Sign in to iCloud to access your photos, videos, documents, notes, contacts, and more. Use your Apple ID or create a new account to start using Apple services.
Did you recently get a new iPhone? Perhaps you upgraded, or your last one had an untimely demise. Either way, in this situation you’ll be grateful for iCloud backing up and syncing all of our stuff. Especially your pictures. But now you’re probably wondering how to get those photos from iCloud.
Well, keep reading, and we’ll go over all that — and cover some things you should try to avoid.
How to retrieve photos from iCloud
If you just want to download select images from your iCloud library, you can actually do so from the Photos app on your iPhone:
- In Photos, go to Shared Albums
- Open an album
- Select the image(s) you want to download
- Tap the Share button in the bottom left corner
- Tap “Save Image”
The picture(s) you just saved should now appear in your Camera Roll. You might have to scroll up to find them, as the Camera Roll saves pictures in chronological order with the most recent at the bottom.
Before you download all photos from iCloud to your iPhone
In the scenario where you want to download your entire iCloud photo library to your iPhone, make sure you have enough storage first. If you’ve been using iCloud for a while, then there’s the possibility that your photo library is too big to fit on your iPhone. A good practice before attempting to download all your iCloud photos is to scan them for redundant pictures, like similar shots, old screenshots, and the like.
To do that, download Gemini Photos for iPhone and run a scan. Gemini will analyze the previews of your photos, stored locally on your phone, and help you quickly delete unwanted duplicates. When you delete the preview, it will also delete the original from iCloud. Here’s how it works:
- Allow Gemini Photos access to your photo library
- After the app scans your library, it will group your photos into categories: Similar, Clutter, and Other
- Tap on any of the categories and review the photos the app suggests deleting.
- Move all unwanted pics to the Trash
- Tap Empty Trash
How do I download all my photos from iCloud?
If you’re reading this to learn how to get all your photos from iCloud on to your iPhone, then you’re in luck — it couldn’t be easier.
- Go to Settings > Photos
- Toggle on iCloud Photos
- Select Download and Keep Originals
Note: If you opt for Optimize iPhone Storage, it will reduce the resolution of your photos.
Downloading pictures from iCloud to iPhone couldn’t be simpler. Whether you’re retrieving only one photo or your entire library, you’ll be glad you had everything backed up to iCloud. And if you want to download your iCloud photos to a different device, we published a guide to accessing iCloud photos on a PC, Mac, and iPhone. Check it out.
Apple's iCloud Photo Library service works flawlessly to sync and back up your images and video to iCloud — but if you're serious about keeping your irreplaceable photos and video safe, you'll want a redundant (second) backup.
That can take the form of a local backup on your own drive or an external source, a secondary online backup, or both. Here's how to do it.
How to back up iCloud Photo Library to your Mac's hard drive
The best way to back up the images and video in iCloud Photo Library is to make sure you're downloading all your content onto your Mac.
Note: If you plan to back up your entire digital library to your Mac's hard drive, you'll likely want to do it on a desktop Mac with a 1TB drive or higher. Otherwise, consider backing up to an external drive.
- Launch the Photos app on your Mac.
- Click Photos in the App menu in the upper left corner of your screen.
- Select Preferences from the drop-down menu.
- Click the iCloud tab.
- Click Download Originals to this Mac.
How Do I Download Photos From Icloud To My Pc
Your Mac will now download full-resolution copies of all your images to your Mac's hard drive, stored inside your Photos app library.
![Icloud Icloud](/uploads/1/2/4/8/124897973/873394615.png)
How to back up your iCloud Photo Library content to an external drive
There are two ways to back up your iCloud Photo Library to an external drive: by backing up your Photos library automatically, or manually. (You can also export sections of your library, if you don't want to back up the whole thing.)
Back up your Photos library automatically
If you've turned on the Download Originals option for your Photos library, you can back up your Photos library as part of your regular backup routine. Whether you use Time Machine, or clone your hard drive using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy, your Photos library (and all images and video automatically downloaded from iCloud) will be backed up as well. (And if you don't currently use a backup service, well.. now's a good time to start!)
Back up your Photos library manually
If you've turned on the Download Originals option for your Photos library but don't want to back it up automatically, you can always copy your Photos library to an external drive at regular intervals.
- Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
- Open a new Finder window on your Mac.
- Go to Users > [username] > Pictures.
- Drag your Photos Library to your external drive.
- Wait for it to copy.
Create an external library for backing up iCloud Photo Library
I recommend setting a bi-weekly reminder for these steps, so you keep your Photos library regularly backed up.
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How to back up portions of your iCloud Photo Library
Don't want to back up your entire library? You can export individual images and video to your external drive.
- Connect an external drive to your Mac via USB, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.
- Open the Photos app.
- Select the photos and video you want to back up.
- Go to the File menu.
- Select Export > Export Unmodified Original For # Photos or Videos or Export # Photos or Video.
- Select an option for File Name and Subfolder Format, and then input your text as desired.
- Press Export.
- Choose your external drive.
- Press Export Originals.
How to make an online backup of your iCloud Photo Library
Even though your entire iCloud Photo Library is (as the name implies) stored online in iCloud, it's worth considering a second online backup as one of your redundancies.
If you store your entire iCloud Photo Library on your Mac
Good news: If you already use a service to back up your hard drive and you've synced your full iCloud Photo Library to your Mac, it's easy to back it all up. (If not, consider it a good time to start!)
If you don't store your iCloud Photo Library on your Mac
If you don't store your iCloud images locally, this is a bit trickier: you can use the external drive method to export portions of your library to an external drive, then sync that drive to your preferred online backup service, but it's a bit more labor-intensive. In general, this is why I tend to recommend backing up your full library to your Mac or storing a library on an external drive.
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Any iCloud Photo Library backup questions?
Have any questions about how to back up your iCloud Photo Library, or about backups or iCloud Photo Library in general? Drop them in the comments below!
February 2019: Added steps to exporting individual images and videos to an external hard drive.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.
iCloud Photo Library: The Ultimate Guide
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