icloudpd
Shares rank 10 of 19 backup tools by recommenders
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.
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.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Downloads from iCloud, unlike rclone
“icloudpd supports downloading photos from icloud and rclone does not (yet)”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” “use iCloudPD to auto download photos from iCloud in the future”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “I Regret the Blood Pact I Have Made with iCloud Photos” Reliable once set up
“seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool for people in Apple ecosystem”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Self-hosting my photos with Immich” “it definitely does work once you have it set up”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “My Ridiculously Robust Photo Management System (Immich Edition)” Simple to use and scriptable
“I run this periodically from a little shell script”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)” “I was more showing how simple icloudpd is to use.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Bi-monthly inconvenience cannot be avoided
“there's no way to avoid the bi-monthly inconvenience I don't think”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)”
Other backup tools people recommend
The four most recommended other backup tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| restic | 83 | 5 | 94% | 12 | — | Approved |
| pgBackRest | 32 | 6 | 84% | 6 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| Borg Backup | 30 | 8 | 79% | 12 | — | Approved |
| iCloud Photos Downloader | 18 | 4 | 82% | 2 | — | — |
| icloudpdThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“icloudpd is now unmaintained”
“use iCloudPD to auto download photos from iCloud in the future”
“Live photos are just .mov sidecar files.”
“parallel downloads, SQLite state tracking, and resumable transfers”
“it definitely does work once you have it set up”
“there's no way to avoid the bi-monthly inconvenience I don't think”
“icloudpd supports downloading photos from icloud and rclone does not (yet)”
“I was more showing how simple icloudpd is to use.”
“I run this periodically from a little shell script”
“seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool for people in Apple ecosystem”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.