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How do I download all my photos from iCloud at once on a Windows or Mac computer? Step by step guide

How do I download all my photos from iCloud at once on a Windows or Mac computer? Step by step guide

Technology gives us significant advances every day that bring numerous advantages to our lives. Local storage systems have been displaced by cloud storage services.

Without a doubt iCloud is one of those fantastic services that allows us to host our files to keep them protected. Surely if you have an Apple device you have used it at some point . Although it was developed by the apple company, is currently also available on Windows and Android.

Its function is especially in archiving all types of documents. In the case of Windows 10 to download them, something complicated can be done, but there are still ways to achieve it. Below we will show you how to download all our photos from iCloud to Windows or Mac computers .

Steps to download all the iCloud photos at once on my Windows computer

If you use iCloud to store your content in the cloud you will surely know that this is a great service that gives us advantages over local storage. It competes globally with Google Drive (Android), OneDrive (Microsoft) and Dropbox, but at Apple level it is much more popular for being its native OS. That is why if you are using an iPhone and want to save multimedia files, it is the best option.

Now, if you want to access the information you have hosted in the cloud from any other platform you can do it without inconvenience. Much more you can also among other things download your images stored in iCloud from your Windows computer.

Downloading the application

Descargar Icloud

If we want to download all our photos to our computer in one fell swoop, we must download the iCloud application for Windows from the official website. It’s super easy, just click on the blue button described as «Download» , once it is completed we can install it.

Download iCLoud for Windows

Of course, before starting to use iCloud we will have to make a small break to restart the computer, this in order for everything to be installed correctly.

Executing and configuring iCloud

configurando iCloud

When we run the application for the first time we must access our Apple account . We will be in the main window with the possible elements that we can synchronize with our computer, then we make sure have activated «iCloud Drive» and «Photos».

We also have to make sure that the “iCloud photo library” option is active. To do this we will go to “Photos” and if not activated we will select it . In addition we will select a folder where we will save the download of all our photos.

fototeca de icloud

Downloading all our photos to the computer

When we have completed the previous step we will have iCloud set up and ready to download our photos in one fell swoop to the Windows computer. In the Windows explorer we will go to «This equipment», in the section of devices and units we will find «Photos in iCloud» , there we will click and enter.

descargar archivos de icloud desde windows

The following window will open and we will find two folders: «Uploads» and «Downloads». Above and to the left we will find the option «Download photos and videos», click there and a new window will be displayed that will show us the photos that we can download to the computer. We will simply select “All” and press permittedDownload accordingly.

descargar fotos y videos icloud

After executing the previous step only we have to wait for the download to finish. When it is ready we go to the «Downloads» folder and there we will have our photos downloaded from the cloud to our Windows computer.

How to export the entire iCloud Photo Library from Photos on a Mac computer?

If you are using a MacOS computer you can also download all the photos you have hosted on iCloud on it easily and easily if you follow the steps described below.

Activating synchronization

The first thing we have to do is go “System Preferences”> “iCloud”. There we will select “Options” next to photos and make sure that we have marked the option “iCloud photo library” or “iCloud photos”.

fotos de icloud

Selecting and exporting photos

In the “Edit” menu we will click on “Select all” or use the shortcut “Comd (⌘) + A” to Take all the photos. We will wait a few seconds, according to the amount of files the process may take.

Then we will go to the «File» menu and select «Export», there we will be shown a couple of options that are available to us.

exportar fotos de icloud desde mac

The first of these two options is «Export (X) items» that will allow us to export the total of the images in their original quality, but if you have modified any using the application it will retain the added edition .

The second option is «Export original unmodified for (X) items» which will be used to export the original images without any modification.

Once the desired option is selected, a window will appear in which we must select the image format and video quality in case we have. We will check the “Include location information” box, then we will have the option to choose if we want to save the photos in a folder according to moments.

The following is to click on “Accept”, there will start exporting these files . We must bear in mind that if there is a large number of files this will take a long time.