How to download iCloud photos: No 1000 photos limit)

So you want to download iCloud photos for an offline backup? All 40,000 of them?

Apple makes it sound easy: Go to iCloud.com and log in with your Apple ID.Once you’re logged in, you can select the photos or videos you want to download and choose the download option.

Apple conveniently omits to tell you that you can download a maximum of 1,000 photos and videos at a time. And that these download in a zip file. So you need to do 40 separate exports, manually tracking what’s transferred and what remains. Then you unzip and merge all 40 folders and end up with a rather large folder containing 40,000 photos. No organization, no albums…a complete mess.

Photos Takeout Does It Better

Photos Takeout, available on the Mac App Store, can download those 40,000 photos and videos from iCloud in one shot. With just a few clicks. In folders organized by years or albums. Preserving full resolution, metadata and image formats. Painlessly and fast.

What is Photos Takeout?

Photos Takeout is the essential macOS app for exporting your iCloud and Mac Photos library. Popular with hundreds of professional photographers and photo organizers, it gives you complete control of the photos and videos saved in your Apple Photos library. It provides an intuitive, easy way to effortlessly download and back up your Mac and iCloud Photos library into organized, accessible folders.

If you are frustrated by the limitations of Apple’s native Photos app exports, just remember that Photos is designed to keep photos IN, while Photos Takeout is designed to get them OUT.

How is it better than exporting with Apple Photos?

• Customizable Exports: Export all or selected photos and videos by year, album, or date, creating a familiar and intuitive folder structure.
• Preserve Quality & Metadata: Maintain original image resolution, vital EXIF/IPTC metadata, titles, descriptions, keywords, and locations.
• Full iCloud Access: Fetches full-resolution versions from iCloud when “Optimize Mac Storage” is enabled. No “1000 photos at a time” limitation.
• Incremental Exports: Keep your exported folders up-to-date by exporting only new or modified files, saving time and storage.
• Comprehensive Format Support: Handles all photo & video formats, including Live Photos (exported as JPG + MOV).
• Maintain Organization: Preserve your custom arrangements within albums and mirror complex folder-album hierarchies.
• Broad Compatibility: Compatible with all macOS and Apple Photos versions from High Sierra to Sequoia. Runs seamlessly on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

Why Can Apple Photos Be So Good?

Unlike the rudimentary export function of the native Photos app, which lumps all your files into a single, jumbled up folder and can discard crucial metadata, Photos Takeout ensures your memories are exported perfectly.

• True Offline Backup: iCloud is a syncing service, not a backup. Photos Takeout create a real, accessible offline backup of your entire library in an organized format.
• Reduce iCloud Storage Costs: Easily offload photos and videos from iCloud while retaining a fully accessible copy on your Mac or external drive.
• Seamless Migration: Extract your image assets for migration to other photo management programs without losing organization, edits, or metadata.
• Effortless Management: Find your exported library in neat, well-structured folders for easy browsing and management.

Photos Takeout simplifies complex tasks, empowering you to manage even multi-terabyte libraries with just a few clicks. Download the free version today to experience the fastest, most reliable way to secure and organize your digital memories.

Where to Find Out More?

Visit our website for a detailed user guide and personalized support: www.photostakeout.com.

Download the free evaluation version on the Mac App Store.

PS: If you are downloading photos to reduce iCloud storage, PhotoSort is a nifty little app that sorts the Photos library by file size and aesthetic quality. These are two more things that the Photos app doesn’t do. Sorting thus can help identify the biggest space hogs in your library, and also poor quality pictures, random screenshots, pictures and memes saved from the internet etc. that you may want to delete.