Backing up photo folder to google photos

I don't quite follow how you are trying to "back up to Google Photos" -- in the screenshot I see Google Drive which does not work for that.

Anyways, in my experience sometimes uploading many images from some Finder folder via Safari to Google Photos might stall. If that happens, I have switched to uploading via Firefox which has then worked.

FWIW there is a service to transfer content from Google Photos to Apple Photos:

Transfer a copy of your photos and videos to iCloud Photos - Apple Support

And vice versa from Apple Photos to Google Photos:

Transfer a copy of your iCloud Photos collection to another service - Apple Support

About a year ago I tested that Google Photos to Apple Photos service and was not impressed. So I'd use the old Google Takeout for that although also it is not optimal with some gotchas and limitations:

https://takeout.google.com/

→ So I'd recommend exporting images and movies from Apple Photos to some Finder folder and then uploading them to Google Photos.

→ → And if you just want to backup your Apple Photos, use Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner for that. Optimized images are flies in that ointment if you use iCloud Photos so maybe store the Photos library (if it won't fit on the internal disk) on an APFS-formatted external disk with no optimization (so all images are locally stored) and use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the external disk to another external disk.

It sounds like you're using iCloud Photos-- is that right? Are you using Optimize?

You didn't show the path to your Pictures Folder-- is it in your Home (User name) folder? Or is it somewhere else?

Your statement " i cannot update until i have more storage" is troubling. Your OS is the most current. How much storage do you have on your internal drive? At System Settings>General> Storage, my Mac says 745 GB of 1TBB used. What does yours say?

The Photos Library is not a Folder but a Package, and it has some special properties. It can't work from iCloud Drive or from Google, for instance. If you use Optimize, then saving the Photos Library Package would not back up your pictures.

Give us more information so we can help…

safia25 wrote:

I am trying to backup my photo library to google photos but I unable to as it is greyed out as you can see below.

That Photos Library.photolibrary "file" is actually a package (a entire directory tree) containing a large database, generally consisting of all of the photos and videos that you have in Photos, plus some extra stuff that the Photos application uses to track and organize them.

It is not meant to be accessed directly by any application other than Photos (with very limited exceptions) – and if this is some sort of file selection dialog being displayed by Google Photos, Google might have intentionally set the dialog up so that it would not let you select a .photolibrary file.

That would certainly account for it being greyed out.

I have a Macbook Air 13 and currently running macOS 26.5.2 as i cannot update until i have more storage, please help. Its not old and i barely use it!

According to that screenshot, your Photos Library.photolibrary is taking up 214.67 GB. You're using something or the Photos Library would not be crammed that full of stuff.

safia25 wrote: …I dont know what Optimize is,

It's going to be important to get this straight. In Photos' Settings>iCloud

have you chosen "Download" or "Optimize?"

Optimize is a service of iCloud that reduces the storage of your picture by as much as 90%. You should see this:

Understanding iCloud Photos - Apple Community

It's also important to know about your Mac's storage: At System Settings>General> Storage, my Mac says 745 GB of 1TBB used. What does yours say?

I can see that your Photos Library Package is in your Home Folder's Pictures folder. That's good. And you're trying to copy this to Google Storage. I don't do Google, but that should be OK for a backup, as long as you don't try to access it there with the Photos app. Your Photos Library must stay in that Pictures folder.

For reference, it is possible to

• Have multiple Photos libraries on a Mac (Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac - Apple Support). They can all be local libraries – or you can have the system library synchronize with iCloud while the rest are strictly local.
• Move or copy a Photos library to a directly-attached external drive (Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support).

Note that Apple explicitly warns that you should not move your Photos library to cloud-based storage services such as Google Drive.

safia25 wrote:

I dont know what Optimize is, I am just trying to upload the photos from my photo library to my google photos as I already paid for a lot of storage on there as opposed to paying for storage again on icloud (i only have 50GB so only some of my photos are backed up to there).

If you are using iCloud Photos, the "Optimize" feature can help you to reduce the amount of storage your library requires on any particular device. It is something you can select on a per-device basis. When it is on, the device may switch between storing full-size copies of your photos and storing reduced-quality, space-saving copies. It decides when to make substitutions in one direction or the other.

Using this feature does not reduce iCloud storage requirements. When you are using iCloud Photos, you need to have enough iCloud space for full-size copies of all of the photos and videos synchronized through the system.

Typically you would want your Mac to keep full-size photos so that when you make local backups of the Mac, you are backing up full-size copies of all of your photos – not reduced-quality "thumbnails".

safia25 wrote:

I dont know what Optimize is, I am just trying to upload the photos from my photo library to my google photos as I already paid for a lot of storage on there as opposed to paying for storage again on icloud (i only have 50GB so only some of my photos are backed up to there).

I hope you are keeping local backups of your Mac.

If you have over 200 GB of photos and videos, and you're only paying for 50 GB of iCloud+ storage, that implies that most of your photos and videos are not backed up to iCloud. If something happens to your Mac, and there are no local backups, you will lose them.

(People will also argue that iCloud Photos not a true backup - since it only protects you against catastrophes like device failure, not against catastrophes like you making an unwanted edit or permanent deletion that propagates "immediately" to iCloud and all synchronized devices. That's a separate discussion. The point is that if you have hundreds of gigabytes of photos and videos that exist only in one place, they are all at risk.)