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4 Easy Ways | How to Download Photos from iCloud to iPad

How do I download photos from iCloud to iPad? It is not a tough task if you follow the steps of 4 effective methods here! You can download all photos from iCloud at once with iCloud Photos syncing or iCloud Backup. Besides, you can selectively download from the shared album or iCloud.com.

January 16, 2025

How Does iCloud Store Your Photos?

iCloud

Before going to the steps of how to download photos from iCloud to iPad, it is necessary to know how iCloud works for your photos. iCloud is a cloud-based storage system that can sync and let you access your photos on all your Apple devices. This is how it operates:

1. iCloud Photos Syncing

All your photos and videos taken on an Apple device will automatically upload to iCloud once you enable iCloud Photos. This guarantees that your photo library is consistent across your devices.

2. iCloud Storage and Backup

  • Storage: iCloud stores photos and videos in their original format and full resolution, but you can save space on your device by only keeping optimized versions (for mobile devices). iCloud offers 5 GB of free storage, but if you need more space, you can upgrade to iCloud+.
  • Automatic Backup: For devices with iCloud Backup enabled, photos are part of iCloud backups. This guarantees that your pictures can be recovered from iCloud in the event that you misplace or reset your device.

3. Optimized Storage

By keeping full-resolution images and videos in iCloud and only storing smaller, device-optimized versions on your device, iCloud Photos can maximize your local storage if your device is running low on storage. When necessary, you can always download the high-resolution versions from iCloud.

4. iCloud.com and Shared Albums

If you log into iCloud.com, you can view your photos from any web browser.

Additionally, iCloud lets you make Shared Albums that you can distribute to other iCloud users. Working together and exchanging pictures with loved ones is made easier with this.

How to Download Photos from iCloud to iPad – 4 Official Ways

There are 4 ways to move photos from iCloud to iPad. If you want to download all photos from iCloud to your iPad, you can choose to download from iCloud Photos in Settings or iCloud Backup when setting up your iPad. On the other hand, if you just want to download some specific photos from iCloud, you can download them from Shared Album or iCloud.com.

Way 1. Download from iCloud Photos Syncing in Settings

Step 1. Go to the Settings on your iPad and click on your Apple ID.

Step 2. Choose iCloud and select Photos.

Step 3. If you enabled iCloud Photos before, you can see the options: Optimize iPad Storage and Download and Keep Originals. Here we choose Download and Keep Originals to download all your photos from iCloud to your iPad.

  • Optimize iPad Storage: Save the original quality photos and videos to the iCloud and leave the compressed photos and videos on your iPad.
  • Download and Keep Originals: Download the original photos and videos from iCloud to your device.
How to Download Photos from iCloud to iPad

Way 2. Download from Shared Album in the Photos App

If you use a shared album and others uploaded photos to it before, you can download the shared photos to your iPad.

Step 1. Go to the Photos app on your iPad.

Step 2. If you are using the latest iPadOS, click the people icon in the upper-right corner and choose Shared Library.

Step 3. Click the shared logo and choose Save Image to download the shared photo to your iPad.

Way 3. Download from iCloud.com

Step 1. Go to iCloud.com and log in to your iCloud account.

Step 2. Choose Photos and select the photos you want to download.

Step 3. Click the download icon (a cloud and a downward arrow) to save the photos to your iPad.

How to Download Photos from iCloud on iPad on iCloud.com

Way 4. Download from iCloud Backup

If you get a new iPad and want to download everything including photos you backed up to iCloud, you can choose to download from iCloud Backup when you set up the new device.

Step 1. Turn on your new iPad and you will see the Hello Screen.

Step 2. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your iPad until you go to the Apps & Data Screen.

Step 3. On the Apps & Data screen, choose From iCloud Backup. Then, you may need to log in to your Apple ID and choose a backup to download from iCloud to iPad.

Further Reading: How to Manage iCloud and Other Clouds in One Place

If you are using other cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, pCloud, Icedrive, MEGA, or Amazon S3, you can manage all your clouds on one website with one login via MultCloud. MultCloud supports 30+ cloud services and you are allowed to add unlimited cloud accounts to MultCloud for free.

MultCloud

After adding the clouds to MultCloud, you can access all your cloud files without opening different cloud websites or apps. Besides, you can share, download, cut, delete, rename, and copy files on it. If you want to transfer files between clouds, MultCloud offers various functions, such as Cloud Transfer, Cloud Sync, and Cloud Backup, to automate the transfer task even if the clouds belong to different companies.

Cloud Transfer: One-time transfer files from one cloud to another without file downloading or uploading, along with multiple transfer options like deleting files in the source cloud after the transfer task is done.
Cloud Sync: Real-time sync files between clouds and keep updating the modified or changed files to the target cloud. Except for Real Time Sync, there are 9 more sync modes, such as Incremental Sync, Full Backup Sync, Move Sync, etc.
Cloud Backup: Backup files from one cloud to another and support restoring files to the source cloud with different backed-up versions.

 

Additionally, you can schedule the task. When the appointed time arrives, the transfer/sync/backup task will auto-start. What’s more, if there are some types of files in the source cloud you do not want to transfer/sync/backup, you can use Filter to batch-select them out with their file extensions.

Conclusion

If you want to learn how to download photos from iCloud to iPad, there are 4 ways you can take into consideration: download from iCloud Photos in Settings, shared album, iCloud.com, and iCloud Backup. In terms of the differences among your situations, choose the most suitable one and practice it.

The post will introduce a cloud management service MultCloud to you for managing all your cloud drives in one place. With it, you can manage files on iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Google Drive, Google Photos, OneDrive, Dropbox, or other clouds altogether. You can also use its cloud-to-cloud transfer/sync/backup functions to connect the clouds and move files between them. For example, you can sync OneDrive to iCloud Drive to easily copy files from your Windows device to an Apple Device.

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