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how to download photos from icloud to an external drive

how to download photos from icloud to an external drive connected to an imac

Posted on Jul 14, 2020 10:07 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 14, 2020 10:12 AM

Transfer few photos to an external hard drive .

Select few photos https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht40b0be510/3.0/mac/10.13 from system photo library and export https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht6e157c5f/mac to a desired location say download folder in finder and connect an external hard drive to the Mac , then transfer( drag and drop ) the photos from download folders into the external hard drive see this https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mchl027f1d66/mac


To transfer all the photos saved in photo library .

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264

And its preferences https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht5156cc968/4.0/mac/10.14 , open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht6d60d10f/mac


Read this : Back up the library in Photos on Mac - Apple Supportsupport.apple.com › en-in › guide › photos › Mac

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 14, 2020 10:12 AM in response to Tymama

Transfer few photos to an external hard drive .

Select few photos https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht40b0be510/3.0/mac/10.13 from system photo library and export https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht6e157c5f/mac to a desired location say download folder in finder and connect an external hard drive to the Mac , then transfer( drag and drop ) the photos from download folders into the external hard drive see this https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mac-help/mchl027f1d66/mac


To transfer all the photos saved in photo library .

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264

And its preferences https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht5156cc968/4.0/mac/10.14 , open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht6d60d10f/mac


Read this : Back up the library in Photos on Mac - Apple Supportsupport.apple.com › en-in › guide › photos › Mac

Jul 15, 2020 3:17 AM in response to Tymama

See the article https://support.apple.com/guide/image-capture/transfer-images-imgcp1003/mac

You can set up photo library https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264

And its preferences https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/photos/pht5156cc968/4.0/mac/10.14

As you wrote - I did try to download a few from icloud -- and all the dates/metadata were gone --it was a mess, I would like to keep the dates too.

Photos are not downloaded by dates https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT209454

Jul 14, 2020 11:01 AM in response to tygb

thanks - but I want to download the images from icloud (shot on my phone) to my external. I used to use Image Capture and just download from my iphone directly to the external connected to my iMac. but my iphone is so small that i opted for a bit of icloud. I did try to download a few from icloud -- and all the dates/metadata were gone --it was a mess, I would like to keep the dates too.

Do I HAVE to download from icloud to Photos in the imac first?


how to download photos from icloud to an external drive

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