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In this tutorial, we'll show you how to access photos and videos in iCloud from your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Additionally, we'll also explain how to access iCloud Photos from any web browser and even select and download images locally.
How to Get Photos from iCloud on iPhone or iPad
However, here's how you can make sure iCloud Photos is turned on. After that, you can access the saved photos.
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- First connect your device to Wi-Fi.
- Right after opening settings and tap Photos .
- Then activate iCloud Photos, if it isn't already.
- You can select Download and keep originals if you have enough free space on your iPhone. Case otherwise, choose Optimize iPhone Storage .
- Open the Photos app and tap Recent . You should soon see all your iCloud photos here.
- You can also tap see it all to view your photo albums.
One important thing to note : After enabling iCloud Photos, all existing and new images from the iPhone Photos app will be uploaded to iCloud. This will quickly fill up your iCloud storage if you're on the 5GB free tier. So if you don't want that to happen but still want to get some old photos from iCloud, use it in a browser.
How to view photos in iCloud on your Mac
Every Mac running OS X Yosemite (released in 2014) to the latest macOS Monterey has the Photos app that is similar to its iPhone counterpart. Before 2014, Mac had iPhoto.
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You can enable and access iCloud Photos within the Photos app on your Mac. Once you do, all your images and videos from other Apple devices like your iPhone and iPad will appear here, and vice versa.
- Open the Photos app on your Mac from Launchpad or press Command + Spacebar and type Photos .
- Access the Photos app Preferences by pressing the keys Command + Comma (,) . Or, in the top menu bar, click Photos > Preferences .
- click in iCloud .
- Enable iCloud photos .
- Depending on your internet speed and the number of photos, it may take a while for everything to appear in the Photos app on your Mac.
How to Access Photos in iCloud Through a Web Browser
You can also access your photos saved in iCloud through a web browser on Mac, Windows PC, iPad, and iPhone. See how.
- Visit iCloud.com and sign in using your Apple ID.
- click in iCloud Photos . Here you can see all your old and recent photos stored in iCloud.
- To download photos from iCloud:
- Using a computer browser : Click in Select . You can also press the Command key on Mac or Ctrl key on Windows to select specific photos. Finally, click on download icon .
- Using iPhone Safari : Tap Select . Now, tap to select the desired photos or tap Select all . Finally, tap three dots icon and choose Download .
- If you select multiple photos, they will be downloaded as a ZIP file. Learn how to unzip ZIP files on iPhone and Mac.
If you want to restore deleted photos, go to Recently Deleted on iCloud.com. If you take action within 30 days, you can recover the deleted images and videos.
Now you know how to access photos on iCloud across multiple Apple devices and the web. You can also download iCloud for Windows to have all your iCloud photos on your PC.
As mentioned, iCloud Photos will fill iCloud's free 5GB tier quickly. In this situation, you can disable this feature by following the same steps or purchase iCloud+ which offers 50GB to 2TB of iCloud space.
What to do if you don't see iCloud photos?
- However, iCloud photos are only uploaded and downloaded when your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi. However, if you have an unlimited or large cellular data plan, go to Settings > Photos > Cellular data . From here, activate Cellular data It is unlimited updates . Now photos will be synced even on mobile data.
- iCloud Photos won't update if your iPhone is in low data mode. Additionally, it is temporarily paused when the device is in low power mode.
- Make sure you use your correct Apple ID.
- Still, if iCloud Photos doesn't work, check if you have enough free space in iCloud. You can check this at Settings > your name at the top > iCloud .
- If some photos are missing after enabling iCloud Photos, look for them in the folders Recently deleted It is Hidden .
- Finally, if nothing works, restart your device and update it to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS, as appropriate.
