Amazingly comprehensive and easy to follow. This took so much legwork or guesswork out of what I need to do. I have 1.6 TB of photos and videos and I wonder which option would be the least painful or "fast".
I also have 1.6TB--let me know if you have an answer by now! Thinking of downloading the entire Library as a backup (like option 3) and then deleting all the files I don't absolutely want to keep, hopefully down to just about 5000 files instead of 65000+
I would put them on an external hard drive if that's one of the options that you're considering... iCloud is an awful choice. I was blown away at how horrible it is. I give it a 1/10 - I still use it because I paid for the storage but it truly sucks haha
Nicely done, sir! Best one is the last one. Apple makes it notoriously hard to do this because they don't want to lose their icloud business. As a photographer, it's super cumbersome to work with anything iCloud so I'd rather have copies of the originals on an external hard drive. Thanks again!
If you simply have the "Optimize" option off then you have the best of both worlds: Everything in iCloud so you can see your photos on all devices, plus all photos (originals) on your local drive too.
Gary at last I have found a simple way to get originals on to an external drive Thank you,just one question after downloading my photo library to my external drive and returning to my Mac library how do I get new sets of photos and videos originals into my external photo library
Excellent overview! Another option that works well is to use a different Mac or Windows computer (if you or a family member has an extra one to use, possibly with an external drive attached) so that you don't have to jump through as many hoops, and you can keep it going without having to think about it.
Glad I watched till the end of the video. I am merging my old photos library into an already existing iCloud library on a new Macbook I got. I am now downloading my (already existing) iCloud library to my local drive before attempting to load my old library to iCloud.
Very timely Gary. My new computer will be here next week. My new hard drive came yesterday and I was contemplating how I’m going to get all my info from my MacBook Air to go in my new one. Thanks again for a great video.
The BEST video I have found for downloading my 33,000+ photos to a backup drive! My question is, how do I redirect my photo library after I have completed this (I used the option to create a new photo library in the external hard drive) But I am not sure how to get the photo library back to the way it was on my mac. Thank you for help!!
Thank you so much! I'm so fed up with iCloud. I could not for the life of me figure out how to get my photos out. I'm looking forward to trying these steps
Maybe just move your videos? The way I handle it is pictures are in Photos, videos are kept as files elsewhere. That keeps the size of my Photos library way down.
I've tried the option 3 that creates a second library to duplicate iCloud photos. However, what wasn't mentioned in the video is that this option requires external drives with the filesystems of APFS or MacOS extended. My Mac is running Sonoma 14.1.2 and it seems like older MacOS was used in the video?
i love your videos they are so helpful and useful, ever since i got a macbook, i started to follow your channel because ive never used a macbook before so i had to learn it all from your youtube channel thank god for that you really saved me so much hassel. thank you so much. Laura in uk
The last method was the best!! Really great video. I spent so much time finding a way to move my huge photo library from icloud, but this video will likely solve my problem!! I will try it out. Thank you!!
An extremely clear and well done explanation. If you use the approach of creating a new library (e.g. on an external drive), what is the best approach to updating that every few months? Hopefully only adding new items/changes. I'm guessing that you can switch the library that Photos uses by pressing the option key and choosing the library you created months ago, and it will automatically sync with iCloud. Asking in case I'm getting the wrong end of a stick - or there is another approach which has any advantages.
It’s like you’re reading my mind on topics I need to do!!! Do albums I create in my library sync with iCloud??? I want to make new albums and if I make a new blank library in the future and sync that one, I’m curious if it will remember my albums.
If you go with the last option to get your pictures through the privacy request, do you get the full resolution versions of everything? I think I’m going to try this route since I’m not in a rush and downloading in batches of 1000 is a hassle. I just want to make sure I won’t get compressed or lower quality images. Thanks!
Thanks for the help! with the prices apple is charging for local storage i've been trying to find a way to get my icloud to sync to my eternal drive rather then the tiny ssd. Your tutorial hit it on the nose.
Thanks man, I think you must be an angel. You have an amazing ability to explain things in the easiest way possible and in a way that actually works. How did you figure out all this? I am very impressed with that and grateful for this excellent guide! The problem I have is that if I do a complete reset of my Mac, a clean install and then restore the data from a current Time Machine backup, everything works smoothly. Except the Photos app. Photos will ignore the restored copy of the Photos Library package and will re-download absolutely everything, and since I have around 40,000 photos and 200 videos, that will take forever… All night. Why is it so dog slow? It’s not the 56k modem era any longer. I have a lightning fast fiber connection but iCloud sync is as slow as molasses.
hi! I had a question, for option 5, does it remember the created date of each of the photo? when I downloaded from iCloud directly all of the dates were changed to the date I downloaded the photos.
Thanks for this. I have two of/on topic question. I had an Iphone 11 pro and recently got a 15 pro. Before it was not an issue but now when an iCloud syncs the photos to my comp my portrait photos on the computer show as normal photos. No blur behind. I think I managed to solve this by going to iCloud and click "More download options" and select "Unmodified originals". I don't like this because it is not automated in a way it was with the previous phone. Now comes the second question. What about the function where the phone recognises a person or a cat or a dog and makes a portrait option. How do I activate that and then download it accordingly?
Not sure what you are doing here. You talk about iCloud sync and then switch to taking about exporting photos (Unmodified originals). Those are two different things. When you sync to your Mac it should look the same on your Mac as on your iPhone while in the Photos app. Maybe you are using a much older version of macOS as compared to iOS? So you don't have the portrait photos options on macOS? For instance, for the People function to see pets, you'd need macOS Sonoma on your Mac just as you'd need iOS 17 on your iPhone. That feature is new to those 2023 versions of the operating systems.
Thank you! With files/ documents, I simply dragged a files that contained documents and some photos from the iCloud region & into the home region of my Mac ( I mentioned that on another video). All documents and pics that were in those files will definitely have downloaded & be on my actual hard drive? I’m worried now lol! I also dragged a bunch of files directly from iCloud to an external drive and assumed they would be on the hard drive to now. But based on this, it sounds like they may not be?
Given my Mac mini has only 256Gb of internal storage, my photo library (700Gb+) is sitting on an external 1TB SSD and I'm also backing it up through Time Machine on a separate external 2TB SSD. This way, I always have 3 copies of my photo library, including iCloud and it works well.
Next time, go with a much bigger Time Machine drive. SSD gives you speed, but you don't need speed for a backup. You need size. Go with a 12TB (or thereabouts) HDD instead.
@macmostvideo I used the fifth option via the data privacy option. Now I have many photos that can not be sorted by date anymore. They could beforehand in iCloud Photos, but now I have a lot of pictures with cryptic names and rarely date information. How can I get them via the privacy option with adequate metadata? Or is there a way to sort them still? I have a lot of photos.. I appreciate your help. Thank you
How are you trying to sort them? Keep in mind metadata is inside the files and is different than the file info like the file date. An image file can have a created date that is right now, but the metadata inside the file would hold the date and time the photo was taken.
Hi Gary, great video thank. I am using your information to download my 97,000 photos and videos to an external drive. Long process I know. I have one issue and hope you can assist. I have requested and received Download your data from Apple. I have 28 files of 25GB each. So far so good! I have found I need to set my watch to 14 minutes as the session keeps expiring - if I aren’t within the given 60 seconds I loose everything I have downloaded. Is there a way around this please.
thank you so much for this extremely informative and helpful video. I did option 3 (new library on external hard drive) and it is currently downloading all my photos/videos. However my next step is where I am a bit confused on how to proceed. I would like to delete older photos/videos from my icloud to free up some space. What is the best way to do this? If i delete directly off the site, I will no longer be able to sync with this new library as it will then delete the same older photos/videos due to syncing. If I keep making new libraries, I'll be duplicating files over and over. What's your advice on clearing up space on icloud without affecting the new library backup/avoiding duplicates?
Great information. Tried the last item getting info from privacy apple site. I choose 25gb file size and eventually two zip files where created and made available. Problem is in downloading them. I have fiber internet and it is solid but when I start downloading the first file it eventually dies after several gigs have been downloaded. I almost suspect it fails on Apple's side. I am sure we all stream many gigs of data watching TV and I have downloaded 100 gb games from steam and never have a problem. Anyone have any thoughts or tips?
I tested this out myself and had no issues downloading. Maybe your ISP selectively throttles? Streaming is always treated differently than downloading (otherwise Netflix, etc, wouldn't work at all for anyone). I also think Steam does some package-like system for downloads too. Steam may even pay ISPs for better downloading bandwidth (not sure, but I know some services certainly DO).
Amazing video, immediately subbed. A 5 year old could follow these instructions. Another issue that almost everyone who tries this will face is the date on the photo. I have seen your reply on a question in comments saying not to confuse the file creation date with the metadata date. Could you please explain in more detail or even make a video on it? Cos i have scoured the net and youtube and couldn’t find anything satisfactory. Also may be that its a very straightfwd thing that everyone is just supposed to know and may be Im just dumb.😂 But there are probably other thousands of such ppl searching for this same answer right now. 😊
A file contains data. When you create a new file, it has a date, name and the data inside. The date is the file creation date. Inside the file is the data. In the case of a photo, the "photo" is the pixels of the picture, but also metadata: camera type, focal length, ISO, GPS, etc. Also the date and time the picture was taken. So that would be the metadata date that is part of the photo.
So what basically happened to me when downloading 830 familypictures from Icloud webb was that when automatically creating a zipfile it does not save the date of when the picture was taken. Basically making it worthless. Since I do not care about when the file were created as a zipfile or what camera fokus, oixels yadayada it had. The ONLY data I actually care about was when the picture was taken. So to sum up this options and all others using zipfile to transfer= Dont do it!
Bro thank you so much. I was ready to pull my hair out trying to do this but then #2 saved me. I couldn't do #1 for some reason because I don't have that "settings" button when I open photos. Weird, but #2 worked 👍so can't complain
I need this video right now. Plenty storage on my Mac . I don't want to pay Apple £££ months after month after month until ... ?? forever?? I was thinking of using Apple "help" but not so sure about that one. So thanks a lot brilliant Apple Mac tutor Gary! Hopefully it's not too hard. .
Gary, any idea which of these methods (if any) preserves the create date? When I download pics/videos off of iCloud the create date is the download date, not the date the pic/video was taken.
Don't confuse the FILE creation date with the metadata creation date of the photo inside the file. If you open the file in Preview, you get look at the EXIF info and see the metadata date. Importing it into an app like Photos again will use that metadata as well.
Yes, I understand that difference. I want to file create date to match the metadata create date as this makes it much easier to sort and review photos in Finder. When you take them directly from your phone they maintain this correlation. Do you know if there is a way to get them off of iCloud while maintaining file create date matching the metadata create date?@@macmost
Thank you for this video I was in the middle of downloaded 1,000 at a time from icloud.... no biggie it would just take me about 90 trips to get them all downloaded. I don't know why... however the apple guy that we first got our iphones with put my whole family on one account which has messed up everything for years. I finally had had enough, can't wait to finally be free and on my own account lol!
Serious Question: Hi Gary, appreciate the video. I've downloaded my library to my Mac, I've located the most space taking files from my Photos Library on my computer ("Show Package Content..."). Here's the question: Knowing the MacOS file name, how do I find these in my Photos App to permanently delete them?
Great video! Fyi, #3 - remember to format to APFS. Macmost has made a great video on this topic too! "iCloud Photos is only available on macOS Standard, macOS Extended and APFS formatted volumes." Crucial x6 external ssd
So, to be clear it has nothing to do with Sonoma. It is simply that your external drive is formatted for Windows, not Mac. Do you use the drive for Windows? If not, then why have it formatted for Windows as you'll run into issues like this and more.
@@macmost Though, getting the "Unable to load video / An error occurred while loading a higher-quality version of this video" on every video after downloading was completed. Any idea to why?
Great video gary! On that very last part of transferring to Google, does it really transfer full resolution to Google or slightly compressed versions, as I believe Google charges for full resolution.
It should be the full resolution photos. Anything less wouldn't make sense. Not sure how Google charges for things or how it could know if they are full resolution or not (compared to the original).
Thank you for this in depth tutorial. I have a question though; I tried using the direct iCloud method, where you sign in and select the photos to download. I have an external drive I want to use on my Mac, but when I did a test photo and hit the download button, no choices come up for where to download to. It just downloaded it to my Mac straight away. I do not have enough space to store that many photos on my Mac. How do I enable using my external drive?
Hi, I followed your advice and set up an external disk to become my photo library which is quite huge- and it worked, absolutely amazingly - until last month. Sadly, now has stooped - asking me to repair it but it doesn’t really work anymore. Are you aware of any trick please to make it work again… it was so cool not to depend on Apple for a little while… hope there is a way back! Really looking forward to your help again. Best!
The idea was to use the external drive to download a COPY of your photos. For backup, for instance. Then switch back to your normal library after that. Maybe do that now?
@@macmost thanks for your reply. Basically I just left the photos to sync every time I plug the external disk (La cie pro) - and it worked amazing because I need to have access to them where I work which has poor internet connection and downloading them from i cloud is a nightmare. I just don’t know why it stopped working and trying to figure out if there is a problem with my disk or apply saw the door open and shut it… Obviously will have to back up again - try your other suggestions which for 40000 photoes is quite a pain. But thanks a lot!
@@rookie3961 Apple didn't "shut it" or anything like that. So maybe a problem with that drive? It is a shame that a poor Internet connection is stopping you from using iCloud Photos because that's exactly the problem that it solves.
Thanks for this, just a quick question. I have "Optimise Mac Storage" turned on. I would like to download all the photos orginals to iCloud. But I would like to know what size in term of GBs would be the additioanl download. My hard drive is a 2tb and is over half full allready. Is their anyway I can find the download size of turning off "Optimise Mac Storage".
Thank you for this useful tutorial, as usual it is very helpful. just few questions: - if I use the option 3 with Second Library, what happens if I want to resync this library after few months, and e.g I have deleted few items in the ICloud library, we'll it sync based on Icould ( one way ICloud --> Library) or it will upload the deleted photos from the library on my external hard drive to ICloud too ( 2 way sync ICloud Second Library). - Using the option 3 with Second Library, I can only open this library in my mac using the Photos App right? so it would not be possible to open it in another PC or with Finder as an image or video file? - I always struggle to export a live photo, it is either exported as a still photo or as a folder containing both a photo and a video, if I do so and I want to import the live image to the library, shall I import the whole folder of the Live photos? Will be combined them together into a live photo or they will be 2 items ( a still photo and a video). Thanks in advance for your feedback :)
It would merge them, so you'd end up with your deleted photos back. So you don't want to do that in your situation. Instead, just repeat from the beginning with a new library. Photo libraries are opened with the Photos app. If you want to have files, then you should export as files instead. You can't re-create a Live Photo from a photo and a video.
@@macmost Is merging always additive? If I repeat method 3 every so often is there a chance syncing with the one on the external drive will remove photos I’ve subsequently synced to iCloud?
@@michaellee7203 You wouldn't want to use method 3 using the same secondary library as you did before. Doing so would ADD photos you deleted back to your iCloud Library. It would create a mess.
@@macmost I have seen a method where you log on as another user account in your Mac, using the same iCloud account to have one full synced library and at the same time have the optimized version with your regular user account. This sound like possible. Have you tested this?
@@Olavosten Interesting, but seems overly complicated. I assume you mean the full-sync one would point to an external drive, right? Not sure of the point though. If this is a desktop Mac, and you want to have 100% of the photos there but didn't get a big enough drive, then just do the external library for your one and only account. If this is a portable Mac, then just use iCloud "optimized." Backup occasionally using one of these techniques if you like, but a second account will just make things complicated.
You create very useful tutorials. I have a poor memory, is it possible to down load a transcript of your tutorials? I am thinking of Pages, Photos & iMovie . Thanks for your work. G.
You can copy it from RU-vid if you know how. But I also put it right on the page at my site. Click on the link at the very top of the description to go there and see the transcript.
Thank you for your video. I have the space to do the first option and in testing it on 10 photos, the exported photos are now in 5 different folders because they were taken on different dates. Did I do something wrong? Do any of the options avoid putting the photos into folders by dates?
MAHALO soo much, Gary! Youʻre always spot on with your information! By any chance, would you have any information on why my iPhone photos are not syncing to my iCloud even though I have enough storage on both my phone and iCloud? THANK YOU again for creating ease in grace with all of your wisdom!
Just check your iCloud Photos settings on both devices. Use iCloud.com to determine if the problem is the photos getting uploaded (they would be at iCloud.com if they are) or downloaded to the other Mac. If you can't see anything wrong in the settings, then call Apple Support so they can walk you through things.
I noticed that downloading files from the iCloud website (one at a time or in groups), the photos download with a "date created" of today, not the original creation date of the photo. I had the option to "download unmodified original" selected. Any ideas on why it isn't downloading with the original photo creation date?
I just noticed that if you take a photo in 16:9 the iPhone (13) saves the photo in 4:3 format. But when i view the photo in the photo app it displays it in 16:9 format. However when i export unmodified the photo it saves it in 4:3 format. So the camera always takes the picture in 4:3 format even selecting 16:9. But shows it as 16:9. It just crops the 4:3 photo🙄
tried the method 3, but my ssd was not ready to be used like that for a mac, so make sure you have prepared and formated your new instance beforehand, so you don't actually loose some photos.
I just got the 2nd method you used to work for me. The only question I have is. When I export a file it says 0% the whole time but still exports successfully is that okay that it says 0%?!
Hey I’m planning on doing this soon. Do any of these methods take away the original files from iCloud? Or are they all like a copy paste type deal? Thanks for the video by the way, very helpful.
@@macmostso I actually ended up doing option 4 and it for some reason downloaded more than what was said to be on the iCloud. Even after precisely doing 1000 at a time. They are also all over the place & not organized. Is there a way to organize them in order.
@@B-Ryee If all you have are files, then there's no sort of automatic organization you can do, probably. If you want them to be organized then the other methods could be better. It really depends on the REASON why you are downloading all of your photos.
Also, my old library disappeared when I did the library option. Have no idea how to get it back or where to find it. I am now back at this video trying to see if I can back track but no luck
Oh hi thanks. I went back into photos to switch libraries but there were no library options. I also tried searching for the library but couldn’t find. Will try looking again. Thanks for responding! I’m not freaking out because I think they may have been backed up - somewhere…
Great video. One. question - when you copy the photos library file (the container of all your photos and videos) to an external drive, how can you access the images/videos inside of that container? Thanks
@@macmost thanks. I've decided to use the method of downloading originals to the Mac then the CMD-A (copy all) and have exported them to my NAS. I used to do that with the iPhone connected to a Windows PC and accessed the photos folder via Windows Explorer. But this method that you've shown us doing it from the Mac is much quicker (and easier to do). Thanks again for the videos. It's appreciated.
ok even a year later still the best guide. one question though. Is anyone having an issue where they try to download to an external drive and the download keeps stopping? the size of my icloud library on the ext drive hovers around 8GB, when i have 300GB up on icloud. so weird. I wonder if it's a system optimization thing since I am using a macbook and not a mac desktop. but I am really confused. I want to force it to download everything as fast as possible lol.
@@macmost appreciate the reply! That would be an easy solution but don't think it's that :/ think my mac is doing some stupid optimization and only downloading when it thinks the system isn't busy. At least that's my hypothesis. The internet doesn't seem to be affected by anything so I think it's my laptop
@@seansull I don't know of any optimization like that. But I do know that with some ISPs if you try to download huge amounts of data from the same location quickly, it throttles it back. Don't know if that is it, of course, but it is what I would suspect.
Many thanks Gary. That is very useful but, if I understand you correctly, the internal library is also stored on iCloud. If that it right, can I safely use iCloud as my photo back up?
iCloud provides some safety as if you lose your Mac or it is destroyed, then you still have your photos in iCloud. But it doesn't protect you from things like you accidentally deleting some photos. So most people want a real backup other than just having your photos in two places. For the general concept: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yM-hbmpTfgI.html
Thanks so much Gary. This has been mega helpful today. I wish i'd seen it sooner. Would you know if there is free software that would check for duplicate photos on my external hard drive? - The time and effort you put into all your videos is greatly appreciated. I'm always checking for new ones.
@@KimMunday No good way to do that. You just have to look through what you've got and clean things up manually. Organize the files while you are at it.
These are great tips and I appreciate the video and your dedication! I've been trying to figure out the best solution for quite some time and keep putting it off because it's just such a pain in the butt. I'm at a point that I'd love to clear our phone storage of old photos without buying more icloud space. I've tried downloading them through the method where you request the photos data download link from apple, but the issue I encountered with that method, is that the metadata doesn't seem to follow the downloads... is there a solution to that?
