloud Photos To Mac Hard Drive Recovery Software
..Done it? Great! Here’s how to perform a Smart Cleanup to rid your system of unneeded files in a few clicks.
Launch CleanMyMac X.
Click on Smart Cleanup from the sidebar.
Hit Scan and wait while CleanMyMac scans your system for junk files that can be safely removed.
Hit Run and enjoy a whole lot more disk space.
How to download individual photos from iCloud
Now that you’ve made room for your photos, let’s look at how to download from iCloud to Mac. If you want to pick and choose which photos to save to your computer, you’ll need to download images individually.
Here’s how it’s done:
Open a browser and go to iCloud.com, then log in with your Apple ID.
Click on Photos.
Click on any photo that you want to download. When it loads, click the download icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Repeat with every photo that you want to download.
Downloading individual photos is quick and easy. Unfortunately, when clicking on the download icon, there is no “download all” option. That’s because no such button exists. We wish it existed and we hope that Apple will include it in future versions of iCloud, but for now, we have to make do with a workaround.
Because Apple also decided to remove the ability to Shift+click in iCloud.com, you'll need to download files in bulk from the Photos app on your Mac.
Here’s how:
Open Photos.
When all of your images load, use Command+A to select them all.
Open up the folder where you want to save the images.
Drag the highlighted images into the folder. A green + icon and red number showing how many photos are about to be saved to your Mac will show.
That’s it, job done!
You should make a regular habit of downloading images from your iCloud account to your Mac or external hard drive as an additional method of backup. It’s easy to do and ensures you can access your precious photos even if you have no internet connection. Before downloading in bulk, make sure to check how much disk space you have available and use CleanMyMac X to quickly free up a few gigabytes.
Are you still confused by how to copy photos from iCloud to external hard drive? Follow this guide you can easily move your favorite photos from iCloud to any external hard drive.
iCloud Transfer Tips
Transfer Data to iCloud
Export Data from iCloud
Sync iCloud with Other Sources
For most of the iOS users, iCloud is the very choice they choose to backup iPhone data, especially photos. As long as you enable iCloud Photo Library and connect your iDevice to Wi-Fi, you can easily save all your photos to iCloud for preservation.
As time goes by, more and more photos are stored in iCloud. If you want to transfer these photos from iCloud to an external hard drive for further use. How can you do that? Hence in this article, we will introduce two ways to help you easily transfer photos from iCloud to external hard drive. One is to download iCloud photos from the web browser, the other is to take advantage of a third-party tool.
How to Download iCloud Photos to Computer
As iCloud offers storage for users to save content, it also enables users to download it back. This method will introduce the way to export iCloud photos to the computer from the website, please follow the step-by-step guide below to see how to do it.
Step 1. Go to iCloud.com on your computer, log in with your Apple ID.
Step 2. You will see the interface as below when you log in.
Step 3. Choose Photos to start to manage your iCloud Photos.
Step 4. Find the photos you want to save to the external hard drive, click the download button on the upper right corner.
Download Selected Photos to the Computer
When the downloading process is finished, the photos you choose are successfully exported to your computer. Then connect your external hard drive to the computer via a USB cable, copy and paste the downloaded photos to it.
Download Icloud Photos To Mac Hard Drive Mac
Transfer Photos from iCloud to External Hard Drive with AnyTrans
The Tool You Need – AnyTrans for iOS
To download iCloud photos from the web browser, you can only choose photos one by one. It is pretty inconvenient for users who want to bulk download iCloud photos. Here to solve the problem, we find a third-party tool to help. AnyTrans for iOS is a professional iOS data management tool, which can help you easily manage your iPhone/iPad data like notes, music, photos, etc. Besides managing iOS data, AnyTrans for iOS adds a set of functions of managing iCloud contents to keep your iCloud files and data in the right place, like:
AnyTrans – iCloud Manage Tool
Support managing iCloud contents, including Photos, Videos, Contacts.
Enable to directly back up iOS files to iCloud from iDevice or computer.
Support downloading contents from the iCloud to PC or hard drive.
Support deleting multiple or unwanted iOS contents from iCloud at once.
Free Download100% Clean & Safe
Free Download100% Clean & Safe
Step 1. All mac miller albums. Download AnyTrans for iOS and launch it on your computer > Click iCloud Manager > Sign in your Apple ID > Connect your external hard drive to the computer.
Transfer iCloud Photos to External Hard Drive with AnyTrans – Step 1
Step 3. Choose Photos you want to transfer > Click the Select button to change the export path > Select your external hard drive > Choose one Folder > Click “Next” to start transferring iCloud photos to your external hard drive.
Transfer iCloud Photos to External Hard Drive with AnyTrans – Step 3
1. You’ll not be allowed to log in your iCloud account on the third-party software with turning on TWO-STEP VERIFICATION, so please turn it off temporarily.
2. You can also use this method to copy contacts, calendars, notes, etc.
Also read: How to Transfer Photos from iPhone/iPad to USB Flash Drive>
The Bottom Line
In this way, you can easily save iCloud photos to your external hard drive both on PC and Mac. Moreover, AnyTrans for iOS can help you transfer other kinds of iOS data like songs, videos, ringtones, etc. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Download AnyTrans for iOS to start a pleasant transfer tour.
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