How to get access to icloud photos

If you are backing up your Apple device photos to iCloud (and you should be), then you may be wondering how to access those photos in iCloud itself. The answer is surprisingly simple.

Read more: How to create an iCloud account

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To access your iCloud photos on an iOS device or a Mac, simply open the Photos app. Anything in the Photos app will have been automatically backed up to iCloud, and any deletions will be immediately reflected in iCloud too. The only exception is if you have disconnected your device from iCloud. To see your current photo backup in iCloud, log into iCloud.com and go to the Photos section.

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How to access iCloud photos on an iOS device or Mac

For an iOS device or Mac, the basic rule of thumb is that anything you see in the Photos app will also be in iCloud. Unless you explicitly switch off the iCloud syncing feature in your device settings, any photo you make with your camera will automatically be uploaded to your logged-in iCloud account.

Plus, any deletions you make on your device will also be reflected in your iCloud account more or less immediately. If you want to stop deleted photos on your device from being deleted on iCloud, you will need to disconnect your device from iCloud photo syncing. Of course, this is a temporary measure — as soon as you reconnect to iCloud, your deletions will sync.

How to access iCloud photos on the web

If you want to see what images you have in your iCloud account, you can also look on the web. By logging into iCloud.com, you can view your current albums and more.

Do photos stay in iCloud if I delete them from my device?

The only way to accomplish this is to disconnect your device from iCloud, so it can’t sync. However, once you reconnect your device to iCloud, any deletions on your device will be synced to your iCloud account. If you want to keep photos in the cloud and off your phone, it would be best to transfer them to another cloud service such as Dropbox or Google Photos.

Can family members see my iCloud photos?

No, your files are private to you only. Even with Family Sharing, the other members on the plan cannot see the files of the others. The only way to show pictures would be to set up a shared family album. But each person has to opt into that. So nobody can see your photos without you knowing.

Can I recover deleted photos from iCloud?

If you have permanently deleted the photos from iCloud, then there is no way to recover them. However, if you have deleted them from your device in the last 30 days, they will be in your Recently Deleted folder on iCloud.com.

In this tutorial, we show you how to access photos and videos on iCloud via your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Furthermore, we also explain how to access iCloud Photos on any web browser and even select and download the pictures locally.

How to get photos from iCloud on iPhone or iPad

Here’s how you can ensure iCloud Photos is switched on. After that, you can access the pictures saved there.

1. Connect your device to Wi-Fi.
2. Open Settings and tap Photos.
3. Enable iCloud Photos if it isn’t already.
4. You may select Download and Keep Originals if you have sufficient free space on your iPhone. Otherwise, choose Optimize iPhone Storage.
5. Open the Photos app and tap Recents. In a while, you should see all pictures from iCloud here.
6. You may also tap See All to view your photo albums.

An important thing to note: Once you enable iCloud Photos, all existing and new pictures from the iPhone Photos app will upload to iCloud. This will quickly fill up your iCloud storage if you are on the free 5 GB tier. So, if you do not want that to happen but still wish to get some old photos from iCloud, use it in a browser.

Related: Effective ways to free up iCloud storage on iPhone and Mac

How to see photos on iCloud on your Mac

Every Mac running OS X Yosemite (released in 2014) to the latest macOS Monterey has the Photos app that is similar to its counterpart on iPhone. Before 2014, Mac had iPhoto.

You can enable and access iCloud Photos inside the Mac’s Photos app. Once you do that, all your images and videos from your other Apple devices like iPhone and iPad will appear here and vice versa.

1. Open Mac’s Photos app from the Launchpad or press Command + Space Bar and type Photos.
2. Go to Photos app Preferences by pressing the Command + Comma (,) keys. Or, from the top Menu Bar, click Photos > Preferences.
3. Click iCloud.
4. Enable iCloud Photos.
5. Depending on your internet speed and number of pictures, it may take a while for everything to appear in the Mac’s Photos app.

Useful related posts:

• List of keyboard shortcuts for the Photos app on Mac
• How to save storage on your Mac by using the Photos app in referenced library mode

How to access photos on iCloud via a web browser

You can also access your pictures saved on iCloud via a web browser on Mac, Windows PC, iPad, and iPhone. Here’s how.

1. Visit iCloud.com and sign in using your Apple ID.
2. Click iCloud Photos. Here you can view all your old and recent photos stored in iCloud.
3. To download photos from iCloud:
   • Using a computer browser: Click Select. You may also press the Command key on Mac or Ctrl key on Windows to select specific photos. Finally, click the download icon. You can also click the tiny arrow to download Unmodified Originals or Most Compatible.
   • Using iPhone Safari: Tap Select. Now, tap to select the desired photos or tap Select All. Finally, tap the three dots icon and choose Download.
4. If you select multiple photos, they will download as a ZIP file. Learn how to unzip ZIP files on iPhone and Mac.

If you would like to restore deleted photos, go to Recently Deleted on iCloud.com. If you act within 30 days, you can retrieve the deleted images and videos.

Now you know how to access photos on iCloud via various Apple devices and the web. You can also download iCloud for Windows to have all the iCloud Photos on your PC.

As mentioned, iCloud Photos will fill up the 5 GB free iCloud tier quickly. In this situation, you can either turn off this feature by following the same steps or buy iCloud+ which gives you 50 GB up to 2 TB of iCloud space.