How to Transfer Photos from Google Photos to iCloud
Have you recently changed your phone Pixel or Android to iPhone? You need to ask yourself how to transfer your photos from Google Photos to iCloud? It's not rocket science to do it, but the process can take a long time. In this article, we'll explain how to transfer images to iCloud from Google Photos and whether you should do it or not.
If you are satisfied with Google Photos and the only reason to switch to iCloud is that you switch to iPhone, my friend does not need to transfer them. You can also use Google Photos on iPhone in the same way as on Android. All your photos will be available on iPhone and news will also be added to Google Photos.
However, if you have any other reason to upgrade to iCloud, you can do it on iPhone and PC, as shown below. Before jumping into the different stages, let us understand a little iCloud Photos and Google Photos.
What is iCloud Photos and Google Photos?
Google Photos is available for Android and iPhone. It's a gallery application that also lets you back up your photos and videos to the cloud. iCloud is an Apple service similar to Google Drive that stores your data in the cloud. Part of this service also allows you to save your images. That's what iCloud does through the Photos app on your iPhone.
Google Photos and iPhone Photos apps allow you to view images available on your phone. You can enable the backup option if you wish. This way, photos will be uploaded to the cloud and synchronized with your other connected devices. This is an optional feature in both cases.
Now let's see how to upload photos online from Google Photos to iCloud. Let's start with the computer first.
Transfer photos from Google Photos to iCloud on Windows
To do this, you'll need to upload your data from Google Photos and upload it back to iCloud. Here are the detailed steps for each part.
Upload photos from Google Photos
Step 1: Open photos.google.com on your browser and sign in with your Google Photos-linked Google Account.
2nd step: Hover your mouse over the first photo you want to select and click on the checkmark icon to select it. It will become blue. Repeat this step for all the photos you want to select.
Step 3: Once selected, click the three-dot icon at the top and select Download from the menu.
Point: Use the Shift + D command to start the download process.
Step 4: A ZIP file will start downloading with all your selected photos. You must now unzip the file to the location of your choice. To do this, right-click the file and select Unzip from the menu. You can also use the online tool to extract or extract a method to extract ZIP files automatically after downloading.
If you do not like the fact that Photos creates a ZIP file, you can download images from Google Photos without compressing them. In addition, check another way to download Google Photos albums to your computer.
Upload Photos to iCloud Photos
Step 1: Open icloud.com on your PC's web browser and go to Photos.
2nd step: Click on the cloud icon at the top to start downloading new photos.
Step 3: A window will open. Navigate to the unzipped folder containing the images you downloaded from Google Photos. Select the photos you want to add to iCloud. Then wait until they download.
That's all you have to do to transfer your photos. Read the Things to Keep in Mind section at the end of the post for a few important points.
Transfer photos from Google Photos to iCloud on iPhone
Here you will have to download the Google Photos app if you do not have it on your iPhone. Then you will need to upload photos of it. But you do not need to download them again manually, because iPhone will do it automatically.
Step 1: Open the Google Photos app on your iPhone. If the application asks you to activate the backup, do not give access to it. Otherwise, the photos available on your iPhone will be synced to Google Photos.
2nd step: Go to the Google Photos Albums section to find all your photos. Press and hold the photo to select it. Then, without lifting your finger, drag it to the other pictures you want to select.
Step 3: Tap the sharing icon at the top and select Save pictures. The images will be uploaded to your film.
Step 4: Open the Photos app preinstalled on your iPhone. You will find the images downloaded from Google Photos. Now, to make them available on all your synced devices, you will need to activate the iCloud library.
To do this, open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to Photos. Then enable the switch for iCloud Photos. In case it is already lit, leave it intact.
You'll have two options – Optimize Storage on iPhone and Download and Keep Originals. Use the first one if you want to keep lower resolution images on your iPhone while keeping the originals in iCloud. You should use it if your iPhone lacks storage. Choose the second option if you have enough storage on your iPhone.
Note: When you turn on iCloud Photos, all your existing photos in the filmstrip and those downloaded from Google Photos are synchronized with iCloud.
Transfer photos from Google Photos to iCloud on Android
It is not possible to do it directly on Android. However, you can use the same steps as those mentioned for Windows to do it on Android. In other words, open the iCloud website on your Android phone's browser. Then download photos.
Things to keep in mind
When you perform this task, you should take care of these things.
Be patient
If you have multiple images in Google Photos, the entire process can take a long time, depending on the speed of the Internet. So stay calm and have patience.
Enough storage
Before you start uploading your data from Google Photos to iCloud, check your available iCloud storage. Available memory should be sufficient to download all Google Photos data. To check the storage, go to the Settings app on your iPhone and tap your name at the top. Then press iCloud.
Your storage quota will be displayed. You can use the tips to free iCloud storage.
Do it in batches
For added security, you should not transfer all data at one time. Do it in batches of 100 to 200 images.
Data on Google Photos
Once the photos are uploaded to the iCloud Library, they will remain in Google Photos because they are not deleted yet. Once you've successfully added them to iCloud, you can delete them from Google Photos. We suggest to delete only a few pictures at the beginning. Then check if they are accessible through the iCloud library. Delete others only after evaluating things.
You can also let them stay in Google Photos and uninstall the Google Photos app from your iPhone or disable its backup feature. To do this, go to the settings of the Google Photos app and press Save and sync. Disable the switch for backup and synchronization.
The puzzle of transferring images
The main disadvantage of using iCloud is that it offers limited storage. You only get 5 GB of free storage space for all data including photos, videos and other files. On the other hand, Google Photos offers 15 GB, which are shared between other Google services.
However, it does offer a feature that allows you to save unlimited photos. For this you will need to use a high quality option instead of the original quality. When this option is enabled, your photos will be compressed to 16MP and your videos to 1080p. Another advantage of using Google Photos is that it is also available for Android. Now the choice is yours.
Then: Not satisfied with the iCloud backup too? Check out these 5 amazing alternatives to iCloud from the following link.