Problem downloading photos from iPhone Photostream to Windows

It seems that Apple dropped the ball with the new iCloud services for Windows. I've had the exact same issue on 3 different machines and iPads/iPhones from different family members.

What worked for me:

1. Make a backup of your PhotoStream folder on your PC.

2. Open the Windows Task Manager (CTRL-SHIFT-ESC) and kill the following processes if they are listed:

   • iCloudService.exe
   • iCloud.exe
   • AplePhotoStreams.exe
   • ApplePhotoStreamDownloader.exe
   • APSDaemon.exe

3. Then go to the following locations and delete the whole folders (or move them somewhere else for backup):

   • Your photostream folder:
     C:\Users\<YOURNAME>\Pictures\My Photo Stream

   • Mediastream Data folder:
     C:\Users\<YOURNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MediaStream

4. Then run iCloud directly:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Internet Services\iCloud.exe

In theory, things should sync again with the following caveat:

• Only pictures taken in the last 30 days will be synced.
• At most 1000 pictures will be synced (if you took that many in the last 30 days).
• Try some of the other solutions from the Thread My Photo Stream is empty with iCloud Control Panel 3.0 from the Apple forums.