Your nursery has probably shared hundreds, maybe thousands, of photos of your child through an app like ParentZone or Famly. First paintings, muddy knees, the nap where they fell asleep mid-snack. Then one day your child moves up to school, the login stops working, and all of it is gone.
I know this because it happened to me. By the time my eldest left nursery, I had assumed the photos would always be there. They weren't. This guide is everything I wish I had known: how the photos work on each app, the fastest way to save the whole lot, and how to keep them safe for good.
The one thing every nursery parent should know first
The photos your nursery shares do not belong to your account. They live on the nursery's account, inside the nursery's software. You are a guest with a login, not the owner of the files.
That matters because your access is usually tied to your child being on the register. When they leave, the nursery often removes that access, and the photos disappear from your view. Some nurseries warn you. Plenty do not, and the timing varies a lot. We go into what actually happens to your photos when your child leaves and how long nurseries tend to keep them, but the short version is this: do not assume you have time. Save them while your login still works.
How each app works, and where the photos hide
None of the big nursery apps gives you a "download everything" button. That is the whole problem. Here is where your photos actually live in each one, so you know what you are dealing with.
ParentZone
ParentZone keeps photos in a Gallery, sorted by date. There is no select-all and no album export, so getting them out by hand means opening each photo and choosing Save image as, one at a time. It works for a handful. For a year's worth it is a long, repetitive evening. Whatever you do, do not screenshot instead, as screenshots lose the quality and the date.
Famly and Famly.de
Famly (and its German version, Famly.de) shows photos in two places, which catches a lot of parents out. There is a scrolling news feed, and there are photos tagged to your child on their own profile. You have to check both to be sure you have everything, and the feed only loads older photos as you scroll down. Famly also carries videos, which are just as easy to lose as the photos.
Bright Horizons FamilyApp
Bright Horizons FamilyApp runs on the same system as Famly, so it behaves the same way: a feed plus tagged photos on your child's profile, videos included. The same catch applies, so check both the feed and the tagged photos.
The quick comparison
| App |
Where photos live |
Download-all button? |
Videos? |
When your child leaves |
| ParentZone | Gallery, by date | No | Photo-focused | Access usually ends |
| Famly | Feed + tagged profile | No | Yes | Access usually ends |
| Famly.de | Feed + tagged profile | No | Yes | Access usually ends |
| Bright Horizons | Feed + tagged profile | No | Yes | Access usually ends |
If your nursery is switching between two of these, our Famly vs ParentZone comparison breaks down the differences for parents.
The fastest way to save them all
Because none of the apps lets you download in bulk, you are really choosing between two things: your time, or one click.
You can save every photo by hand, for free, using the Save image as method above. If you only have a few, that is genuinely all you need. But if your nursery has been sharing photos for a year or two, you are looking at clicking through hundreds or thousands of them one at a time, remembering which you have already done, and hoping you did not miss the tagged ones.
That is exactly why I built NurseryDownloader. It is a Chrome extension that finds every photo in your gallery and saves them all to your computer in one click, at full original resolution, videos included on Famly and Bright Horizons. Your first 20 are free so you can see the quality first, and everything runs on your own computer, so your photos and your login are never sent anywhere. For most parents it turns an evening of clicking into about two minutes.
One quick setup tip either way: in Chrome, open Settings, search for "Downloads", and turn off Ask where to save each file before downloading. Otherwise Chrome asks you where to put every single file, which is maddening when you are saving hundreds at once.
Once you have them, keep them safe
Getting the photos off the app is only half the job. A folder on one laptop is still one spilled cup of tea away from gone. A little structure now saves a lot of heartache later.
A few special situations
Your child is leaving this term. This is the urgent one. Do it now, because access can be removed the moment they come off the register. Our save your photos before you leave guide and the starting-school memory checklist are built for this exact moment.
You have more than one child. Save each child's photos into their own folder before you switch accounts or one of them leaves. It is much harder to untangle later.
You are worried about privacy. It is worth understanding who can actually see your child's nursery photos, and if you use any tool to download them, check that it works on your own computer rather than uploading your photos to a server.
Common questions
Can I download all my nursery photos at once?
Not with the apps themselves. ParentZone, Famly, Famly.de and Bright Horizons FamilyApp have no download-all button, so it is either one photo at a time by hand, or a bulk downloader that does it in a single click.
Will I lose the photos when my child leaves nursery?
Usually yes, from your side. The photos sit on the nursery's account, and your access is normally switched off once your child is off the register. Save them before that happens.
Are the downloaded photos full resolution?
They can be, if you save the original file rather than a screenshot. A good bulk tool grabs the full-resolution version automatically.
Can I download the videos too?
On Famly and Bright Horizons, yes. ParentZone is photo-focused. Either way, save them while you still have access.
Does any of this work on my phone?
Saving by hand is fiddly on a phone, and bulk downloaders are Chrome desktop extensions, so a Windows PC or a Mac is much easier. Log in on a computer and the whole job gets simpler.
The five-minute version
If you remember nothing else:
- Your photos live on the nursery's account, and access usually ends when your child leaves. Do not wait.
- Log in on a computer in Chrome, not your phone.
- Save the full-resolution originals, never screenshots.
- Check every spot photos hide: the gallery or feed, and the tagged photos on your child's profile.
- Save them by hand if you only have a few, or use a one-click bulk downloader if you have a lot.
- Once they are on your computer, back them up in three places so a single accident can never wipe them out.
An hour of effort now, or a couple of minutes with the right tool, and those years of little moments are yours to keep for good.