Back up photos from iCloud shared albums to Google Photos?

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Level 2

277 points

Back up photos from iCloud shared albums to Google Photos?

I just installed Google Photos for iOS and let it 'back up' photos from my iPhone photo library. When it was complete, I noticed it didn't copy photos from my Shared Albums. In a way this doesn't surprise me but I would like them copied. (Interesting side note: Google Drive can see my iCloud shared albums but Google Photos doesn't seem to.)

I posted a note on the Google Photos support forum about this but thought I'd try here also. Does anyone know how to do this?

There doesn't seem to be any way in the iPhone Photos app to copy photos manually from iCloud shared albums to Google Photos (I can't put 'Google Photos' in the share sheet).

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Aug 6, 2016 2:32 PM

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Answer 1

LACAllen

Level 8

43,668 points

Aug 6, 2016 2:46 PM in response to rick7

Are you saying that photos that may be in your shared albums weren't backed up, or that the album "groupings" weren't backed up?

Shared albums in iOS are an organizational function. Photos are not moved from anywhere to an album. It's like a label in Gmail. The photos its still in the ALL PHOTOS view etc, but also has a album label of "Winter 2015"

I doubt Google cares much about your iOS album structure (or even has access to it) and appears to offer you their own way to "album" your photos within their app.

If I look at the support for the iOS app, it does not mention albums at all, just photos and videos.

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Answer 2

rick7 Author

Level 2

277 points

Aug 6, 2016 4:20 PM in response to LACAllen

Thanks for the reply, LACAllen. The photos themselves weren't backed up. And reflecting on your message made me wonder if have been using iCloud shared albums under an incorrect assumption. After I copy photos to a shared album, I then delete them from Photos as I've believed that by doing that I am saving space on my iPhone. Checking Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage over a period of several months after each copy-to-album-then-delete has seemed to confirm that.

So when you indicate that photos are not moved from anywhere to an album and are instead only given an album label or perhaps a pointer to the album, I'm confused because it sure has seemed like they are moved.

As a wild guess, I have perhaps 2,000 photos stored in maybe 80 shared albums (none of those photos now exist in Photos view), and none of those 2,000 photos were copied ('backed up') to Google Photos.

The mystery deepens.

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Answer 3

LACAllen

Level 8

43,668 points

Aug 6, 2016 8:26 PM in response to rick7

I believe you are mistaken.

When you remove a photo from the Photos view, it is moved to the RECENTLY DELETED album.

If you don't also remove the photos from the RECENTLY DELETED album, your storage numbers will not change. That may be why your storage numbers aren't changing.

However after 30-40 days, all photos in the RECENTLY DELETED album are permanently removed from your phone.

I'm guessing they weren't backed up to Google Photos because they don't exist as far as Google Photos can tell. I would check my recently deleted album ASAP.

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Answer 4

rick7 Author

Level 2

277 points

Aug 6, 2016 9:20 PM in response to LACAllen

Thanks. I recently came back from vacation and had about 200 photos in my Photos view. They were eating up a lot of storage space as indicated in Settings. My phone is a 16 GB model so I have to be very careful about storage. I copied them all into a shared album, then deleted them (from the Photos tab), then cleaned out the Recently Deleted folder. I then checked Settings > Storage again and it was back to where I want it to me. All the photos that exist in that shared album are now completely gone from both Photos view and the Recently Deleted folder. So I'm not sure how it could be that photos are not moved from anywhere when you put them in a shared album.

Is it possible that you're thinking of an 'Album' rather than a 'Shared Album'? I think an 'Album' does have the qualities you ascribe to them: that its photos remain in the Photo view and are not moved anywhere.

If I'm mistaken in my analysis I would actually be glad to know how so I could gain a better understanding of this process.

In any case, yes I think that Google Photos doesn't know that photos in my shared albums exist because they are moved from the regular Photos once they're put in a shared album.

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Answer 5

LACAllen

Level 8

43,668 points

Aug 6, 2016 9:40 PM in response to rick7

Yes I was. Shared albums are stored outside,of your iCloud space, so have some other limitations.

I wouldn't consider it effective backup.

You can download that content to "get it back" on to your device or Mac.

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