We’ve been talking a lot lately about leaving Google Photos for other services, mainly because it was a bit of a shock to see this super handy free storage service plan change (once you get your 15 GB storage limit for all Google services reached). However, that’s the way it goes. And if you still prefer the convenience of Google over, say, paying for iCloud, Apple has a new tool you can use to copy your photos and videos from its cloud service to its rival.
To get started, head over to Apple’s Data and privacy website and sign in with your Apple ID. You will see a screen that looks like this:
Click on the “Request to transfer a copy of your data” link under the title of the same name. You will then be presented with a screen where you can choose the transfer destination (Google Photos) and select that you only want to transfer your photos, your videos, or both:
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You will then be asked to sign in with your Google account and allow Apple’s tool to dump data in your photo library:
As part of the copy confirmation process, Apple notes that it can take three to seven days for the transfer to complete – er, the digital life. You also need enough free space in your Google account for all your files, otherwise everything won’t be copied if, or when, all of your storage becomes full. Apple is trying to give you a good estimate of how much space you need to free up, but err on the side of “a little more than you need” than “right to the money” if you have to a little bit of data pruning in your Google account.
And you also want to make sure you know what’s being transferred before taking a drastic step like deleting your Apple account (or at least all your previously saved photos and videos). Like Apple notes
- The transfer includes copies of photos and videos that you store in iCloud Photos, associated with your Apple ID. Formats include: .jpg, .png, .webp, .gif, some RAW files, .mpg, .mod, .mmv, .tod, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .divx, .mov , .m4v ,. 3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .m2t, .m2ts, .mts and .mkv files.
- Only the most recent edit of the photo will be transferred and not the original version. Duplicates appear as just one photo.
- Where possible, photos are transferred with their albums. Videos are transferred individually, without their albums.
- After transferring to Google, the file names of albums and videos will start with ‘Copy from’.
- Some content – including shared albums, smart albums, photo stream content, live photos, some metadata, and photos and videos stored in other folders or locations – will not be transferred at all.
That’s a lot of provisions, so if you want to create a real archive of all the media you have stored in iCloud, you can use Apple’s “Get a copy of your data” option instead. You can then decide what to upload to Google Photos and what may need to be archived elsewhere. And yes, that means you use your bandwidth to make the transfers, but you have even more control over your data.
That said, if you have the free space – or a fake Google account – it never hurts to have a secondary backup for most of your media.