How to Download All Photos from Famly: 4 Methods & Alternatives Compared

Over 6,000 nurseries across the UK, Europe, and the US use Famly (as well as partner apps like Bright Horizons UK and Busy Bees Childcare) to share daily updates, milestone observations, and videos with parents.

Over several years, a child’s profile accumulates thousands of photos. However, when a child prepares to leave for preschool or “big school,” parents quickly encounter a frustrating problem: Famly has no native “Download All Photos” button.

Here is a breakdown of the 4 methods parents use to save their memories, including their trade-offs in time, file quality, and cost.

Summary Comparison Matrix

Method 1: Manual Saving in the Famly App (The Tedious Route)

In the standard Famly mobile app or web portal, you can tap an individual photo in your news feed, open the three-dot menu, and choose “Download photo” (if your nursery administrator has enabled downloads).

• Pros: It is free and requires no third-party tools.
• Cons: If your child has been at nursery for three years, you likely have 1,500+ photos. At 20 seconds per photo, downloading manually takes over 8 to 12 hours of continuous tapping. Furthermore, feed videos frequently fail to save directly to phone camera rolls, and photos are saved with today’s download timestamp rather than the date they were taken.
• Best for: Parents who only want to grab 5 or 10 specific milestone photos.

Method 2: Asking Nursery Staff for an Export or USB Memory Stick

Some parents ask their nursery key worker or nursery manager whether the nursery can provide an export of all their child’s media.

• Pros: Managed entirely by the nursery staff.
• Cons: In reality, nurseries rarely grant this request. UK and European data protection laws (GDPR) make nurseries cautious about handing over raw media folders containing group photos where other children appear. When nurseries do offer an export, it is usually a printed or PDF learning journey book where images are heavily compressed and embedded in documents without playable video files. Some nurseries charge £30 to £50 for this service.
• Best for: Families whose nursery explicitly offers a pre-packaged graduation memory stick.

Method 3: Desktop Browser Extensions (e.g. NurseryDownloader)

Tools like NurseryDownloader are Google Chrome extensions that inject automated download scripts into `app.famly.co` when you log in on a desktop computer.

• Pros: Fully automated bulk downloading of photos and videos in full quality.
• Cons: It only works on desktop computers running Chrome or Edge. It cannot be used on an iPhone, iPad, or Android phone. In addition, it costs £19.99 per year under a recurring subscription model.
• Best for: Parents who do all their family admin on a laptop and are comfortable installing browser extensions.

Method 4: Little Moments Web Downloader (The Recommended Alternative)

Little Moments was created specifically to provide a modern, universal alternative that works on any device without requiring browser extensions or technical setup.

• Zero Installation: Works directly in the browser on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Mac, or Windows PC.
• Full Quality & Metadata: Downloads untouched original JPEG/PNG photos and MP4 videos with historical EXIF dates preserved.
• Direct Google Photos Sync: Transfer your entire nursery archive directly to your Google Photos cloud without filling up your phone’s memory.
• Fair Pricing: A single £14.99 one-time payment with no subscription and no annual expiration.
• Free Discovery Preview: Connect your nursery account and see a full preview gallery of your memories before purchasing.

Frequently Asked Questions