How to Download All Your Brightwheel Photos

If your child's daycare uses Brightwheel, you've probably built up months, maybe years, of photos in the app. There are three ways to get them onto your own computer, and one of them saves far more time than parents expect. Here they are, best first.

The reason to do it now: as of writing, Brightwheel gives parents no one-click bulk download, and when your child moves on your access usually goes with them, taking the photos too.

1. Ask your daycare to export them (the fastest route)

This is the one most parents never try. Brightwheel gives schools and administrators export options that parents don't get, so the director can often pull your child's photos in a batch and share them with you directly.

Ask early, well before your child's last day, and ask specifically for the original files rather than a shared album link, which can stop working when your account does. Many centers are happy to do it; it takes them minutes and it's the only route that gets everything at once.

2. Save them one at a time from the app

Open a photo in the Brightwheel app or on the web and use the save/download option to store it on your device. It works, and it's entirely in your control, but for hundreds of photos it's an afternoon (or several) of tapping. Best used to grab the favorites you can't risk losing, alongside one of the other routes.

3. Do it before access is gone

Whatever route you take, do it before your child leaves. Once the school deactivates your child's profile there's usually no way back to those photos, and the school isn't keeping an album for you. Put a reminder in your calendar for a month before the last day.

Want it automated? Tell us

NurseryDownloader is a Chrome extension that bulk-downloads every photo and video from your child's daycare app in one click, at full quality, sorted into tidy date folders, with everything staying on your own computer.

It doesn't support Brightwheel yet. We add new apps based on what parents ask for, so if you'd use a one-click Brightwheel download, email us at [email protected] with the subject "Brightwheel". The more parents ask, the sooner it happens.

Already covered: Lillio, KinderCare, Procare and more

If your daycare uses one of these apps, or your child also attends a setting that does, the one-click download already works today:

• Lillio (formerly HiMama)
• KinderCare
• Procare
• Famly

See the full list on our supported apps page. Your first 20 downloads are free, so you can check the quality before you buy a license.