How To Download iCloud Photos to PC – 3 Easy Steps!

If you’re the unfortunate user of an iPhone + PC + Windows combination like I am, then you might have had the same problem at some point as I’ve had today: you have no idea how to download iCloud photos to your PC, all at once, without saving them one by one. In my case, due to laziness and lots of traveling in the past few months, I now have 7,500 photos on there that I really need to get “back”.

I tried logging on to iCloud.com, but apparently, this newest version only lets you pick one photo at a time and then download it. Ain’t nobody got time for dat! Next, I tried getting my photos back via my phone, but that didn’t really work either. After endless googling and surfing the Apple support groups I think I found the solution: a secret little download button on my very computer!

So, just in case anyone else is struggling with this, here’s some directions to…

How to download iCloud photos to your PC

1. Download the iCloud app for PC. First, you’ll need to install the iCloud manager app from this page. Once you’ve installed it and logged in, it should look something like this:

2. Take a look in the lower corner of your screen. Fingers crossed this will work for you too, now: as instructed by another friendly user on the Apple support forum, you’ll now have to look to the lower left corner of your screen. You know, down where your printer / clock / battery and all that other little info resides.

See the little iCloud logo? For me, it looks like this.

3. Next, click on it! It should offer you the following options:

iCloud Photos: download photos / upload photos

And once you click on the “download photos” one, it should give you the option of selecting all of your iCloud photos or year titled folders. From there it’s easy breezy, just leave your laptop as it is and it’ll eventually sort out your photos into your iCloud Photos / Downloads folder (located under your iCloud folder).

I’m currently in the process of downloading my 7,500 photos and so far, it’s looking good.

By the way… I swear they’re not all selfies. I just pretty much take photos of everything I see when traveling. But from now on, I might choose to transfer them manually onto my computer so I stay a bit more organized!

Happy downloading ?

-Tiia

PS: Do let me know if this worked for you. Please also note that this worked for me with the current iOS, the current version of iCloud and a Windows PC laptop – it might not work later (in which case, I’d appreciate if you’d let me know so I can make a note in this post!) or might not work with other combinations.