[iMore Question]

I am a paying iCloud user and I can't download my photos from iCloud. Here are some details:
- I have a very good internet connection
- I am using a Lenovo T490 computer with Windows 10.
- I am trying to download photos in batches of 50 to 100 at a time (comes as a zip file)
- If I start ten of these batches, usually anywhere from only 3 to 5 succeed. The others fail. And it isn't always the first ones which succeed.
- I am pressing and holding the download arrow, then selecting download original.

Obviously a workaround would be to select one photo at a time and download it. But since we're dealing with well over a couple thousand photos, it would be far too tedious that way. And without trying it first, I have no way of knowing if I would encounter the same problem doing it this way.

Does anyone have a solution?

[Tartarus]

I am a paying iCloud user and I can't download my photos from iCloud. Here are some details:
- I have a very good internet connection
- I am using a Lenovo T490 computer with Windows 10.
- I am trying to download photos in batches of 50 to 100 at a time (comes as a zip file)
- If I start ten of these batches, usually anywhere from only 3 to 5 succeed. The others fail. And it isn't always the first ones which succeed.
- I am pressing and holding the download arrow, then selecting download original.

Obviously a workaround would be to select one photo at a time and download it. But since we're dealing with well over a couple thousand photos, it would be far too tedious that way. And without trying it first, I have no way of knowing if I would encounter the same problem doing it this way.

Does anyone have a solution?

Why not install iTunes for Windows and let it download the photos to a folder of your choosing?

If you have any questions, please register here to our forum. We love to help.

[Annie_M]

Why not install iTunes for Windows and let it download the photos to a folder of your choosing?

If you have any questions, please register here to our forum. We love to help.

Yes, absolutely! Welcome to iMore!

[Lee_Bo]

Why not install iTunes for Windows and let it download the photos to a folder of your choosing?

This would be my suggestion.

Another possibility is that iCloud is limiting bandwidth for downloads.

[Ed7789]

It is possible that it could be server-side resource constraints. Compressing files can be very intensive.

Like others suggested, I would try the iCloud app for Windows (available on the Microsoft Store): https://forums.imore.com/e?link=http...token=chCREJAq

[Chris Cook5]

i’m trying to help my aunt and I have never done this myself. how do you do this if you want to download one picture that you do not have on your phone?

[TGB77]

My apologies, but this was my question. Not sure why it allowed me to post a question without me logging in.
@Tartarus - would iTunes for Windows permit me to select the photos I want to download? Or does it simply download all? I'm only looking to download everything I have from around October of last year.

I also spoke with Apple about this: I spoke with Apple regarding the unreliable downloads and they suggested I try a different browser. While using Firefox or Mozilla is easier to manage the download attempts than using Chrome, it still succeeds with about 30-70 % of them. I am wondering if a brief network dropout and recovery - even one as short as a microsecond - could cause these downloads to stop and not resume when the network recovers.

I also saw this: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1248685489328140290

It is troubling to see something like this. It suggests there really is a problem with users hand selecting the photos they wish to download.

[Tartarus]

My apologies, but this was my question. Not sure why it allowed me to post a question without me logging in.
@Tartarus - would iTunes for Windows permit me to select the photos I want to download? Or does it simply download all? I'm only looking to download everything I have from around October of last year.

I also spoke with Apple about this: I spoke with Apple regarding the unreliable downloads and they suggested I try a different browser. While using Firefox or Mozilla is easier to manage the download attempts than using Chrome, it still succeeds with about 30-70 % of them. I am wondering if a brief network dropout and recovery - even one as short as a microsecond - could cause these downloads to stop and not resume when the network recovers.

I also saw this: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1248685489328140290

It is troubling to see something like this. It suggests there really is a problem with users hand selecting the photos they wish to download.

iCloud for Windows simply downloads everything.
You can then select the photos you wish to keep and copy them to a different folder.
If you delete them from the folder they’re initially downloaded to, you will also delete them from your iPhone. It works both ways.

[TGB77]

@Tartarus - I have over 40,000 photos and only need to download a few thousand of those. To download all of them would take a lot of extra time. Plus it is unclear if iCloud for Windows downloads the original or the edited version. A sync would likely work - in which I could navigate through my photos via Windows and just select the photos I wish to copy and paste. However, I'm not sure how something like that would allow the user to get the original rather than the edited version.

[Tartarus]

@Tartarus - I have over 40,000 photos and only need to download a few thousand of those. To download all of them would take a lot of extra time. Plus it is unclear if iCloud for Windows downloads the original or the edited version. A sync would likely work - in which I could navigate through my photos via Windows and just select the photos I wish to copy and paste. However, I'm not sure how something like that would allow the user to get the original rather than the edited version.

What do you exactly mean with edited photos?
Did you edit them yourself or do you mean the compressed version?
iCloud for Windows downloads (syncs) photos as is.
The version that you have saved on your iPhone will be the one that’s downloaded (synced).
This is a background process, so you don’t have to actively do something to get them on your phone except for setting up iCloud for Windows once on your computer.

[TGB77]

What do you exactly mean with edited photos?
Did you edit them yourself or do you mean the compressed version?
iCloud for Windows downloads (syncs) photos as is.
The version that you have saved on your iPhone will be the one that’s downloaded (synced).
This is a background process, so you don’t have to actively do something to get them on your phone except for setting up iCloud for Windows once on your computer.

Again, thanks for your feedback.

An edited photo is one which the user (me) has made modifications to (e.g. cropped, enhanced the lighting, remove red-eye, change to black & white, etc.). If this is done in the iPhone (where I edit many photos), there is absolutely nothing to indicate it is an edited photo when viewing in iCloud or on the phone - unless the edit is obvious such as an edit to black & white. However, once it is downloaded to Windows, an edited photo is a JPEG and an original is a JPG. That definitely helps.

I tried iCloud for Windows and was not happy with many of its limitations - one of which was I couldn't select which photos I wanted to download, and another was that it wasn't clear to me if it was downloading the original or the edited version of a photo which I had edited. So I switched to drag and drop. That worked until I filled up the capacity of my phone. Shortly before reaching that point, I switched to optimize storage at which time I could no longer rely on drag and drop. So it made sense to retrieve the latest photos from iCloud. To revert to iCloud for Windows would be like going backwards 100 steps just to move forward 10 steps. I don't need, nor do I want the benefits of iCloud for Windows. That isn't what the thread is about. This is strictly about downloading photos from iCloud.