How to move your photos from iCloud to a Mac
Some people want every photo in the Photos app on their Mac. Others want the files themselves, ones they can open in Finder and copy to a drive.
What's on your Mac with Optimize Mac Storage turned on
With iCloud Photos turned on, your library looks fully downloaded. But if Optimize Mac Storage is on, the Mac keeps smaller copies when space runs low, and the original downloads from iCloud when you open a photo. So seeing a photo in Photos doesn't mean its original is on your Mac. Before you sign out of iCloud, make sure the originals you need are downloaded.
To see which setting you have, open Photos and go to Settings > iCloud.
Option 1. Download the originals into the Photos library
In the same settings, choose Download Originals to this Mac. Photos starts downloading the full-size files, and the progress shows at the bottom of the Library view.
The photos end up on your Mac, but inside the Photos library. That's one big package, and it's not something to dig around in by hand. The library also needs room for every original, so a large one fits on a MacBook with 256 GB only if you first move it to an external drive.
Option 2. Export from Photos to a folder
Once the originals are downloaded, you can export them as ordinary files. Select the photos, choose File > Export and pick Export Unmodified Originals. The files land in the folder you choose.
You still need room for the whole library. The export also doesn't remember what it has already exported, so six months later you'll have to pick out the new photos by hand.
Option 3. Copy from iCloud straight to a folder
PicFrom downloads the originals from iCloud one at a time and writes each one straight to a folder on your Mac or an external drive. You don't need to turn off Optimize Mac Storage, and the library doesn't have to fit on the internal disk.
- Download PicFrom, open it from Applications and click Get Started.
- Click Save Photos and choose the folder or drive where the archive will be kept.
- Click Continue and allow full access to your photos.
The photos go into date folders, for example 2021/2021-08/2021-08-14, and you can browse them right in Finder. When you have new photos, click Save Photos again. It only downloads what isn't there yet.
PicFrom saves each photo the way the camera took it. If you cropped a photo or added a filter in Photos, the archive also gets the edited version, with _edited at the end of the file name. You need a Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later.
Can I free up iCloud after the move?
Yes, but check the copy first: the summary at the end should show 0 under Not downloaded and no Left in iCloud, and files from different years should open. While iCloud Photos is on, a photo deleted on any device disappears everywhere. It stays in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and after that you can't bring it back.