AirDrop... Once again

Factual Questions
1

I took a photo that I wanted to download from iCloud. I went to iCloud => Photos and opened the photo. Then I went to File => Share => AirDrop. I got a window that says ‘To share with someone using IOS, ask them to open Control Centre and turn on AirDrop. On a Mac, ask them to go to AirDrop in the Finder.’

OK… I open AirDrop, either in Finder or by clicking the icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen. With the latter, I have three options: AirDrop with a toggle switch that is turned on, Contacts Only, and Everyone. In Finder, I see ‘Allow me to be discovered by: Everyone.’

What I want to do is Share => AirDrop, and then open AirDrop on my Mac and save the file. How do I do this?

2

Too late to edit.

I can, of course, AirDrop from my phone to my Mac. I just want to save photos on my Mac from iCloud on my Mac.

3

I’m not a big Apple person, but my understanding is that AirDrop is for between two devices that are nearby.

It seems like you just need the Apple photos App to download photos to your device? I’m going by this article.

4

Thanks.

5

You should just be able to download it. You’re opening iCloud on your Mac right? It should just act like any old folder you can copy, drag, paste etc.

6

That’s what I thought. But when I open the pic and right-click, it says ‘Safe Frame As’ and gives me a choice of Page Source or Web Archive. I get the same choices if I go to File => Save As. Or I could Export as PDF. If I drag the thumbnail to the desktop, it says ‘Untitled clipping’. If I double-click, it’s a blank window. If I try to open it with Photoshop Elements, it’s greyed out so I can’t select it.

I was able to save it by opening it in Photos as Folly said, but I really expected I could just ‘Save As’ from iCloud.

7

If you’ve taken the photo with your iPhone, you don’t need to AirDrop anything; it’s theoretically already on all of your devices the moment you take the picture.

8

You can do that. See that little cloud icon at the top right with the down arrow? Click on all the photos you want to download, then click that icon. What you want to do has nothing at all to do with AirDrop.