Downloading all photos from iCloud Photo Library without Photos app

I have an iCloud account with about 800 photos stored in iCloud Photo Library. I’m trying to move them to a Mac and delete them from iCloud in order to clear up space.

I tried to connect my Mac to iCloud Photo Library by going into the Photos app’s preferences; however it then asks me to upgrade to a paid iCloud storage tier because I have over 5GB worth of local images that Photos wants to sync to iCloud.

So I don't think using the Photos app is going to work for offloading pictures to a Mac.

I then logged in to the Photos app at iCloud.com. I was able to select and download individual images, but it won’t let me select more than one at a time, so I can’t download them all in bulk. Selecting the first image, holding down the ⇧ shift key, then selecting the last image causes only the last image to be selected.

I could click on all 800 images while holding the ⌘ cmd key, but that’s obviously very tedious.

What’s the most efficient way to download images from iCloud Photo Library to a Mac that can’t connect to iCloud Photo Library without upgrading to a paid plan?

Solution 1:

I highly recommend ndbroadbent's fantastic Python program the icloud_photos_downloader project. The project repository can be found at his Github account: https://github.com/ndbroadbent/icloud_photos_downloader.

There are some great instructions on installation and use in the project README. Once installed, you run the program to download all your photos to a directory called foto_folder; from the terminal

./download_photos.py ../foto_folder [email protected] --password=myp@ss --size=original --download-videos

And viola, it does its magic.

I've also posted this answer here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/311787/271502

Solution 2:

Go to https://privacy.apple.com/account , sign-in and request download for photos.

You can request a copy of the data that Apple stores which is associated with your Apple ID. This information includes, but is not limited to:

Your Apple ID account details and sign-in records.

Data that you store with iCloud such as contacts, calendars, notes, bookmarks, reminders, email, photos, videos, and document.

^{from https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208502}

Solution 3:

Now, you can just hit Control-A on the iCloud Photos page, and it will select all the images and videos. Then just click Download on the top right.

Solution 4:

I was able to figure out a workaround for this. It will force the underlying structure to select all of the photos on the page and allow you to click the download selected photos button. It will download them all separately as if you had selected all of the photos by hand (but without RSI).

You need to use Chrome dev tools. I am sure you can do it with other browsers, I just haven't tried. The following steps are involved, and I would appreciate if someone can tell me how to get the "this" value for the object I need in a simpler fashion (steps 4-10).

Here's the steps:

Make sure chrome dev tools is closed.
Go to photos in iCloud, then All Photos
Right click any photo on the page and select Inspect.
Click Sources tab at the top of dev tools.
In network hierarchy on left, open photos, www.icloud.com, applications/photos, 1807Hotfix1/en-us, main.js
Click braces {} at bottom of the sources window to format the code.
Search for case r.a.TOGGLE: (should be around line 25845)
Set a breakpoint on the line above which is a switch statement.
Click on any photo in the main window.
Go back to dev tools and see the scope window (below source for me).
Right click on "this" variable and choose Store as Global Variable.
Look in the console. Should see something like temp1 which is set to this.
Remove the breakpoint in the source window.
Click the Resume Script Execution button in main window.
Go to the console, and type the following and press enter:
```
temp1.selectAll()
```
Nothing appears to have changed, but it has underneath.
Now click the download selected items button at the top.
You will now see a bunch of downloads happening.