How to Download Photos From iCloud
How to Download Photos From the iCloud Website
Whatever device you’re using, you can sign in with your Apple ID account to download photos from directly the iCloud website. It’s possible to download up to 1,000 photos at a time. If you need to download more than that, you must break it up into multiple sections.
This method creates a copy of your iCloud photos. That means the original photos are still available in iCloud and any edits you make to the downloaded photos don’t affect the ones in your iCloud library.
- To download photos from the iCloud website to an iPhone:
- Open Safari and go to iCloud.com.
- Sign in to your iCloud account and go to the Photos page.
- Tap Select and choose which photos you want to download by tapping them.
- Tap the More (…) button in the bottom-right corner, then choose Download. Confirm you want to Download the selection in the window that opens.
- Follow the progress in the Downloads button at the top-right corner. Your photos will save to the Downloads folder in iCloud Drive; you can find them using the Files app.
To download photos from the iCloud website to a Mac or Windows PC:
- Open your web browser and go to iCloud.com.
- Sign in to your iCloud account and click Photos.
- Click to select which photos you want to download. Hold Shift to select multiple consecutive photos or hold Cmd (Ctrl in Windows) to select non-consecutive photos.
- Click the Download icon in the top-right corner to start your download.
- If you download multiple photos at once, iCloud will save them in a ZIP folder.
How to Download iCloud Photos on an iPhone or Mac
When you choose to optimize your device storage with iCloud Photos, your iPhone or Mac only saves compressed versions of each photo on the device. It downloads the full-resolution version of each picture when you open it in the Photos app.
You can see the progress of this download from a circular icon that appears in the bottom-right corner of the Photos app. When this circle fills up, your photo pops into focus, and Photos switches to the full-resolution version.
These photo downloads are only temporary. Your iPhone or Mac reverts to the compressed version again as soon as you run out of storage.
To retrieve photos from iCloud permanently, use one of the methods below instead.
Export or Save to Files From the Photos App
Much like downloading photos from the iCloud website, you can use the Photos app to download a copy of your photos. These photos save in the Downloads folder on your Mac or the Files app on your iPhone.
To do this on an iPhone, open Photos and tap Select. Choose which photos you want to download by tapping or swiping. Then tap the Share button, scroll down, and tap Save to Files.
Your iPhone downloads the selected photos and saves them to the Downloads folder in iCloud Drive. You can view them using the Files app.
On a Mac, open Photos and click to select the photos you want to download. Hold Shift to select consecutive photos or Cmd to select non-consecutive photos. Then go to File > Export > Export Photo and choose where you want to save the downloads on your Mac.
Download and Keep Originals in Photos Settings
You can stop optimizing storage with iCloud Photos to download all your photos to your device. Your photos still upload to iCloud after doing this, which is how they remain available on other devices. But you won’t need to wait for them to download the next time you want to view a full-resolution version.
On an iPhone, open Settings and scroll down to find Photos. Select Download and Keep Originals.
On a Mac, open Photos and go to Photos > Preferences from the menu bar. Choose to Download Originals to this Mac.
You can view the progress of your downloads from the bottom of the Photos app.
