How to Transfer Photos from iCloud to External Hard Drive on Mac/PC

If you are looking for a way to transfer photos from iCloud to external hard drive on Mac or Windows PC, check this post and learn the simplest and quickest way to transfer photos from iCloud to external hard drive on Mac or PC.

sofia albert
Sofia Albert updated on Dec 20, 2023 | Home > iOS & Mac Topics

iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone/iPad or Mac can automatically upload and store the entire library in iCloud to aces photos and videos from all your devices. However, as we all know, there is only 5GB free for iCloud at the very beginning and the photo library can quickly eat up space. Therefore, many users will choose to transfer photos from iCloud to external hard drive to free up iCloud space. Today, on this page, we will show you how to transfer photos from iCloud to external hard drive on Windows PC and Mac. Meanwhile, at the end of this page, we also recommend EaseUS MobiMover Free to help you transfer photos from PC or Mac to your iPhone if you have carelessly deleted some valuable images on your iPhone and won't get them back. 

How to download photos from iCloud to PC and Mac

Transfer photos from iCloud to PC or Mac is easy by following tips below. Except for pictures downloading, you also can delete all iCloud photos if you don't need them anymore instead of saving them to another place.

1. Open a browser on your PC or Safari on Mac, and go to www.icloud.com.

2. Log into your Apple ID account username & password and access the main interface like below.

access-icloud-photos-pc

3. Click on Photos in the main interface. Then, choose All Photos album.

4. Press Ctrl on your PC or Command on Mac and choose multiple or total photos in iCloud.

5. Go to the right upper corner and click the Download button in cloud shape and click Download to save the photos on your Windows PC or Mac.

download photos from icloud

When you need to transfer photos from iCloud to iPhone, you'll need to turn on iCloud Photos on your mobile device instead.

How to transfer photos from PC/Mac to external hard drive

After you have downloaded the photos from iCloud on your Windows PC or Mac, you can start to transfer them to your external hard drive.

1. Plug in your external hard drive to your computer via a USB cable.

2. Find the photo files saved from iCloud and copy them to your external hard drive with ease.

Note that if you want to move iPhone photos to external hard drive, you can refer to: How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive for more information.

How to transfer photos from Mac/PC to iPhone

If you have deleted some important photos from your iPhone and want them back. You can choose to use EaseUS MobiMover Free to help you transfer files from PC/Mac to iPhone, including photos, music, contacts, videos, playlists, ringtones, and books. Besides, MobiMover Free also allows you to transfer photos from iPhone to PC/Mac at one lick and sync data between two iOS devices without any intermediate operations.

Download and install EaseUS MobiMover Free on your computer by clicking the download button below, then follow the steps to copy photos from computer to iPhone within minutes.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac or PC, run EaseUS MobiMover, and choose "PC to iDevice". Then, click the "Select Files" to continue.

How to transfer photos from Mac/PC to iPhone - Step 1

Step 2. On this interface, you can select unlimited photos to transfer. Then, click "Open" to move to the next step. 

How to transfer photos from Mac/PC to iPhone - Step 2

Step 3. Check the genres you have selected. If the folders/files you selected cover other supported categories, you can transfer them all together with photos from the computer to your iPhone.

How to transfer photos from Mac/PC to iPhone - Step 3