# iCloud Photos Downloader

18 Hacker News commenters recommended iCloud Photos Downloader and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free command-line tool that downloads your iCloud photo library into year and month folders. Critics note slow runs on large libraries and possible staleness.

## Why people recommend it

- Downloads entire iCloud photo library (4 comments): "isn't user friendly or pretty, but I finally managed to rip my entire collection" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46838054)) "Here is an open-source command-line tool to download all your iCloud photos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578953)) "I've downloaded the entire library to a new Mac. It worked fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582627))
- Free open-source command-line tool (3 comments): "Here is an open-source command-line tool to download all your iCloud photos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578953)) "I was happy to learn that someone made an open-source downloader for iCloud." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580461)) "Luckily, there is this open-source iCloud Photos Downloader" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46581608))
- Sorts into year and month folders (2 comments): "I liked that it's downloading all photos in date/folder structure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46584998)) "it seems to be dropping them nicely into folders by year and month" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46589677))
- Worked fine on large libraries (2 comments): "I've downloaded the entire library to a new Mac. It worked fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582627)) "Worked well for me for 70k photos but took a long time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580133))

## What people warn about

- Requires turning off Advanced Data Protection (2 comments): "Disabling ADP is a pretty severe thing to do -- and pretty disappointing since I was interested in the product." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46592633)) "unlike with this open source tool, I can keep advanced data protection enabled." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580535))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [immich-go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/immich-go.md): 12 recommend
- [PhotoSync](https://hackerapproved.com/p/photosync.md): 12 recommend
- [icloudpd](https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloudpd.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "iCloud Photos Downloader", https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloud-photos-downloader/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).