How to Move Photos from iPhone to Google Photos
If you've recently switched to an Android phone or want to use the Google Photos service instead of iCloud, this message will help you transition. In the first case, you just need to add the photos in Google Photos, as shown in this post. For the latter, you need to install the Google Photos app and disable iCloud. The rest is automatic.
Let's take a closer look at how to move iPhone or iCloud images to Google Photos. But before that, let's understand Google Photos a bit.
How Google Photos works on iPhone
Google Photos acts the same way as iCloud. In addition to allowing you to view the photos available on your iPhone, it stores them continuously in the Google cloud. You can delete all photos from iPhone and keep them in Google Photos. This way you can free up storage space on your iPhone. Even if iCloud also saves space by compressing photos, it doesn't delete them entirely from your phone. Storage is therefore still occupied.
Speaking of storage, iCloud only offers 5 GB of free storage, which is shared with other Apple products. On the other hand, Google Photos offers 15 GB of free storage, which is also shared among other Google products.
However, you can download an unlimited number of images if you choose the high quality backup mode instead of the original quality. The difference is that in high quality mode, your photos are compressed in 16MP and videos in 1080p. In the original quality, they are saved with their original size.
Move images to Google Photos
There are two ways to move images from iPhone to Google Photos. You can do this on the iPhone or iPad itself or use the help of a computer. Both methods are described below.
If you are switching to an Android phone, you just need to install the Google Photos app (in case it is not preinstalled) and use the same Google account. All photos from your iPhone will be displayed automatically. If you want to use Google Photos instead of iCloud, just deactivate iCloud after moving photos, as shown below.
1. How to transfer photos from iPhone to Google Photos on iPhone
To do this, you need to activate the backup and synchronization function on the Google Photos app on iPhone. By doing so, all photos and videos from your iPhone will be automatically saved to Google Photos. This method works in both situations, i.e. if iCloud Photos is enabled or not.
In the event that iCloud Photos is disabled, only the photos available on your phone will migrate to Google Photos. If enabled, all images, including those on iCloud, will be automatically stored on Google Photos. In fact, iCloud Photos is mainly a photo synchronization service. This means that any photo stored in iCloud will create a copy on your phone. Now that you have a copy and Google Photos needs it, it will also be saved there.
To save space on the iPhone, Apple lets you choose between two iCloud settings – Optimize iPhone storage and Download and keep originals. When the first is activated, the main copy is saved to iCloud and you only see an optimized version. This feature only starts to work when your phone runs out of storage. If your phone has enough storage, it will also save an original copy on your iPhone. The second option stores the original copy on your phone and in iCloud at the same time.
Note: If iCloud is enabled, we suggest you transfer images from computer to Google Photos to avoid any confusion between Optimize iPhone storage and Download and keep originals.
Here's how.
Step 1: Launch the Google Photos app on your iPhone or iPad. Sign in with your Google Account when prompted.
2nd step: Tap the three bar icon in the upper left corner and select Settings from the menu.
Step 3: Tap Backup & Sync. Then activate backup and synchronization on the next screen.
Step 4: You will see the Download Size option when you enable backup. Choose High Quality for free unlimited storage.
2. How to move photos from iPhone to Google Photos on computer
There are two ways to do this. The first is for offline photos and the second is for photos stored in iCloud.
Move photos offline
In the first case, you need to transfer the pictures from your iPhone to the computer using file transfer apps or by connecting them via USB cable. Once the images are on your system, open photos.google.com on your PC via any web browser. Log in with your Google account. Click Download at the top and select Computer. Then access the iPhone files that you recently copied to your system. Select the files to upload to Google Photos.
Move iCloud images
If you want to transfer photos saved in iCloud to Google Photos on your PC, you need to download them first. To do this, open icloud.com/photos and log in with your Apple ID. Click the Select option present on the right side of the photos. Then select the photos and videos you want to move to Google Photos. Press CTRL + A (Windows) and CMD + A (macOS) to select all files.
Once you have selected all the required files, click on the download icon at the top to start saving them to your PC.
A ZIP file will be created. So you need to download and extract it. After extracting it, open photos.google.com. Click the Download icon, then click Computer. Navigate to the ZIP folder you extracted. Add images and videos.
What Happens When You Add Images to Google Photos on a Computer
In either case, the downloaded files will automatically show up in the Google Photos app on your iPhone, provided you are using the same Google Account. You don't have to activate any settings. Even if backup and synchronization are disabled, photos will still be synchronized because they are automatic. They will not occupy any storage space on your iPhone because the photos technically reside only in the cloud.
Check if the photo transfer was successful
Once the transfer is complete, you need to check by checking the total number of photos on your iPhone and in Google Photos.
To check the total number of photos on iPhone, open the Apple Photos app and scroll down. You will see the count. Likewise, open icloud.com/photos and scroll down. Note the number of photos.
Now open the Google dashboard and check the number listed under Google Photos. It must match the number above, as long as no photos or videos are already in Google Photos.
How to disable iCloud photos
When all of your photos and videos appear in Google Photos and you have verified them from Google Dashboard, you can continue and deactivate iCloud Photos. To do this, open Settings on your iPhone and tap Photos. Turn off the toggle next to iCloud Photos. Before disabling it, you need to read in detail what happens when you disable iCloud Photos.
Be patient
If you have many files on your iPhone, the process will take time, depending on the number of photos and videos. The overall process also depends on the speed of the Internet. So be patient when migrating photos. If you want to go back to iCloud from Google Photos, you can do that too.
Then: Even if you've uploaded your photos, do you mind the question of who can see my Google photos? Find out the real answer from the link below.