iCloud store contacts, calendars, photos, music, books, apps and much more in the cloud and access them from anywhere on any device. You will get 5GB of free storage space when you sign up for iCloud. You need to download & install the 'iCloud Control Panel for Windows' application on your computer to download the photos from iCloud. After downloading the app, My Photo Stream is set up by default. To turn it off, click 'Options' button and then turn off 'My Photo Stram'.
That’s how you download photos from iCloud.com onto a computer or device. This works the same with any web browser, so it doesn’t matter if you’re on a Mac or Windows PC, Android, or Linux, you’ll be able to download the pictures from iCloud this way.
Following are the steps to Download Photos from iCloud to Your Computer:
- Download 'iCloud Control Panel for Windows' on your computer & launch it.
- Go to https://www.icloud.com/ & sign in to your account.
- Once you have signed in to your iCloud account, click 'Photo Stream'.
- Click 'Options' button, you will see 2 options 'Download folder' and 'Upload folder'.
- Click 'Ok' button.
- Click 'Apply' button and then 'Close' button to close the window.
- Click on the Windows start button.
- click 'Pictures' from the Windows start menu.
- Locate the 'Photo stream' folder and open it.
- You will see two folders 'My Photo Stream' and 'Uploads'.
- Click 'Photo Stream' folder to see your photos stored on iCloud.
- Select the photos which you want to download.
- Copy those photos and paste them on your desktop.
- This is how you can download photos from iCloud to your computer.
Quick Tip to ensure your Photos never go missing
Photos are precious memories and all of us never want to ever lose them to hard disk crashes or missing drives. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your photos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. Simply download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your photos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all photos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.
Photos are precious memories and all of us never want to ever lose them to hard disk crashes or missing drives. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your photos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. Simply download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your photos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all photos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.
iCloud Photos uploads new photos and videos from your Windows PC so you can view them in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac, and on iCloud.com. New photos that you take automatically download from iCloud Photos and you can choose to download your entire collection by year.
Here's what you need
Before you get started, you need to sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID. Just follow the set up instructions for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch or Mac. Then follow these steps to turn on iCloud Photos on your PC with Windows 7 or later.
Learn more about iCloud system requirements.
Turn on iCloud Photos
- Download iCloud for Windows.
- Open iCloud for Windows.
- Next to Photos, click Options.
- Select iCloud Photo Library.
- Click Done, then click Apply.
- Turn on iCloud Photos on all of your Apple devices.
You can also choose to use My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing (Shared Albums), and customize the location of your upload and download folders.
When you turn on iCloud Photos on your PC, My Photo Stream is turned off automatically. If you want to send new photos to your devices that don't use iCloud Photos, you can turn My Photo Stream back on.
Upload your photos and videos to iCloud Photos
You can upload your photos and videos from your PC to iCloud Photos when you follow these steps:
- Open a File Explorer window.
- Under Favorites, click iCloud Photos.
- Click Upload photos and videos.
- Choose the photos and videos you want to upload and click Open.
You can also drag and drop photos and videos from your PC into the Uploads folder in iCloud Photos. You can view the photos and videos you uploaded in the Photos app on iCloud.com and on all your Apple devices.
Download your photos and videos from iCloud Photos
New photos and videos you add to iCloud Photos will automatically download to your PC. You can also download your collection by year when you follow these steps:
- Open a File Explorer window.
- Under Favorites, click iCloud Photos.
- Click Download photos and videos.
- Choose the photos and videos you want to download and click Download.
Your photos and videos download to the location you set in iCloud Photos Options.
Learn more
If you need help managing and using iCloud Photos with your Windows PC, you can learn more.