How to transfer photos from iCloud to Google photos

I have not been able to get photos captured on my iPhone to flow to my Google Drive folders. Is there a setting I can use to enable the copy to occur?

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Feb 15, 2023 11:13 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 16, 2023 2:42 PM

G'day tomd514,


We'd like to see how we can help out. For clarification, are you asking if you can sync contents between the two services, or do you want to export your photos from iCloud Photos and use them in Google Drive instead?


While there's not a way to sync your iCloud Photos with a third-party service in that way, if you're looking to import photos to Google Drive, this link should help. Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support


On your PC, make sure that you set up iCloud for Windows and turn on iCloud Photos. Open File Explorer. In the Navigation pane, click iCloud Photos, then select the images you want to keep on your PC. Right-click the selection and choose "Always keep on this device." If you use iCloud for Windows 10 or earlier, learn how to download your photos. After the items download, copy them to another folder on your computer. To do this, press and hold the Ctrl key and drag the items to the folder. Include this folder if you back up your computer.


If your goal is to download photos from iCloud and use them with a different service, the steps above will cover the download process. From there, you'd want to check with the developer of the other service you want to use for the best steps on setting it up or importing your photos.


We hope that helps. Have a good one.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 16, 2023 2:42 PM in response to tomd514

G'day tomd514,


We'd like to see how we can help out. For clarification, are you asking if you can sync contents between the two services, or do you want to export your photos from iCloud Photos and use them in Google Drive instead?


While there's not a way to sync your iCloud Photos with a third-party service in that way, if you're looking to import photos to Google Drive, this link should help. Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support


On your PC, make sure that you set up iCloud for Windows and turn on iCloud Photos. Open File Explorer. In the Navigation pane, click iCloud Photos, then select the images you want to keep on your PC. Right-click the selection and choose "Always keep on this device." If you use iCloud for Windows 10 or earlier, learn how to download your photos. After the items download, copy them to another folder on your computer. To do this, press and hold the Ctrl key and drag the items to the folder. Include this folder if you back up your computer.


If your goal is to download photos from iCloud and use them with a different service, the steps above will cover the download process. From there, you'd want to check with the developer of the other service you want to use for the best steps on setting it up or importing your photos.


We hope that helps. Have a good one.

Feb 16, 2023 4:34 PM in response to ryane77

Hi there - What I wanted to achieve was photos taken on an IOS device to land in a Windows 10 folder that I could have Google Photos pickup and push to that cloud service. My reasons for leveraging Google's cloud was their ability to import photos and movies I had accumulated over many years and already had organized in folders (I couldn't find a way in iCloud Photos to perform the import).


Another reason for my query involved iCloud Photos not pushing photos and movies I have recently taken to my PC. I was able to resolve this issue after some searching around and discovered I had a setting on my phone which only maintained copies in iCloud and wasn't syncing to my PC. Once I set the parameter to download the files flowed and Google Photos was able to pick them up. Thank you for your response and guidance.

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How to transfer photos from iCloud to Google photos

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