{"slug": "icloudpd", "name": "icloudpd", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 5, "warners": 1, "score": 2.507, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-12-05", "latest": "2026-01-31", "why": "I use this to sync my wife's photos to Immich and it works great", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 1, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use this to sync my wife's photos to Immich and it works great", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader", "official_url": "https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["icloudpd"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 748241184, "item_id": 46765074, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46765074", "by": "budududuroiu", "date": "2026-01-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "icloudpd - https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader", "excerpt": "icloudpd - https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader for the rest of the migration I had to take it piece by piece, luckily my iPhone had enough storage, I got iCloud to download everything to my iPhone, then syncthing-ed everything to another machine. I then backed up everything that I just downloaded from iCloud to a Hetzner Storage Box via restic.", "context": "", "use_case": "download iCloud photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple, What Have You Done?"}, {"id": 745280560, "item_id": 46580035, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580035", "by": "porjo", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use this to sync my wife's photos to Immich and it works great", "excerpt": "I use this to sync my wife's photos to Immich and it works great, however the auth process is a bit of a pain (not the fault of icloudpd) and have to reauth every few months.", "context": "", "use_case": "sync iCloud photos to Immich", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)"}, {"id": 745280416, "item_id": 46580026, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46580026", "by": "porjo", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Because icloudpd supports downloading photos from icloud and rclone does not (yet)", "excerpt": "Because icloudpd supports downloading photos from icloud and rclone does not (yet): https://github.com/rclone/rclone/pull/8734", "context": "", "use_case": "iCloud photo downloads", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)"}, {"id": 738733681, "item_id": 46170855, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170855", "by": "prh8", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool", "excerpt": "This is great timing, I'm just setting up a homelab and planning to run Immich on a mini PC server connected to a NAS. I did find icloudpd, which seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool for people in Apple ecosystem. https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader", "context": "", "use_case": "Sync iCloud photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting my photos with Immich"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 740040400, "item_id": 46252525, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252525", "by": "sho", "date": "2025-12-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "seems pretty high touch. A lot of hoop-jumping if you don't have a mac in the middle", "excerpt": "this? https://github.com/boredazfcuk/docker-icloudpd seems pretty high touch. A lot of hoop-jumping if you don't have a mac in the middle", "context": "", "use_case": "Syncing iCloud Photos locally", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["download icloud photos", "sync icloud photos to immich", "icloud photo downloads", "syncing icloud photos locally", "sync icloud photos"], "compared": [{"slug": "immich", "name": "Immich", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578921", "title": "Open-source iCloud Photos Downloader (AKA escape from iCloud)", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46794971", "title": "My Ridiculously Robust Photo Management System (Immich Edition)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46763592", "title": "Apple, What Have You Done?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252114", "title": "Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46095087", "title": "Self-hosting my photos with Immich", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 749445680, "item_id": 46840355, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46840355", "by": "mtsolitary", "date": "2026-01-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Check out icloudpd. It\u2019s a bit fiddly but it definitely does work once you have it set up.", "context": "", "use_case": "download iCloud photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Ridiculously Robust Photo Management System (Immich Edition)"}, {"id": 748241184, "item_id": 46765074, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46765074", "by": "budududuroiu", "date": "2026-01-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "icloudpd - https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader", "excerpt": "icloudpd - https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader for the rest of the migration I had to take it piece by piece, luckily my iPhone had enough storage, I got iCloud to download everything to my iPhone, then syncthing-ed everything to another machine. 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A lot of hoop-jumping if you don't have a mac in the middle", "excerpt": "this? https://github.com/boredazfcuk/docker-icloudpd seems pretty high touch. A lot of hoop-jumping if you don't have a mac in the middle", "context": "", "use_case": "Syncing iCloud Photos locally", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help"}, {"id": 738733681, "item_id": 46170855, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170855", "by": "prh8", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool", "excerpt": "This is great timing, I'm just setting up a homelab and planning to run Immich on a mini PC server connected to a NAS. I did find icloudpd, which seems like a pretty reliable syncing tool for people in Apple ecosystem. https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_downloader", "context": "", "use_case": "Sync iCloud photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting my photos with Immich"}]}