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User profile for user: Steve_SW
Steve_SW Author
User level: Level 1
13 points

Download originals of only a specific album in photos app on Mac

Hi there, I have hundreds of albums of photos that were taken on an iphone. These all show fine on my Mac. My problem is, I want to be able to drag and drop from the photos application into another app. This only works if the originals are downloaded to the machine. How can I just download originals on a specific album from within the photos app? And when I'm done pulling photos into the other app (which sucks a copy in), I want to revert the album back to optimised storage.


Thanks all!

Mac mini, macOS 11.3

Posted on May 4, 2021 6:47 AM

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,903 points

Posted on May 4, 2021 7:53 AM

Hi,


There is no way to set a specific album to "download originals" - it is all or nothing.


The best way to force a download of specific images is to export them (select all in the album, then file>export). But once you've exported them, then you may as well put them into the other app from the folder you've exported to.

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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,903 points

May 4, 2021 7:53 AM in response to Steve_SW

Hi,


There is no way to set a specific album to "download originals" - it is all or nothing.


The best way to force a download of specific images is to export them (select all in the album, then file>export). But once you've exported them, then you may as well put them into the other app from the folder you've exported to.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
196,989 points

May 4, 2021 11:28 AM in response to Steve_SW

It used to be possible in the older versions of Photos, up to macOS 10.14 Mojave. Then we could simply ctrl-click an albums and use the command "Download originals". But this option has been removed since macOS 10.15. Now you should view a photo enlarged in Photos to force a download from iCloud, before you drag the photo into another app. You cannot force the optimisation, however. That is fully automatic.


I would not use drag -and-drop anyway to pass a photo to another application. This will share the current preview and we have no control over the quality of the preview. It is safer to use the command "Image > Open with ..." or to use "File > Export" and select the quality for the exported version. Then we can be sure, what will be passed to the other application.


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Download originals of only a specific album in photos app on Mac

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