How to Move Photos and Videos from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3 on Mac?

Moving photos and videos from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3 can be a great way to free up space on your Mac while keeping your files securely backed up in the cloud. Amazon S3 provides affordable and scalable cloud storage, making it a popular choice for backups.

In this guide, we'll walk through the entire process of migrating your iCloud Drive photos and videos to Amazon S3 using just your Mac.

By the end, you'll have a complete understanding of how to transfer photos and videos from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3 for safe keeping and easy access. Let's get started!

Downloading the iCloud Photos and Videos to Your Mac

The first step is to download all the photos and videos you want to transfer from iCloud Drive to your local macOS storage. Here's how:

Enabling iCloud Photo Library

1. Open the Photos app and go to Preferences > iCloud.
2. Make sure the option for iCloud Photo Library is enabled. This will sync all your iCloud photos and videos to your Mac.

Choosing Where to Store the Downloaded Files

By default, the Photos app will store downloaded photos and videos in the Pictures folder. You can choose for them to be saved in a custom location:

1. Go to Photos > Preferences > General tab.
2. Next to "Copy items to the Photos library:" click Choose.
3. Select the location you want to save the photos and videos to.

Waiting for the Download to Complete

• It can take from several hours to days for all your iCloud content to download depending on your connection speed and amount of files.
• You can continue working while the download progresses in the background.
• When the process is complete, all your photos and videos will be available in the Photos app on your Mac, ready for the next step.

Signing up for an Amazon S3 Account

To upload your files to Amazon S3, you'll need an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account:

Creating an AWS Account

1. Go to the AWS homepage and click Sign Up.
2. Follow the prompts to create a new account or sign in to an existing Amazon account.
3. Select the Basic (Free) support plan.

Adding a Credit Card

Amazon requires a credit card on file even for the free S3 tier. Don't worry, you won't be charged as long as you stay within the limits.

1. Under My Account, go to Payment Methods.
2. Click Add and enter your card details.

And that's it! You now have an AWS account ready to use with Amazon S3.

Installing and Setting Up the AWS CLI

The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) allows you to manage your S3 buckets and files through terminal commands on your Mac.

Here's how to install and configure it:

Installing the AWS CLI

1. Download the installer from aws.amazon.com/cli
2. Double click the .pkg file and follow the prompts to install.

Configuring the AWS CLI

1. Run aws configure in your terminal.
2. Enter your AWS access key ID and secret key (found in your AWS account settings).
3. Set the default region to match the region of your S3 bucket.
4. Leave the default output format as JSON.

The AWS CLI is now ready to use!

Creating an S3 Bucket

An S3 bucket is like a folder where you can store your files and control access. Here's how to create one:

1. In terminal, run: aws s3 mb s3://your-unique-bucket-name
2. Replace "your-unique-bucket-name" with a globally unique name for your bucket.
3. You'll see a success message when the bucket is created.

Some tips for naming your bucket:

• Use only lowercase letters, numbers, periods, and dashes.
• Must be between 3-63 characters long.
• Must not begin or end with period or dash.
• Must be unique across all existing bucket names in Amazon S3.

Uploading Files and Folders to the S3 Bucket

Now you're ready to upload your iCloud Drive media files to the S3 bucket.

Uploading a Single File

Use the aws s3 cp command to upload a file:

aws s3 cp /path/to/file.jpg s3://your-bucket-name

Replace /path/to/file.jpg with the path to the file on your Mac.

Uploading a Folder

To upload a folder, add the --recursive flag:

aws s3 cp /path/to/folder s3://your-bucket-name --recursive

This will copy all the contents of the folder to your S3 bucket.

Monitoring Upload Progress

Add the --progress flag to view the ongoing progress of large uploads:

aws s3 cp /path/to/folder s3://your-bucket-name --recursive --progress

The AWS CLI will now display a progress bar and file transfer speed.

In this way, patiently upload all your photos and videos from the iCloud Photo Library folder to your S3 bucket.

Making the S3 Bucket Public (Optional)

By default, all files in your S3 bucket are private. To share them publicly:

1. Go to the S3 console and select your bucket.
2. Click Permissions > Edit bucket policy.
3. Add a bucket policy like:

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Sid": "PublicRead",

"Effect": "Allow",

"Principal": "*",

"Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:GetObjectVersion"],

"Resource": ["arn:aws:s3:::bucket-name/*"]

}

]

}

1. Save changes. Files in the bucket can now be accessed publicly.

Use this optional step if you want to be able to share the URLs to your S3 files publicly.

Accessing the Files in the S3 Bucket

You can access and share your S3 files in several ways:

• S3 Console - Download or share individual files via the AWS S3 console.
• CLI - Use aws s3 cp s3://file-path /local/path to download via CLI.
• Public URL - If the bucket is public, you can share URL like https://s3.amazonaws.com/your-bucket/image.jpg.
• Mobile Apps - Download the AWS app to access S3 files on the go.

So whether you want to view, share, or download your migrated iCloud files, you have full access to them anytime.

Deleting the Files from iCloud Drive

Once you've confirmed that all your iCloud Drive photos and videos have transferred to Amazon S3 properly, you can delete them from iCloud to free up space.

Double Check Files Uploaded Successfully

View your S3 bucket in the S3 console and verify all expected files show up there.

Delete iCloud Photo Library Folder

With iCloud Photo Library enabled in the Photos app, deleting the folder on your Mac will also remove the files from iCloud.

1. Go to Finder and navigate to the iCloud Drive folder.
2. Move the Photos folder to Trash.
3. Empty Trash.

The photos and videos will be deleted from both your Mac and iCloud Drive. You now have a clean backup of them in Amazon S3.

Quick Tip to ensure your videos never go missing

Videos are precious memories and all of us never want to ever lose them to hard disk crashes or missing drives. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your videos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. 

Simply Download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your videos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all videos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.

Troubleshooting Tips

Here are some troubleshooting tips in case you run into issues:

• Network errors - Upload failures may happen if connectivity drops. Retry uploads in this case.
• Access denied - Check your AWS credentials and bucket permissions if you get access errors.
• Missing files - Verify filenames for spaces or special characters that may prevent uploads.
• Slow transfers - For large uploads, try a more stable wired internet connection instead of WiFi.
• Out of space errors - Upgrade your S3 storage plan if you run out of space for uploads.

And that's it! By following this step-by-step guide, you can seamlessly migrate your iCloud Drive photos and videos to Amazon S3 for safekeeping and easy access.

Conclusion

Migrating your iCloud photo and video library to Amazon S3 is a great way to free up limited iCloud storage space while keeping your files securely backed up.

S3 offers higher capacity, affordability, and sharing capabilities compared to iCloud. By following this guide, you can easily transfer media files from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3 using just your Mac computer and the AWS CLI.

So try out these steps to start taking advantage of robust S3 cloud storage for your iCloud media library. Your files will be easy to manage and access from anywhere, anytime.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Move Photos and Videos from iCloud Drive to Amazon S3 on Mac?

Follow these steps:

1. Download the iCloud photos and videos to your Mac using the Photos app.
2. Sign up for an Amazon AWS account.
3. Install and configure the AWS CLI on your Mac.
4. Create an S3 bucket in your preferred region.
5. Use the AWS CLI to recursively upload the iCloud Drive photos folder to the S3 bucket.
6. Double check the files are now in your S3 bucket.
7. Delete the photos and videos from the iCloud Drive folder on your Mac.

Do I need to pay to use Amazon S3?

The free tier for Amazon S3 provides 5GB of storage, enough to handle several thousands photos and some video. You only pay if you exceed the monthly free limits.

How do I share my Amazon S3 photos?

Make your S3 bucket public to share direct URL links to your S3 objects. The AWS Apps also makes sharing and accessing your S3 files easy.

Is Amazon S3 storage reliable compared to iCloud?

Amazon S3 provides extremely durable and reliable object storage across multiple data centers. Many companies use it for backups and archives because of its safety guarantees.

Can I also transfer my iCloud documents to Amazon S3?

Yes, Amazon S3 can store any kind of file. Just download the documents from iCloud Drive to your Mac using a similar process and then upload them to your S3 bucket.

Is there a way to automate migrating iCloud media to Amazon S3?

Yes, you can use cloud sync tools like CloudBerry Migrator, Sync.com, or GoodSync to set up automatic syncing of files from iCloud Drive to S3 for seamless backups.