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Unable to download my photos from Verizon Cloud website

OK, yes, I looked at https://community.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-Cloud/trying-to-export-download-ALL-photo-files-from-Verizon-Cloud/td-p/1825593 - not useful.

I simply went to the Verizon Cloud website on my desktop computer. I selected all photos and videos (2800). I then hit "download" icon. It spins (the little gray icons) for a while and then does NOTHING. IF I select a small subset - say 30, then do download, it works fine.

Is there a known limit on how many photos download can handle? If so, why?? Or is this just a bug?? or ???

And NO, I don't want to delete anything out of my Verizon Cloud - simply download as a local backup.... Should be simple enough....

Comments

Verizon_Support

I apologize it is taking as long as it is. I can certainly lift that feedback up to our ITHD team. Where as there is no set limit for what you can select to download, I would recommend downloading the smaller subset in the mean time as that is working for you, we apologize for the inconvenience.

-Anthony

Craig_Vz

Hello GaryFNC,

We're sorry to hear about your issue's. We can see by looking at are system's you are using web portal to bulk download your photo's, while portal will support mass download's. You may encounter issues. If you are trying to do a large amount then the browser or the server may timeout the connection. This is not something we can change for users, so Web portal downloads should be done in chunks
We suggest utilizing the Verizon Desktop app if you would like to mass download your content. https://joincloud.verizon.com/vzcloud/download

GaryFNC

UNFORTUNATELY, the Verizon Cloud app appears to require "full disk access" on my Mac - is that simply to enable it to download IF a user requests that? Why would it need that access all the time?

By the way, the attempt to download all on the browser times out in about 15 seconds, so that is Not the browser timing out - which would imply it is something on your server....

Note that I can download my wife's photos for google photos all at once with no problem and that is a far larger set....

So, I guess I am left with either doing it month by month OR enabling full disk access and then deleting the app as soon as I am done.. Neither is optimal.

Yes, I can download in chunks, but that is a pain in the butt. As I have to go select each month - lots of months....

GaryFNC

And please note - according to your own knowledge base, it is NOT POSSIBLE to download multiple files from the Verizon Cloud app....

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-303183/

It says go use the website - ha ha - which of course is where we started all this.. Catch-22

SO, Basically, I am stuck - having to do small groups of photos to download - which is going to be a giant pain in the butt... It really IS NOT GOOD that I can't backup my photos to a local backup.....

Maybe I need to use google cloud/photos instead -UNLESS someone can explain to me how to do this.

GaryFNC

OK, this gets odder - especially given the knowledge base article that I got when asking how to download from the Verizon Cloud app... Apparently, when I started up the VCloud desktop app, it automatically downloaded everything to my local machine (even though I DID NOT ASK for that) - into Verizon Cloud / VZMOBILE folder....

Now, I need to figure out how to turn off sync - I never want ANY APP to sync unless I tell it to..... Security risks.

Verizon_Support

We want to make sure that nothing is updating without your say so. In the desktop app if you find menu > settings, you can turn off automatic updates, which will stop it from auto-syncing.

-Cait

GaryFNC

OK, this gets worse. Called Support - waited for the return call. Talked to agent. Agent doesn't know how to do a controlled download to my machine. Tried to transfer me to more advanced team - call simply dropped..... Yuck... So, calling support was a waste of time.

OK, so, the VZMOBILE folder shows thumbnails of all my photos. With "status" showing a little cloud. So presumably the photos are still in the cloud. BUT it shows the folder size (windows explorer properties) that would correspond to the actual photo sizes. OK, that is good. BUT when I try to copy that folder to another place on my machine, it fails.

When I click on a single file in the folder, it fails with the same error -" Error 0x800701AA: The cloud operation was not completed before the time-out period expired"

WHEN I click on an individual photo item in the Verizon Cloud app, the photo pops up immediately... BUT even that doesn't seem to download the file into the VZMOBILE file - opening the photo from there fails still....

This really is quite a mess for something that is very basic. It should be very simple to do a local backup of what I have in the cloud - just basic good data management hygiene.

Hopefully someone from Verizon who is actually knowledgeable will see this and respond.....

GaryFNC

And I searched online for verizon documents or even other explanations on how to do all this - nothing. SO, at this point, my only way to backup from cloud to a local backup (that I can put in a safe, etc) is to do it one month or so at a time - small chunks....

That really is unacceptable - and as I noted, not a problem with iCloud or google photos... So, perhaps, I need to stop using VCloud for backup and find a better solution. I hope that is not the answer and that someone knows the simple way to do this.

GaryFNC

In the Windows 11 Verizon Cloud Desktop App, "settings" only has what is in the attached screenshot - no sign of anything that controls automatic updates....

Gary Screenshot 2025-10-03 180158.png

GaryFNC

Just to add one more piece of data.. I tried downloading (from the website) a small set of photos (34) -that worked fine. When I did the prior month with 600+, I get the black/gray dots for about 30 seconds and then it simply does nothing. The save dialog never appears at all..

Now, that is far too short to be a timeout of my session (as I am clearly still logged in). And realistically the Verizon servers should have no problem at all creating a zip file of that size (1 GB or perhaps 1.5 GB?) and certainly shouldn't time out doing that - the server is simply acting on the cloud and not dependent on my connection at all at that point.

GaryFNC

STILL NO ANSWER from verizon support - either on community or from the direct chat discussion or online phone calls to support....

Craig_Vz

as previously stated, if you are trying to perform a mass download of all or most of your Verizon Cloud content, we suggest utilizing the Verizon desktop client and following the steps outlined below:

Desktop application: https://joincloud.verizon.com/vzcloud/download

You should first ensure that the Desktop app have permission in both the Firewall and Antivirus to send and receive data. Then, deselect all but one sync folder to allow the App to process a smaller data set from end to end to establish connectivity.

MAC instructions: https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-80020/

Downloading with Desktop App
Desktop User Logs on Windows - C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\VerizonCloud-Data\Logs

Desktop User Logs on a MAC - /Users/<username>/.local/share/VerizonCloud-Data/Logs

Using the Desktop Client to mass-save Cloud content to local desktop machine:

Install and sign-in to your Cloud subscription. Not optional on Contacts Only service level
Once installed, a new folder "VZCLOUD" will be created on your desktop machine.
The sub-folders in VZCLOUD will slowly populate thumbnails of your Cloud's media. The rendering of these images is referred to as "Hydration".
Once the images hydrate, then may be MENU COPIED - not moved or dragged/dropped - to a new folder location on the local storage. Moving these files will end up deleting Cloud content.
The act of making the copy will initiate a background download of the full file for each thumbnail copied to the new folder.
NOTE: Leave your desktop machine on and connected to the internet. Depending on the size of media to be saved, you may need to turn off SLEEP for the computer until done.

NOTE: ISP connection, download size, and computer's processing power will determine the time required to complete.

The desktop app (without using a web browser) has two means to download Server Saved content to your desktop:

1) In the menu section 'Devices' you will see a button that allows your to download all items from a specific device that uploaded to your Cloud Repository.
2) In your computer's desktop files you will see a folder "VZCLOUD". In there are sub folders for mobile, web, etc. In these SubFolders you will see rendered thumbnails of your cloud content. COPY/PASTE a rendered thumbnail to another computer folder in the primary drive (C:/ in the case of Windows) and all copied thumbnails will download from storage to that new folder.

Usually there will be the down-facing arrow appearing only after content is selected. This applies to Web and mobile interfaces.

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