Have you recently switched from an Android device to an iPhone? Chances are you want to switch from Google Photos to iCloud Photos. Luckily, this is very easy with this handy new tool.
It’s easy to move your photos and videos from Google to Apple’s photo library. At first, this required a fair amount of manual work, but thanks to a clever new tool, you can now move your Google photos directly to iCloud.
Switching from Google Photos to iCloud
No longer want to use Google Photos? You can easily transfer a copy of your photos and videos to iCloud Photos. This is an official solution and uses Google Takeout and the integration of iCloud for web. The tool was created in response to the Data Transfer Initiative.
Transfer Google Photos to iCloud
- Go to Google Takeoutlog in with your Google Account
- Follow the instructions to initiate an export from Google Photos.
- Choose ‘Apple – iCloud Photos’ as the destination to transfer your photos
- Log in with your Apple account.
- Tap Allow to give Google permission to add photos and videos to iCloud.
Immediately, the process will begin to transfer your photos and videos stored in Google Photos to iCloud. When you initiate a transfer and it is completed, Apple will send email notifications to the email addresses associated with your Apple account.
Supported file types
- You can only transfer photo and video files to iCloud Photos. Other file types (such as Motion Photos or Live Photos or Memories) won’t transfer.
- JPEG, HEIC, PNG, GIF, TIFF and BMP photo file types and MP4 and MOV video file types can be transferred.
- Photo and video files that can’t be transferred to iCloud Photos, including RAW files, will be transferred to iCloud Drive.
Photos and videos are transferred in the same resolution that Google makes available for export.
Manual download and export
Would you rather manually download specific photos or videos from Google Photos? You can!
- Go to photos.google.com
- Log in with your account
- Open the album you want
- Select the photos and videos
- Click on the three dots on the screen
- Select ‘Download’ or use the key combination SHIFT + D
The items will then be downloaded and saved to your computer. You can then manually import them into iCloud Photos by opening them in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Alternatively, you can upload them via the iCloud website.