Downloading photos from iCloud

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EPB allows downloading media files from iCloud that can then be viewed on your computer or in Elcomsoft Phone Viewer.

NOTE: Make sure you have the latest version of iCloud for Windows installed. Otherwise, the photos downloading is not guaranteed.

To download photos from iCloud, do the following:

1. In the Tools menu, select the Apple tab.

2. Select Download photos from iCloud.

Apple-Tools

3. On the Download photos from iCloud page, define the authentication type:

Password: Select this option to use your Apple credentials (Apple ID and password)

Token: Select this option to use the Authentication token extracted from iCloud using Elcomsoft Apple Token Extractor. For more information about extracting the token, see the Extracting Authentication token topic.

Photos from icloud_Save credentials

4. Click Sign in.

NOTE: If you have entered the Apple ID in a wrong format, the message about the account being locked will be displayed. Close the message and try again. Please make sure to enter your apple ID in the standard format (i.e., example@example.com). 

NOTE: If the Apple ID is protected with two-factor authentication, you need to confirm sending the verification code to all of your trusted devices or to your phone.

You can select the Save credentials for future use option when logging in so that you don't need to enter them when you log in with this Apple ID again.

5. If the Apple ID is protected with two-step verification, verify your account by selecting one of the following authentication types:

Secure Code: in the Trusted device field, select a phone number or a trusted device to which the code will be sent, click Get code, and then enter the received 4-digit code in the Secure code field.

Recovery Key: enter a 14-character key generated defined in the Apple account settings.

6. Click Verify.

download photos from iCloud 2

7. If the Apple ID is protected with two-factor authentication, perform authentication in one of the following ways:

Select Trusted Device and enter the 6-digit code in the Verification code field. Click Resend code for the verification code to be sent to all trusted devices.

Select Text message and enter the 6-digit code in the Verification code field. Click Send code for the verification code to be sent as a text message to the selected trusted phone number. Click Resend code for it to be sent again.

NOTE: macOS 10.12 or higher is required for sending text messages.

NOTE: Authentication via the Text message is available for the Forensic edition only.

Select Code generator and enter the 6-digit code in the Verification code field. The code is generated on the trusted device or via Cloud Panel.

2fa_photos_from_iCloud

8. Click Verify.

9. The following information is displayed after signing in:

Information about the Apple ID account: username, DSID, Apple ID, and the information about the used space in the user's iCloud storage which is displayed for the i icon.

Information about the user albums with media files: album name, date modified, number of images and videos in the album, and album size.

NOTE: The default system albums are not displayed in the grid and can only be downloaded by selecting  all the albums in the grid including Other media.

Information about all media files: total number of images and videos, and total size of the files.

To sort the data in the grid with albums, click the necessary column header.

album list

10. To download media files, click the Download button.

11. The Choose backups folder window opens.

12. In the opened window, define the location for storing downloaded data and click Select Folder.
  NOTE: The folder with chunks of photos will also be downloaded to the selected location. If the user decides to download the photos of the same account to this folder again, the downloading process will be performed much faster.

Please note that the size of folder with chunks is the same as the size of all photos and twice as much space is required on the computer to download the photos.

  13. The downloading of iCloud photos begins. The progress of downloading is displayed in the program window.
   To skip a certain album during downloading, click the Skip button when you see the album name next to Downloading. The downloading of the album will be aborted and the program will start downloading the next album.  

download albums_progress

 

14. When downloading is finished, you can do the following:

Click See details to open the journal and view the start time and end time of downloading and the errors that occurred during downloading.

Click Download other albums from the account to go back to the grid with albums.

Click Finish to exit the downloading wizard.

Click Change user to select files made by a different iCloud user.

download albums_finish

 

 

Viewing downloaded photos

To view the downloaded photos in Elcomsoft Phone Viewer, click the Open in EPV link after the downloading process is complete. The Elcomsoft Phone Viewer will open and you will be able to investigate the photos.

To view the downloaded photos on your computer, open the folder on your computer to which the photos were downloaded.

The name of the folder with photos is iCloud_photos_<apple_id>_<time stamp>. It is stored in the folder selected before the start of the downloading process.
NOTE: The time stamp in the name of the folder with photos corresponds to the time zone of the local computer.

In the iCloud_photos_<apple_id>_<time stamp> folder, the following items are displayed:

All Photos folder: a folder to which the media files from all albums were downloaded.

icloud_photos.xml: a file containing the information about the Apple ID, total space in iCloud, used space in iCloud, version of the manifest file, start time and end time of downloading, and the status of downloading (success, cancelled, finish with errors).

Photos.db: a database in which the attributes of media files are stored.

downloaded_folders_with media

To view the photos, open the All Photos folder.
NOTE: The names of photos in the folder correspond to their IDs in iCloud.

 


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