ICloud – How to download entire iCloud photo library to external drive attached to the MacBook

There are two main options which I would go for:

• Put your library and contents on a network volume

  This is the option that I went for on my setup, mainly because I did not consider the second option at that point in time. This option works fine for me — even when the network drops (which is pretty rare): the data transfer pauses and continues when the network reconnects.

  This works fine for my relatively large Aperture library, but I see no reason for this not to work in iPhoto.

  ✓ Easy to set up, just copy your entire library to a network drive and ⌥-launch iPhoto
  ✓ Uses no space on your local machine
  ✗ Possibly susceptible to network dropouts causing problems

• Put your library on your local machine and the contents on a network volume

  This alternative is probably better, but requires that you switch to Aperture. This way, you keep the library on your local machine but the media is stored on a network drive. This means that it uses very little space on your local machine but even if the network drops there is no chance of corruption/etc.

  ✓ Much less likely to have problems due to network dropouts
  ✓ Uses very little space on your local machine
  ✗ Does use some space on your local machine
  ✗ Harder to set up — not as simple as just copying your entire library

1. Go to https://www.icloud.com/#photos.
2. Go to Albums -- All Photos folder.
3. Click Select Photos on top-right of the page.
4. Select first photo and Shift-select last photo.
5. You should see all photos are selected now.
6. Click Download in top-middle menu.