How to Cancel iCloud and Switch to Google Photos (Without Losing a Single Photo)

A complete, step-by-step guide to moving your entire iCloud photo library to Google Photos and cancelling your iCloud plan safely.

Person transferring photos from iCloud to Google Photos on laptop

Google Photos is cheaper than iCloud, works on every platform, and has better search. If you've decided to make the switch, the process is straightforward — but the order of steps matters. Do it wrong and you might end up with photos missing from both services.

Here's the right way to do it.

Why People Switch From iCloud to Google Photos

The most common reason is cost. Here's the comparison:

Storage	iCloud	Google One
15GB	—	Free
50GB	$1.49/month	—
100GB	—	$2.49/month
200GB	$4.49/month	$3.99/month
2TB	$14.99/month	$12.99/month

Google is cheaper at every tier, and the free tier is 15GB vs iCloud's 5GB — a meaningful difference for light users.

Other reasons people switch:

They use Android as well as iPhone and want one library across both
Google Photos' search is significantly more powerful (search by what's in a photo, not just date)
They want to leave Apple's ecosystem and need a platform-agnostic solution

Before You Start: Back Up Everything

Before changing anything, make sure you have a complete, verified backup of your photos.

The safest approach: export your full iCloud library to an external drive using the Migrate Moments Mac app at migratemoments.app/download. This gives you a local copy of every original file before you move anything. If anything goes wrong during the migration, you have a complete backup to fall back on.

Alternatively, confirm your existing iCloud sync is fully up to date: Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Photos should show "Synced to iCloud" with no pending uploads.

Step 1: Transfer Your Photos to Google Photos

There are two ways to do this. Option A is easiest; Option B gives you more control.

Option A: Use Apple's Data Transfer Tool (Recommended)

Apple and Google have an official transfer tool that copies photos directly from iCloud to Google Photos — no downloading to your computer required.

Go to privacy.apple.com on your iPhone or Mac
Sign in with your Apple ID
Tap Transfer a copy of your data
Choose Google Photos as the destination
Sign in to your Google account
Select your date range and confirm

Apple sends an email when the transfer is complete — it usually takes a few hours to a few days depending on library size. Your photos remain in iCloud throughout; this copies them, not moves them.

Check the transfer: Once the email arrives, open Google Photos and verify your photos are there — browse by year, spot-check a few events, confirm the count looks right.

Option B: Download and Re-upload Manually

If you want more control over what gets transferred:

Download your iCloud library to your Mac — either via the Photos app (File → Export → Export Unmodified Originals) or using Migrate Moments for a better-organised export
Install the Google Photos desktop uploader (available at photos.google.com)
Upload the exported photos to Google Photos

This approach is slower but lets you clean up before uploading — remove duplicates and junk with Migrate Moments first, so you're not paying Google to store your burst photos from 2019.

Step 2: Verify the Transfer Is Complete

Before touching iCloud, spend a few minutes verifying Google Photos has everything:

Browse the Years view in Google Photos and check key years look complete
Search for a few specific events or people — do the results look right?
Check the total photo count: in Google Photos, go to your profile → Manage Storage → the count is listed there

Don't skip this step. Once you start deleting from iCloud, the verification window is gone.

Step 3: Download Google Photos on Your iPhone

Install the Google Photos app from the App Store if you haven't already.

Open the app and sign in
Go to Profile → Photos settings → Back up & sync and turn it on
Choose your upload quality — Original quality preserves full resolution (uses your Google storage quota) or Storage saver compresses photos slightly (doesn't count against quota for most photos)

From this point, new photos taken on your iPhone will back up to Google Photos automatically.

Step 4: Turn Off iCloud Photos

Once you've confirmed Google Photos has your library and is backing up new photos:

Open Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Photos
Toggle iCloud Photos off
When prompted, choose Download Photos & Videos — this keeps full originals on your iPhone temporarily

Do this on every Apple device (iPad, Mac) where iCloud Photos is enabled.

Step 5: Downgrade or Cancel Your iCloud Plan

Now it's safe to change your iCloud storage plan:

Open Settings → [Your Name] → Subscriptions (or Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Manage Plan)
Select your current iCloud plan
Choose to downgrade to a smaller tier or cancel

If you're cancelling entirely, be aware that iCloud is also used for device backups, iCloud Drive, and iCloud Mail. If you use any of these, keep a small plan (50GB at $1.49/month covers most people's non-photo iCloud usage) rather than cancelling outright.

For the full process on safely cancelling iCloud, see our guide: How to cancel iCloud storage without losing your photos.

Step 6: Clean Up Your iPhone Photos

After the switch, you have full-resolution originals on your iPhone (because you chose "Download" when turning off iCloud Photos). Once you've confirmed Google Photos has everything:

Open Settings → Photos and confirm iCloud Photos is off
You can now delete photos from your iPhone as you like — they remain safely in Google Photos
Consider keeping recent photos on device and deleting older ones to free up local storage

What Google Photos Does Differently

A few things to know before you're fully settled in:

Shared Libraries work differently. iCloud Family Sharing of photos is replaced by Google Photos' Partner Sharing — you can share your library with one person who can view and save from it.

HEIC files. Your iPhone shoots in HEIC format. Google Photos handles HEIC, but if you're downloading photos for editing in apps that don't support it, you may need to convert. See our guide on HEIC vs JPEG iPhone photos.

No Apple Watch integration. Google Photos doesn't appear in Apple's watch face widgets or Memory notifications the way iCloud Photos does.

Search is better. Once your library is in Google Photos, try searching for things like "birthday cake", "Hobart", or "2022 Christmas" — it's significantly more capable than Apple's search.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep some photos in iCloud and move others to Google Photos? Yes, but it's complicated to maintain long-term. It's cleaner to pick one as your primary and use the other as backup if needed.

Will Google Photos store my videos too? Yes — photos and videos both upload to Google Photos. Videos count against your Google storage quota at full resolution, or are compressed with Storage saver quality.

How long does the Apple data transfer to Google Photos take? Apple says to allow up to 7 days, but most transfers complete within a few hours. Library size is the main factor. You'll get an email when it's done.

Does switching to Google Photos affect my Apple Music or other iCloud services? No — turning off iCloud Photos only affects photo syncing. Your other iCloud services (Mail, Drive, Music, backups) are unaffected.

What happens to photos people have shared with me in iCloud shared albums? Those photos don't transfer — only photos in your personal library move. Download anything from shared albums you want to keep before turning off iCloud Photos.