Best way to download my 2 TB of iCloud photos/videos to Mac external drive?

[swingerofbirch]

I have a 256 GB iPhone and 512 GB Mac. I don't use Photos on the Mac. I have 2 TB of iCloud storage that is now completely full (99% full with photos/videos). I want to download them to an external drive, erase them on iCloud, and start over.

What would be the best way to accomplish this? I have read that you can only download 1,000 photos at a time from iCloud.com and my Mac wouldn't have enough space to download all the originals.

I do have a new 4 TB external drive. Could I set that as the storage for the Mac Photos app and have them downloaded there?

 

[ctjack]

People have said that no limitation option is to request a copy from Apple. This will take couple days but they will come up with zipped/rar folders of all items that they have on you. From there it will be just a question of pulling 2 TB into somewhere.

Understand and control the personal information that you store with Apple - Apple Support

As part of our commitment to your privacy, we make it easier than ever for you to review and take control of the data that you store with Apple.

support.apple.com

 

[fatTribble]

If you don’t have your pictures in the Photos app you lose the live part of Live Photos right?

 

[gilby101]

I do have a new 4 TB external drive. Could I set that as the storage for the Mac Photos app and have them downloaded there?

My expectation is that this should work:
1) Create a new Photos library on the external drive.
2) Make that the system library. That should start downloading some photos.
3) Photos > Settings > iCloud and select "Download Originals to the Mac".
Some time later (when everything has been downloaded), you could export from Photos or just copy the originals directory to somewhere else.

 

[960design]

People have said that no limitation option is to request a copy from Apple. This will take couple days but they will come up with zipped/rar folders of all items that they have on you. From there it will be just a question of pulling 2 TB into somewhere.

This is the way.

 

[RhetTbull]

The free iCloud Photos Downloader tool can download them all to an external drive. @gilby101 's suggestion to create a library on the external drive would also work if you want to maintain the photos in the Apple Photos library ecosystem. With either solution you could periodically connect the external drive and rerun the downloader script or let Photos sync to download any new photos.

 

[cthompson94]

People have said that no limitation option is to request a copy from Apple. This will take couple days but they will come up with zipped/rar folders of all items that they have on you. From there it will be just a question of pulling 2 TB into somewhere.

Understand and control the personal information that you store with Apple - Apple Support

As part of our commitment to your privacy, we make it easier than ever for you to review and take control of the data that you store with Apple.

support.apple.com

I agree with this method too, easiest by far

 

[gilby101]

The free iCloud Photos Downloader tool can download them all to an external drive.

Looks like the answer to this (and many other) iCloud Photos questions.