How to Move iCloud Photos to IDrive E2: Three Methods That Actually Work

Want to get your photos out of iCloud and into IDrive E2 for cheaper long-term storage? This guide covers three real approaches—browser download, icloud-photos-downloader + Python SDK, and cloud-to-cloud with CloudsLinker—so you can pick what fits your setup.

Introduction

IDrive E2 has been quietly gaining traction among people who want S3-compatible object storage without AWS pricing. If you've been sitting on a large iCloud Photos library and wondering whether E2 makes sense as a backup destination, the short answer is: yes, but it takes a bit more setup than dragging files into a consumer cloud drive. This guide walks through three ways to actually get your photos there—from the manual browser approach to a Python SDK upload, to a fully cloud-based transfer that skips your local machine entirely.

Method 1: Download from iCloud Photos and Upload to IDrive E2 (Browser)
Method 2: Use icloud-photos-downloader + IDrive E2 Python SDK
Method 3: Transfer Directly in the Cloud with CloudsLinker
Quick Comparison
Important Things to Know
Frequently Asked Questions
Step-by-Step Video: Transfer iCloud Photos to IDrive E2

About iCloud Photos

iCloud Photos keeps your entire photo library synced across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It's beautifully integrated into the Apple ecosystem — but storage can become expensive quickly.

Only 5 GB free shared across backups, photos, and files.
Paid iCloud+ tiers scale up to 12 TB.
Optimized storage keeps full-resolution photos in the cloud.
Tight Apple lock-in — best experience happens inside Apple devices.

Many users love the seamless syncing — until their photo library crosses 200 GB or 500 GB and monthly costs start stacking up.

About IDrive E2

IDrive E2 is an S3-compatible object storage service aimed at developers, small businesses, and anyone who wants cheap, scalable storage without the AWS price tag.

No egress fees — you pay for storage, not for downloading your own data.
S3-compatible API — works with rclone, boto3, and most S3-aware tools.
Bucket-based organization — good for structured archiving by year or album.
No native mobile app — access is primarily via API or third-party clients.

It's not a consumer-friendly photo viewer — but as a durable, affordable archive for large photo libraries, it's hard to beat on cost per GB.

Why Move Photos from iCloud Photos to IDrive E2?

The honest reason most people end up looking at IDrive E2 is cost. iCloud+ pricing for large libraries — 200 GB, 2 TB, 6 TB — adds up over time, especially when the photos you're paying to store are ones you haven't opened in years. E2's pricing is flat and storage-based, with no egress charges, which changes the math considerably for long-term archiving.

One practical use case: organizing photos into E2 buckets by year makes it easy to keep decade-old archives completely separate from recent albums — something harder to do cleanly inside iCloud's album-centric model. You can also use rclone or the AWS CLI to pull specific buckets back down whenever you actually need them, rather than maintaining an always-on sync.

Lower Storage Cost: E2 is significantly cheaper per GB than iCloud+ for large volumes.
No Egress Fees: Unlike AWS S3, retrieving your data doesn't cost extra.
S3 Compatibility: Works with standard tools — rclone, boto3, Cyberduck, and more.
Archive-First Design: Better suited for storing photos you rarely touch than for active browsing.

Worth being upfront about one thing: E2 doesn't have a built-in photo viewer or mobile app. If you want to casually browse your library on your phone, you'll need a third-party client. It's a storage backend, not a photo experience — keep that in mind before migrating everything over.

Method 1: Download from iCloud Photos, Then Upload to IDrive E2

This is the most straightforward starting point, though "straightforward" has limits once your library gets large.

Log in to iCloud Photos on the web, select your images or albums, download them to your computer, and then upload them into your IDrive E2 bucket via the web console or a tool like rclone.

Works for small libraries or one-time album exports
No third-party tools strictly required for the download side
Manual control over which albums get transferred

Upload Photos to IDrive E2 bucket via web console

The obvious downside is time and bandwidth. Downloading a 300 GB library to your laptop and then pushing it back up to E2 uses your connection twice. If your upload speed is slow, this becomes the bottleneck in a painful way.

For 5–20 GB, this is fine. For anything larger, the next method is worth the extra setup time.

Method 2: Use icloud-photos-downloader + IDrive E2 Python SDK

If you're comfortable with a terminal, this combination gives you much more control — and it's repeatable, which matters if you want to run incremental syncs over time.

The approach uses icloud-photos-downloader to pull your library to a local folder, then uploads it to an E2 bucket using the boto3 Python SDK configured with IDrive E2 credentials.

Here's the general flow:

Install icloud-photos-downloader via pip: pip install icloudpd
Run icloudpd --directory ./photos --username [email protected] to download your library.
Install boto3: pip install boto3
Configure boto3 with your IDrive E2 Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and Endpoint URL.
Write a short script to walk the downloaded folder and upload files to your E2 bucket.

IDrive E2 Python SDK upload script configuration

A minimal boto3 upload configuration for E2 looks like this:

import boto3

s3 = boto3.client(
    's3',
    endpoint_url='https://<your-e2-endpoint>',
    aws_access_key_id='YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID',
    aws_secret_access_key='YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'
)

s3.upload_file('photos/IMG_001.jpg', 'my-photo-bucket', 'archive/IMG_001.jpg')

The E2 endpoint URL varies by region — you'll find yours in the IDrive E2 dashboard under your bucket settings. Make sure you're using the correct endpoint or uploads will fail silently.

This method takes longer to set up initially, but once it's working you can re-run it for incremental syncs — only new photos get downloaded and uploaded. For large libraries you plan to keep synchronized over time, that repeatability is worth a lot.

That said, you're still moving data through your local machine, so bandwidth is still a factor. And icloud-photos-downloader occasionally needs re-authentication as Apple tokens expire. It's not fully hands-off.

Method 3: Move Your iCloud Photos to IDrive E2 in the Cloud (No Downloads)

Why Some Users Skip the Download Step Entirely

If your photo library is already hundreds of gigabytes, downloading everything to your laptop just to upload it again feels unnecessary. Using CloudsLinker allows the transfer to run directly between iCloud Photos and IDrive E2 — entirely online, without touching your local machine.

Step 1: Add iCloud Photos

After signing in, click Add Cloud and select iCloud Photos. Log in with your Apple ID and complete two-factor authentication if required.

Connect iCloud Photos in CloudsLinker dashboard

Once connected, your albums and photo folders appear inside the dashboard, similar to browsing them on iCloud.com.

Step 2: Connect IDrive E2

Next, choose IDrive E2 from the cloud list. Unlike OAuth-based services, IDrive E2 connects using your Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and your account's Endpoint URL. You'll find all three in the IDrive E2 dashboard under your account credentials.

Connect IDrive E2 in CloudsLinker using Access Key and Secret

After entering your credentials, IDrive E2 will appear alongside iCloud Photos as an available destination, and you'll be able to browse your existing buckets.

Step 3: Configure and Start the Transfer

Open the Transfer section. Select iCloud Photos as the source and choose your IDrive E2 bucket as the destination.

Transfer configuration from iCloud Photos to IDrive E2 in CloudsLinker

You can select specific albums rather than migrating your entire library at once. Starting with older, rarely-accessed albums is a sensible approach — verify they arrive correctly in E2 before scaling up to the full library.

Step 4: Monitor Progress

The active task will appear in your Task List. You can check real-time progress, pause if needed, and review logs in case any files require attention.

Comparing the 3 Ways to Move Photos from iCloud Photos to IDrive E2

There's no single "best" method here — it depends on how much you're moving, how comfortable you are with command-line tools, and whether you want to babysit the process. IDrive E2 is built around API access rather than a consumer interface, so the right approach also depends on how you plan to interact with your files after the migration. Here's a quick side-by-side of the three methods covered in this guide.

Method	Ease of Use	Speed	Best For	Uses Local Bandwidth	Skill Level
Web Browser (Download → Upload)	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	Small batches, occasional exports	Yes (download + upload)	Beginner
icloud-photos-downloader + Python SDK	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	Repeatable syncs, scripted workflows	Yes (local intermediary)	Intermediate
CloudsLinker (Cloud-to-Cloud)	★★★★★	★★★★★	Large libraries, hands-off transfers	No	Beginner

For a handful of albums, the browser method gets the job done without any setup. If you want something repeatable and scriptable — and you're comfortable with Python — the icloud-photos-downloader + boto3 route gives you more long-term control. For large libraries where you don't want to wait around or saturate your home connection, CloudsLinker is the most hands-off option by a fair margin.

Key Tips for a Smooth iCloud Photos to IDrive E2 Transfer

iCloud Photos doesn't behave like a normal folder of files, and IDrive E2 is an object storage backend — not a consumer cloud drive. A bit of preparation saves a lot of debugging later.

Get your E2 credentials ready before you start: you'll need your Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and the correct Endpoint URL for your region. The endpoint in particular catches people out — using the wrong one causes confusing errors.
Web downloads have selection limits: on iCloud Photos web, Apple limits how many items you can select at once. If you're exporting a lot, do it album-by-album rather than trying to grab everything at once.
Plan your bucket structure before uploading: once objects are in E2, reorganizing them isn't as simple as dragging folders. Decide upfront whether you want to organize by year, album name, or date range — it's much easier to get this right during the transfer than after.
Watch out for HEIC and Live Photos: E2 stores whatever you upload, but if you later want to view or share these files outside Apple, HEIC compatibility can be inconsistent. Consider whether to convert during the transfer or keep originals and convert later if needed.
Verify a sample before running the full migration: upload one album, then download a few files back and confirm they open correctly. This catches credential or encoding issues before you've moved 500 GB.
Migrate in stages if cost is the driver: start with older archives you rarely access, confirm they're safely in E2, then work forward through more recent albums. Less risk, easier to verify.
Treat your E2 credentials like passwords: Secret Access Keys give full access to your buckets. Don't paste them into untrusted tools or leave them in plaintext config files. Use environment variables or a credentials file with restricted permissions.

The single most useful thing you can do before a big migration: move one album, check it thoroughly, then scale up. It's boring advice, but it's the difference between a smooth migration and a panicked "where did half my photos go" situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answer: iCloud Photos on the web is designed for browsing and downloading, but Apple limits how many photos/videos you can select at once. If you're exporting a lot, use albums and download in batches instead of trying to "select all."

Answer: When you connect iCloud Photos, you sign in with your Apple ID and enter the verification code Apple sends to your trusted device. After that, the connection uses a secure session/token so you don't have to repeatedly re-verify for every transfer.

Answer: Log into the IDrive E2 dashboard and navigate to Access Keys under your account settings. You can create a new key pair there — the Secret Access Key is only shown once, so copy it immediately. Your Endpoint URL is listed under the bucket details or in the account overview, and varies depending on which region your bucket was created in.

Answer: icloud-photos-downloader is a Python package and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Install it with pip install icloudpd. You'll need Python 3.7 or later. On Windows, running it inside WSL2 tends to be the smoothest experience if you run into any path or encoding issues.

Answer: CloudsLinker connects to IDrive E2 using your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key — the same approach used by tools like rclone or the AWS CLI. If you want to limit exposure, you can create a dedicated E2 key pair with restricted bucket access just for the transfer, then delete it afterward.

Answer: For large libraries, cloud-to-cloud transfer via CloudsLinker avoids downloading everything locally first. It keeps your home network free and runs in the background without you needing to babysit it. If you prefer a self-hosted approach, icloud-photos-downloader piped into a boto3 upload script is more work upfront but gives you more control and can be re-run incrementally.

Step-by-Step Video: Transfer iCloud Photos to IDrive E2

If you prefer learning visually, this video walks you through how to transfer your photos from iCloud Photos to IDrive E2. You'll see how to connect both accounts in CloudsLinker, configure the transfer task, select specific albums or folders for better performance, and complete the migration without downloading anything to your local device. This method is efficient, reliable, and works well whether you're backing up a small photo collection or moving a large iCloud photo library.

Conclusion

Moving photos from iCloud Photos to IDrive E2 isn't a one-click process, but it's very doable once you know the route. The browser method works fine for smaller batches. The icloud-photos-downloader plus Python SDK path gives you more control and reproducibility if you're comfortable with a terminal. And if you'd rather skip the local machine entirely, CloudsLinker handles the cloud-to-cloud transfer without tying up your bandwidth. Whichever way you go, verify a few albums made it across before you commit to the full migration.

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