# icloudpd

8 Hacker News commenters recommended icloudpd and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source tool that downloads your iCloud Photos to your own storage, so you can work outside Apple's cloud. People find it reliable once set up.

## Why people recommend it

- Downloads from iCloud, unlike rclone (2 comments): "icloudpd supports downloading photos from icloud and rclone does not (yet)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580026)) "use iCloudPD to auto download photos from iCloud in the future" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47582214))
- Reliable once set up (2 comments): "seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool for people in Apple ecosystem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170855)) "it definitely does work once you have it set up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46840355))
- Simple to use and scriptable (2 comments): "I run this periodically from a little shell script" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579626)) "I was more showing how simple icloudpd is to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46579810))

## What people warn about

- Bi-monthly inconvenience cannot be avoided (1 comments): "there's no way to avoid the bi-monthly inconvenience I don't think" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46581527))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [iCloud Photos Downloader](https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloud-photos-downloader.md): 18 recommend
- [immich-go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/immich-go.md): 12 recommend
- [PhotoSync](https://hackerapproved.com/p/photosync.md): 12 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "icloudpd", https://hackerapproved.com/p/icloudpd/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).