How to Move Photos from iCloud to Google Photos (Complete Guide 2026)

Step-by-step guide to transferring your entire iCloud photo library to Google Photos — without losing quality, metadata, or albums. Works for any library size.

Person holding iPhone with Google Photos

Moving photos from iCloud to Google Photos can cut your storage bill significantly — Google's 100GB plan costs less than Apple's equivalent, and you get 15GB free vs iCloud's 5GB. But a rushed transfer leads to missing metadata, corrupted files, or photos that never made it across before you cancel iCloud.

The transfer itself takes a few hours. Here's the complete process — including exactly what to verify before you cancel anything.

What You'll Need Before You Start

A Mac running macOS 14 or later (recommended for large libraries)
A Google account with enough storage — check at one.google.com/storage
An external drive if your library is larger than your Mac's free space
A stable Wi-Fi connection

For reference: a typical iPhone user with 3–4 years of photos has around 30–60GB. Google One's 100GB plan costs A$3.49/month, which is cheaper than iCloud's 200GB plan at A$4.49/month.

Step 1 — Export Your Photos from iCloud

The most reliable way to export a large iCloud library is Migrate Moments — it downloads your originals directly to an external drive without filling up your Mac's internal storage.

Migrate Moments app

Download Migrate Moments free on your Mac
Connect an external drive with enough free space
Open the app — it scans your iCloud library automatically
Select Google Photos as your export destination, or export to your external drive first
Click Export — it downloads everything organised by year and month

Manual alternative using the Photos app:

Go to Photos → Settings → iCloud
Select Download Originals to this Mac and wait for the sync to complete
Go to File → Export → Export Unmodified Originals
Select your external drive as the destination

Important: Always export "Unmodified Originals" — not the standard export option, which can compress your photos and strip metadata. For more detail on exporting large libraries, see how to download all your iCloud photos at once.

Step 2 — Upload to Google Photos

Once your photos are on your Mac or external drive, upload them to Google Photos.

For libraries under 15GB — use the browser:

Go to photos.google.com
Click Upload → Computer
Select your photo folders
Wait for the upload to complete

For large libraries — use Google Photos Uploader: The browser upload stalls on large libraries. Use the desktop uploader instead:

Download Google Photos Backup & Sync from photos.google.com/apps
Point it at your exported photo folders
It uploads automatically in the background, resuming if interrupted

Step 3 — Verify the Transfer

Before you cancel iCloud or delete anything:

Check photo counts — compare the total in Google Photos with your iCloud library count
Check dates — spot-check that photos from different years are appearing correctly
Check videos — videos sometimes get skipped; scroll through to confirm they're there
Check Live Photos — these export as a still + MOV file; Google Photos recombines them on iOS

Allow a day or two for Google Photos to finish processing everything before doing a final count.

Step 4 — Switch Your iPhone to Google Photos

Download the Google Photos app from the App Store
Open it and enable Backup
Set backup quality to Original quality (uses your Google storage quota but keeps full resolution)
Once your existing library is fully backed up to Google Photos, go to Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → Photos and turn off iCloud Photos

Don't turn off iCloud Photos until Google Photos has fully backed up your existing library. Do both for a few weeks first to be safe.

What Doesn't Transfer Automatically

Feature	Transfers?	Notes
Photos	✅ Yes	Full resolution originals
Videos	✅ Yes	Including 4K
Live Photos	✅ Yes	Recombined in Google Photos on iOS
Metadata (date, location)	✅ Yes	Preserved in original files
iCloud Albums	❌ No	Need to recreate manually
Shared Albums	❌ No	Only your own photos transfer
Memories	❌ No	Google Photos generates its own
Faces/People	❌ No	Google Photos re-learns faces

Once the transfer is fully verified, you can cancel your iCloud storage plan without losing photos and drop to a cheaper tier.

How Long Does It Take?

Library Size	Export Time	Upload Time
10GB	1–2 hours	1–3 hours
50GB	4–8 hours	4–10 hours
200GB+	12–24 hours	1–2 days

Both steps can run overnight. The upload speed depends heavily on your internet connection — most home connections upload at 10–50 Mbps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my photos lose quality when transferred? Not if you export Unmodified Originals and upload at Original quality in Google Photos. The photos will be identical to what's in iCloud.

Do I have to pay for Google Photos? Google gives you 15GB free. If your library is larger you'll need Google One — 100GB is A$3.49/month, 200GB is A$5.49/month. Both are cheaper than equivalent iCloud plans.

Can I keep both iCloud and Google Photos running? Yes. Many people run both as a redundant backup. You'll be paying for storage on both services though.

What happens to photos I take after switching? Once you enable Google Photos backup and disable iCloud Photos on your iPhone, new photos back up to Google Photos automatically.

I have 50,000 photos — is this realistic? Yes. The process is the same — it just takes longer. Use Migrate Moments and an external drive, and let it run overnight. Most people with large libraries complete the transfer in 1–2 days. Once done, see our guide on how to stop paying for iCloud storage to downgrade your plan safely.

Make the Switch With Migrate Moments for Mac

Migrate Moments for Mac handles the entire iCloud to Google Photos transfer — downloading originals from iCloud and uploading them to Google Photos at full resolution, verifying every file before removing anything from iCloud. Connect your Google account, set your archive age, and let it run overnight. Free to download and scan.