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iCloud Photos Downloader

github.com

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Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#11

Post by hu3 »

kccqzy wrote: post #6
reconnecting wrote: post #2

Surprisingly, there is no official way to download all (400 Gb) photos from iCloud. Here is an open-source command-line tool to download all your iCloud photos.

That’s not true. On any Mac or iPhone you can choose the iCloud Photo Library storage option to download all instead of letting the system optimize the storage. And if you turn off iCloud Photo Library, it will also try to download it all. I know this because I stopped using iCloud Photo Library and that was how I got all my photos downloaded.

that's good to know. can I then download the photos from iPhone to a backup hard-drive or transfer to a folder in my computer?

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#12

Post by hackpelican »

hu3 wrote: post #11
kccqzy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not true. On any Mac or iPhone you can choose the iCloud Photo Library storage option to download all instead of letting the system optimize the storage. And if you turn off iCloud Photo Library, it will also try to download it all. I know this because I stopped using iCloud Photo Library and that was how I got all my photos downloaded.

that's good to know. can I then download the photos from iPhone to a backup hard-drive or transfer to a folder in my computer?

Yes over USB 2.0 until recently.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#13

Post by nemothekid »

reconnecting wrote: post #2

Surprisingly, there is no official way to download all (400 Gb) photos from iCloud. Here is an open-source command-line tool to download all your iCloud photos.

I think if you are on PC. But on Mac with the Photos App

Cmd+A > File > Export Unmodified Originals

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#15

Post by netsharc »

dwayne_dibley wrote: post #10
tra3 wrote: post #5

Does anyone know if there’s a way to self host/impersonate iCloud? I’d like to back my iPhone up locally.

Immich is probably the best option

I'm sure grandparent meant to modify it so they'd just have to click "Backup to cloud" on their iPhone and instead of the iPhone sending their files to Apple's servers, it sends them to a local backup server...

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#16

Post by caminanteblanco »

I mean can't you go to privacy.apple.com, ask for an archive of your data, and then they'll email you the link to a zip file in a week or two? I'm pretty sure this is what my girlfriend did when she transitioned from an iPhone to a Pixel. I think there's even a specific checkbox for photos/videos

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#17

Post by ericj5 »

Wow, I will definitely give this a try. I have tens of thousands of photos in iCloud and I literally can’t export them all at once. Photos app chokes and crashes and manually babysitting smaller batches is a pain. It’s pretty clear they want to make it as hard as possible

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#18

Post by possiblerobot »

kccqzy wrote: post #6
reconnecting wrote: post #2

Surprisingly, there is no official way to download all (400 Gb) photos from iCloud. Here is an open-source command-line tool to download all your iCloud photos.

That’s not true. On any Mac or iPhone you can choose the iCloud Photo Library storage option to download all instead of letting the system optimize the storage. And if you turn off iCloud Photo Library, it will also try to download it all. I know this because I stopped using iCloud Photo Library and that was how I got all my photos downloaded.

+1 to this method. After optimise storage is disabled on the Mac, wait for all photos to download. Then, open the photos library bundle and you'll see every photo there, full res. Copy them wherever you like.

Also, if you leave optimise storage disabled and continue to use Photos, every photo will be cloned in any local or cloud backups of your machine. This strategy creates additional photo redundancy separate from iCloud while still benefiting from library syncing.

Re: iCloud Photos Downloader

#19

Post by CSDude »

All my vertical videos in iCloud show up cropped horizontal for some reason. If I go to edit I see the whole video. I really do not want to trust any cloud provider to maintain my years of archives of family photos and videos. Glad things like this exist. I just need properly date-foldered files, without no duplciates. Is that so hard?
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