Sorry. Should have posted this in MacOS. Just trying to reclaim my massive photo and video collection from ICloud onto my IMac..

[pamela_astara]

Greetings Good People.

I am having a bear of a time reclaiming my 43k+ photos and videos from ICloud back to my IMac (10.12.6). I have plenty of memory onboard, but the process of downloading 43k originals to my Mac is taking forever and eating up all of my data allowance.

I ultimately want to turn off the ICloud syncing of photos & movies permanently so I can have free offline access. FYI, I haven't updated my OS in quite a while because I don't want to lose my many legacy apps.

Is there a quick and easy way to batch download the photos and movies from ICloud and maintain the complicated album and folder structure I have created over these many years? Perhaps there is a third party app I can use?

Thanks in advance.

 

[0128672]

If you're sure you have enough storage space available on your iMac, go into Photos > Preferences > iCloud, and select Download Originals to this Mac. Make sure you're backing up your photos on your iMac too.

There's more info about turning off iCloud Photo in this Apple Support article:

If your iCloud Photos aren't syncing to your device - Apple Support

If your photos or videos won't sync to iCloud Photos on your device, learn how to check the status of your photo library and what to do if you see a status message.

support.apple.com

I have to say your thread title is over the top for such a simple request, in all caps no less. And no idea why you've posted it in iOS 10 when it's a macOS app question. You're new here, so maybe next time tone down the hyperbole.

 

[pamela_astara]

If you're sure you have enough storage space available on your iMac, go into Photos > Preferences > iCloud, and select Download Originals to this Mac. Make sure you're backing up your photos on your iMac too.

There's more info about turning off iCloud Photo in this Apple Support article:

If your iCloud Photos aren't syncing to your device - Apple Support

If your photos or videos won't sync to iCloud Photos on your device, learn how to check the status of your photo library and what to do if you see a status message.

support.apple.com

I have to say your thread title is over the top for such a simple request, in all caps no less. And no idea why you've posted it in iOS 10 when it's a macOS app question. You're new here, so maybe next time tone down the hyperbole.

Hello.

Thanks for your quick response. Yes, I am new to this forum. Also new to IOS vs macOS, and/or extremely stupid. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll delete that extremely offensive all caps amped up "hyperbole" post and do a kinder and gentler re-post in the macOS forum. Thanks you for your very generous observation.

 

[0128672]

Hello.

Thanks for your quick response. Yes, I am new to this forum. Also new to IOS vs macOS, and/or extremely stupid. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll delete that extremely offensive all caps amped up "hyperbole" post and do a kinder and gentler re-post in the macOS forum. Thanks you for your very generous observation.

The moderators can move this to the macOS forum for you. Just tap the Report button in your original post and ask them to move it.