Comment by js2
1 day ago
> Photos on Mac doesn't have an option to download photos directly
Yes it does. It's called Download Originals to this Mac.
https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/use-icloud-photos-pht...
You keep asserting to the contrary, but I've been syncing my entire photos library to my Mac for years, since it was iPhoto even.
Obviously if you have a larger photos library than storage space on a particular device, you cannot synchronize the entire library to that specific device. e.g. my photos library vastly exceeds my iPhone 13 mini storage, so on my iPhone, I don't sync everything. But my Mac has 2 TB of storage, and Photos is setup to sync all my photos, and does so, reliably, and has been, again, for years now.
Additionally, unlike with this open source tool, I can keep advanced data protection enabled.
This is from the iCloud manual:
> Any new photos and videos you add to Photos appear on all your devices that have iCloud Photos turned on.
You have your photos because they are new. If they had been taken before, they would not have synchronised automatically with Photos on MacOS.
Please stop repeating your incorrect points that are contradicted by everyone else’s real experiences.
Yes, new ones will be uploaded. That doesn’t mean old ones won’t also be downloaded.
I have tried 3 different Macs with different versions of macOS prior to looking for a workaround, and everywhere the result is the same: old photos are not downloaded automatically from iCloud, and there is no button to start this process - for this exact reason.
Want to prove me wrong? Create a new macOS user and open Photos with your iCloud. It will be empty until you start copying photos from your phone. It will take much less time than arguing here.
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