Migrating Photo Libraries From Google Photos to iCloud is Becoming Much Easier

Apple and Google, which are two founding partners of an open-source collaboration group named the Data Transfer Initiative (DTI), are going to simplify the migration of a photo library from Google Photos to iCloud. This will be possible via a new photo and video transfer tool developed within the Data Transfer Project (via 9to5Mac).

“The offering from Apple and Google will be rolling out over the next week and is the newest tool powered by the open source Data Transfer Project (DTP) technology stack, joining existing direct portability tools available to billions of people today offered by DTI and its founding partners Apple, Google, and Meta,” a blog post on the Data Transfer Initiative blog explained yesterday.

The Data Transfer Project has already led to the creation of an online tool for transferring iCloud photo libraries to Google Photos. This can be done via Apple’s Data and Privacy portal, and the transfer process takes between three and seven days.

Transferring photos and videos to iCloud Photos from Google Photos won’t delete anything from Google’s cloud storage service. Apple explained in a support page that the transfer process will need to be initiated from the Google Takeout portal, and the company added that it might take between several hours and a few days. However, there will be some limitations:

• Some unusual file types such as Motion Photos, Live Photos, or Memories won’t be transferred.
• Photos and video transfers won’t work when Advanced Data Protection for iCloud is enabled.
• Child accounts and managed Apple ID accounts are also unsupported.

If you have a large Google Photos library you’d like to transfer to iCloud, Apple only offers 5GB of free iCloud storage, so you’ll likely need to pay for an iCloud+ plan starting at $0.99/month for 50GB of extra storage. In comparison, Google accounts offer 15 GB of free cloud storage, and the Google One Basic plan with 100GB of storage is priced at $1.99/month.

For users of Apple devices, the preinstalled Apple Photos app that integrates with the iCloud Photo Library is really solid. Later this fall, Apple Photos will get a redesign on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sonoma with a new Unified View, collections that can be pinned to the home page, and more customization features.