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Hoonose Author

Level 1

10 points

Move iPhone images from iCloud to external device - don't want to store in Photos for Mac app

I want to remove all the photos from my iCloud storage (stored there from my iPhone).

I want to move the images to a USB flash drive (via my MacBook) and then gradually sort them out.

I do not use the Photos app on my MacBook - it has no images in it at all. (My app of choice is Corel AfterShot Pro). I don’t really want to start using the Photos app. If I understand this right, it means my pics will be referenced images.

I have read that, before I download the images from my iCloud account, I need to adjust the Photos app preferences on my MacBook so that these images will not be loaded there:

The instruction is to go to Photos > Preferences > General and then deselect the “Copy items to the Photo library” tick box

BUT! Under the Photos drop-down menu, the “Preferences” link is faded out (i.e. inactive) - and I can’t find out how to change that.

Is this because I’ve never used the Photos app before (I’ve had the MacBook for a few years)? How do I get into Photos > Preferences? Or, is there another (easy!) solution?

As mentioned in previous posts, I’m old and a bit slow, computer-wise - any simple guidance will be really apppreciated. Thanks!

Posted on Oct 7, 2019 4:48 AM

Top-ranking reply

Hoonose Author

Level 1

10 points

Posted on Oct 7, 2019 7:23 AM

I seem to have (amazingly!) worked this out for myself. It turns out that downloading images from my iCloud storage to my MacBook automatically puts the pics into the laptop's Downloads Folder (even puts them in a tidy iCloud folder of their own!). From there I just drag them all into the connected external device and the job is done.

Everything I read previously suggested to me that the images would definitely go into the Photos app (which I didn't want). For whatever reason, this hasn't happened to me.

Sometimes, I get a win :)

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Move iPhone images from iCloud to external device - don't want to store in Photos for Mac app

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