How do I download photos from a CD to my Mac?

Nothing much, outside of a CD drive.

If you already have one, then you should be able to just drag and drop the files from the CD to a folder on your Mac in Finder, unless the CD is made in such a way that the Mac cannot recognize or read it.

Are you having a specific problem doing this? Or were you looking for drive suggestions?

I use a Gotega branded drive on my M4 MacBook Air and it works perfectly fine, but pretty much any brand should work. Make sure it's USB-C, or you have a good quality powered USB-C hub you can connect it to.

click here ➜ Amicool External DVD Drive USB 3.0 USB C CD Burner CD/DVD +/-RW Optical Drive - Amazon.com

Keith Barkley wrote: If [Kodak CDs,] you may need software like Graphic Converter to get the images from them.

I think I remember that the Kodak CDs had some sort of MS-DOS or Windows software so they would play automatically with a crude interface on a PC , but if you found the right folder you could import the jpgs with no problem. I would drag them into Finder and later add them to Photos. I used  GraphicConverter ($40) to check them out and do some modification, maybe changing filenames or adding some comments before importing them to Photos, but that probably wasn't necessary.

Of course, memory fades…

All you need is a CD/DVD drive that pugs in to the Mac. They all work about the same way, and you don't need any special software.

Here's one I saw on Amazon for about $14. I haven't used this one, so I can't comment on it particularly.

I might not buy the cheapest one-- name brands are more reliable-- but I've bought several and they all seem to be pretty much the same.

If you have an older Mac with USB-A ports, you should be careful not to get USBc.

Aside from a CD/DVD drive, it depends on what format the CD is in, and what format the pictures are in.

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) dropped all support for HFS ("no +"). If you have an old Mac-formatted CD or hybrid CD that uses HFS as one of its filesystems, modern versions of macOS reportedly will refuse to read the disc. (Even when the disc is a "hybrid" Mac/PC disc and macOS still knows how to read the "PC" filesystem. Reportedly the Mac will choke when it sees HFS and reject the disc without even checking to see if it could read it another way.)

Kodak had a couple of different photo CD formats ("Photo CD", "Picture CD"), and I forget the details of what file systems those CDs used, and what format(s) the individual photo files used.

Are these CDRW's with images on them or are they Kodak Photo CD's?

If the latter, you may need software like Graphic Converter to get the images from them.

My understanding is that if you just grab the files the easy way you get the lowest resolution. It takes a pcd-aware program like Graphic Converter to get the highest resolution files.

reneighfromga wrote:

I’m going to buy me a hard drive with the usb and c ports. If I have problems I’ll come back here. Thanks so much.

Not sure what the hard drive has to do with your photo CDs though. We have not suggested or even commented on a hard drive.

Good luck with the CD/DVD drive.

Servant of Cats wrote:Kodak had a couple of different photo CD formats

Interesting. And hence our different experiences, I guess. I also think that I remember Fotomat CDs or other such things. I think that I actually did this just about 4-5 years ago, and I think I threw away all the CDs after. I don't remember any Mac software on them, but it may be, as Servant of Cats says, that the Mac just ignored those volumes. I also think that the resolution of the jpgs were pretty low by today's standards, but they were OK for computer screens of the day. They also were about the same quality as the prints.

Richard.Taylor wrote:

Interesting. And hence our different experiences, I guess.

I don't know offhand if the removal of HFS support is a problem either for Kodak Photo CDs or for Kodak Picture CDs. When I sent film out for processing, I never ordered either type of CD much, if at all.

There are Wikipedia articles (however disorganized) on the two Kodak CD formats, with some links to WayBack Machine archives providing more detail.

Wikipeda – Photo CD

Wikipedia – Picture CD

I’m going to buy me a hard drive with the usb and c ports. If I have problems I’ll come back here. Thanks so much.

I’m going to try that very drove out. Thanks.

"I never ordered either type of CD much"

I got 3.5" floppies with my APS film. I have no idea how it was formatted.