As first reported by Macrumors, Apple has introduced a new service that natively transfers photos and videos from iCloud storage onto Google Photos. It’s a nice touch, and seeing as Google (and the Google Photos app) is a major rival in this space, I appreciate that Apple is doing things outside the ecosystem for once. In any case, a new support document is now up on the Apple website, it details the new service.
Previously, without the functionality built in, you had to manually download photos or videos from your iCloud drive—before syncing the same files onto Google Photos. Google Photos has been nearly unrivalled in the photo backup scene, primarily due to the unlimited storage provided for “high quality” images over the last couple of years. That’s about to end, however, with Google announcing that high quality images will take up space on your Drive from June 2021 onwards.
Regardless, the process of transferring a copy of your photos and videos from iCloud is now pretty straightforward:
- Sign in with your Apple ID at privacy.apple.com.
- Select Transfer a copy of your data.
- Follow the prompts to complete your request.
Do note that you’ll need to sign in to your Google account to start the transfer, and the transfer will take anywhere between three days to a week. Meanwhile, shared albums, smart albums, and Live Photos will not be transferred. For now, it appears that Live Photos will be transferred as regular, static images, and the video aspect won’t be included in the transfer.
Something else worth remembering is that this service makes a copy of your iCloud photos and videos—it doesn’t delete the files on your iCloud drive. This means that if you’re doing this to clear up some space on your drive, remember to manually delete the files—or turn off photos/videos sync in your iCloud settings. Unfortunately, Apple’s new service is not available in Malaysia just yet. Instead, only users in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States have access to this for now.
A couple of other things you should take note of:
- 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 is transferred and not the original version. Duplicates appear as just one photo.
- Whenever possible, photos are transferred with their albums. Videos are transferred separately, without their albums.
- Once transferred to Google, the filenames of albums and videos start with “Copy of.”
- Some content—including shared albums, smart albums, photo stream content, live photos, some metadata, and photos and videos stored in other folders or locations—is not transferred at all.
Overall, the new feature is a nifty bit of functionality that should come in handy for users everywhere. If you’re planning to migrate from iOS to Android, transferring your backed up photos from iCloud to Google Photos should now be easier than ever, or if you’re simply looking to compile all of your photos in a centralised app. Regardless, as I mentioned above, it’s a nice touch from Apple.
