How to Get Apple iCloud Photos Into the Windows 11 Photos App

Plenty of Windows users are also iPhone users (I was one for over a decade) and want an easy way to get photos from their phone to their PC so they can edit and organize them. Microsoft made some news at its 2022 Surface event when it announced that the built-in Windows 11 Photos app would be able to work with photos stored on Apple’s iCloud.

Microsoft recently announced that the new iCloud Photos integration would roll out to all Windows 11 users by the end of November 2022. Even without this update, you can still get access to iCloud Photos on your PC. Below, I show you how to sync your iCloud photos to your Windows PC with both the new app and without (which works for Windows 10 users as well). Both methods use the Windows Photos and iCloud desktop app.

How to Access iCloud Photos Using the New Version of Windows 11’s Photos App

Here’s how to get the iCloud Photos and Windows integration to work if you have the updated version of the Photos app. You can check in the Microsoft Store app for the update.

So that’s it. You now have your iCloud photos available when you tap on the Apple Photos icon in Windows 11’s Photos app. You can sort the collection by name, date taken, or date modified, and filter by photos, videos, or both. Photos from iCloud have a small Apple Photos icon on the top-right corner of their thumbnail, whether you’re in All Photos or iCloud Photos views. You can then view, edit, or share iCloud photos just like any other photos on the system, and from now on, any new shots you take on your iPhone or iPad will appear in the Windows Photos app.

How to Access iCloud Photos in the Current Photos App

You can still view and edit your iCloud Photos collection in Windows 11 without the updated Photos app or in Windows 10’s version of the app. The process, however, is not quite as simplified or integrated. One issue is that photos in Shared iCloud folders use the date you added them to Windows’ Photos app rather than the date they were shot. You can still see location maps for images on the right info panel, though.

Here’s the alternative way to set it up:

Even though it’s perfectly possible to work with iCloud photos on your Windows PC, and many PC-and-iPhone users may like to do things the way we’ve described above, there’s another option: You can install the OneDrive iOS app on your phone and have it sync all the photos to the Windows Photos app. Doing so eliminates some of the confusion about folders and sources. It’s also more economical if you already have an Office 365 account, which comes with 1TB storage. But I’ve found that the iCloud app more reliably syncs all my photos to the cloud. With the OneDrive app, I had to occasionally open the app and give it a nudge to restart uploading. As usual, Apple gives priority to its own products.

What Else Is Changing in the Windows 11 Photos App?

In addition to being able to sync your iCloud photos to Windows, the updated Photos app sports a new design and other new features, including better ways to organize and view your pictures, Memories, multi-windowing, and improved OneDrive integration.

Regrettably, some key features are going away, at least based on the beta. There’s no longer a People section to identify and organize photos with faces, and the video editing functions are gone, having been superseded by ClipChamp—nor can you search by objects detected through AI or even organize with albums.

It’s still sort of a version 1, so we can hope for the return of these capabilities. Commenters in the Windows Feedback app have noted these omissions, and an official reply says, “We’ve got this,” meaning Microsoft acknowledges the omissions and is working on restoring them. If you prefer the previous version of the app, you can still download Photos Legacy from the Microsoft Store.

Go Further With Photos and Windows 11

For more, check out the best new features in Windows 11’s Photos app and be sure to keep tabs on our Windows 11 series page for the latest news, tips, and features on Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system. And if you’re looking to go beyond the included Photos app’s capabilities, head over to our roundup of the best photo editing programs.