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I got problem downloading icloud for my PC, so I access my icloud from icloud.com (mozilla browser). I want to free up my cloud storage, so I need to download all my photos and videos from icloud.

Problem #1: I need to select one by one the file, cannot select all.

Problem #2: After downloaded, I don't know when the photos/videos is taken. All properties is showing today's date. (media created, date created, date taken, date modified).

Is there any solutions to avoiding a PC web browser from not respecting the file metadata (location / EXIF / date taken) stored in iCloud or a solution to read that metadata from the file itself and fix the filesystem dates that Windows provides?

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  • For #2 are you referring to the file's properties, those which are common to any file on a Mac, or to the image's metadata ? It's unusual to find a digital camera (incl smartphones) which does not write such data into the image file itself and most image management software, including Apple's Photos, will dig those values out of the file for you. – High Performance Mark Dec 2 '18 at 16:08
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Problem #1: You'll probably need to download iCloud. Apps are almost always more fully featured than websites, because of their capability to access your hardware, and their lack of web security limitations.

Problem #2: You may not be able to fix this. If you can't find the date anywhere on iCloud.com, or through the iCloud app, it may be data that doesn't exist.

Tips: Try using Chrome instead of Firefox. If you are on a Mac, use Safari.

Tips for getting iCloud app to work: Restart your computer. Turn off Windows Security Center and your firewall (temporarily). Don't forget to turn those back on when you have successfully installed and run iCloud.

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I would check that the EXIF data exists by using an iOS app like ViewExif or verify that the iCloud smart albums and search for a specific date still find photos with the date.

Assuming you have correct data in iCloud - you can be assured if you were to borrow a Mac and use the Photos app to download a full copy of the library to an external drive you would have all the correct dates and metadata and could export the files out of the Photos Library to whatever flat filesystem organization you prefer and have correct dates on the actual files to match the date taken (for instance).

You could also upload one of the downloaded images to this tool to be sure all the EXIF metadata is preserved for the individual download.

Once you're sure iCloud has the data, now it's a matter of how much time it would take you to download and process all files using a web browser versus using the iCloud sync software Apple provides, Photos app on a Mac (borrowed / rented / owned) or if you can find a Windows tool to re-tag the date (in unix the touch command sets the modified date and you could script that) on the files downloaded.

So make it easier, perhaps make albums of 50 files to 250 files and try downloading the whole album to a folder.

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