Apple’s iCloud has always been criticized for the lack of enough storage space, on the free plan that they offer. The company offers just 5 GB of cloud storage for the free plan, which is not even good enough to store all the photos that we have in our library. If you want to avoid frequent “iCloud Storage Full” messages, you will have to shell out at least $0.99 a month for the base 50 GB plan. Unfortunately, this has forced people to look for better cloud storage options.
- Transfer Photos From Iphone To Google Photos
- Transfer Photos From Iphone To Google Drive
- How To Download Photos From Google Drive To Iphone
Here I’ll assume that you’ve already installed the Google Drive app. There are two ways to interpret your question: 1. Make it available offline (to open it without Internet connexion) 2. Copy it to the iPhone (either into the camera roll or iClou.
- Part 2: Download Photos from Google Drive to iPhone via Google Photos App Though Google Drive is a service of cloud storage, it has been integrated with Google photos by Google since 2017. Lots of users like to store their photos and videos in Google photos all because of its powerful function of photo album.
- The Google Photos desktop client for macOS doesn’t have two-way sync, but the one for Google Drive does. First, go to Google Drive on the web, open the Settings page (via the cog icon) and tick the box marked Automatically put your Google Photos into a folder in My Drive under the General tab.
- Easily transfer photos between iPhone or iPad and your computer as well exchange photos from and to another iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Tap folder to reveal photos you want to upload to your Google Drive. 6 Tap photos to select them. Select & Download Photos. How to Select & Upload Photos. How to Log In.
- How to Download Photos from Google Drive to iPhone? Google Drive is a cloud storage service operated by Google Inc. You can create, open and share files from a variety of apps directly in Google Drive.
If you’re running very low on your iCloud storage space and getting “iCloud Storage Full” popups (there are USB flash drives for iPhone to transfer photos and videos), you might be interested in moving all your beautiful photos to Google Photos, especially because of the unlimited storage space that Google brings to the table.
However, shifting to a different cloud service has always been a confusing task for many. But don’t worry, as we’ll let you know exactly how to transfer photos from iCloud to Google Photos.
Download Photos from iCloud and Upload to Google Photos
First of all, you will be making use of your PC to download all the photos from your iCloud, in order to transfer it to Google’s cloud storage. So, without further ado, download iCloud for Windows and sign in with your Apple ID.
Once done, go to your system tray by clicking on the up arrow located at the right of your taskbar. You will notice the iCloud icon in this system tray.
Now, right click on this iCloud icon and you’ll immediately notice a small pop-up with an option to Download all the photos. Click on it and wait for a while, especially if you’ve tons of photos stored in the cloud. Your downloaded photos will probably be located in Pictures -> iCloud Photos -> Downloads, which is the default directory used by iCloud, unless you’ve changed it using the desktop client.
Once you’ve downloaded all your photos, head over to Google Photos website, sign in with your Google account and click on Upload. You will be asked to browse through and choose the required photos as per your preference.
Related: 18 Best iPhone X Tricks, Gesture Shortcuts and Button Combos.
Since we’re trying to upload our iCloud photos, go to the default directory for iCloud on Windows (Pictures -> iCloud Photos -> Downloads) and select all the pictures that are located inside the folder in this directory.
Once you’ve selected all the photos, click on Open and wait for a few minutes, until all the photos are uploaded to Google’s cloud storage. The time you’ll have to wait will totally depend on your internet connection. So, if you have a slower connection, you might have to wait longer.
Well, that’s pretty much the whole process. You’ve successfully managed to transfer all your photos from iCloud to Google Photos. You can very well remove all these photos from your iCloud, in order to free up your precious 5 GB allocation and use it for something else. However, if you don’t have a PC in your reach, we have an easier and alternate solution for you. So, let’s take a look at that as well.
Alternate Method: Using Google Photos App
If you’re using iCloud on your iOS device, all the photos stored on that device are uploaded to the cloud as well. So, we’ll be making use of the Google Photos App that’s available on the iOS App Store to back up all your photos to Google’s cloud storage. Once you’ve installed the application, simply follow the instructions below to get this process completed within seconds.
Open the Google Photos App and go to the menu, by touching on the three-line icon. Now, tap on Settings.
Now, tap on Backup & sync and enable that option. In the Backup & sync menu, there’ll also be an option to choose Upload size. If you’d like to let Google to slightly compress the image without sacrificing much on quality, choose High quality where you’ll get unlimited storage space for your photos. However, if you want to keep the original file size, without any change in resolution, you will have to store it on your 15 GB allocation for Google Drive.
Well, this procedure is much easier than the previous method we discussed, as it doesn’t need a PC or desktop client and you don’t even have to download all the photos. So, once you’ve successfully transferred all the photos to Google’s cloud, you can very well remove the photos and save up storage space on your iCloud, or disable it on your iPhone altogether, if you don’t intend to use it anymore.
Experience Unlimited Photo Storage with Google Photos
Google Photos is rapidly growing to be one of the best places to store all your photos, especially because of the fact that it offers unlimited storage if you’re willing to let Google reduce the file size of your images, without sacrificing much on quality. With Google Photos unlimited storage, you will be able to store unlimited photos up to a maximum resolution of 16 MP, but if you want to store images at its full resolution and size, your 15 GB free allocation on Google Drive will be used up. Still, 15 GB is much more than what Apple has to offer.
Well, you don’t even have to worry anymore as soon as you start running out on your 5 GB free allocation for iCloud, as you can store as many photos as you want on Google Photos, without sacrificing much on image quality. Even after Google’s compression, the pictures look exceptionally good, so there’s no gripe in that regard. So, are you looking forward to make the switch to Google Photos? Do let us know in the comments section down below, as we at Technical Tips, would like to know exactly what you guys think about Google Photos and its unlimited storage option.
Many iPhone users have wrestled with storage limits, especially when it comes to managing the device's camera roll. Apart from deleting old pics and purchasing a paid iCloud subscription, there's another option for alleviating storage woes: using Google Photos for iOS.
Below, we provide instructions for backing up all of the photos on your phone to Google Drive via the Google Photos for iOS app, so you can delete them from your phone (and the iCloud) as needed.
The Google Photos for iOS app is free. Download and install the app on your iPhone or iPad. When you launch it for the first time, you'll be asked to sign into your Google account.
If you've used any other Google services, including Gmail, use the same credentials. If you have more than one Google account, choose carefully. Make sure you're selecting the account you want to associate your photo library with for the long term.
Transfer Photos From Iphone To Google Photos
Next, you'll encounter the Back up & sync screen. Here, you'll set your preferences for how the photos saved on your device should be uploaded to the Google Drive cloud. The app walks you through the steps.
Here, switch the 'Back up & sync' toggle to the blue on position. Whether you wish to enable cellular data for this sync and future syncing is up to you, but we recommend leaving it off (assuming you have access to a Wi-Fi network) so you don't inadvertently put a strain on your data plan. You can always change this and other settings later. Hit Continue.
The next screen asks you to confirm upload size. Here, you should choose 'High Quality' for two reasons. One, photos uploaded at this size do not count against the 15 GB of free Google Drive storage associated with your Google Account. Two, it won't affect the quality of the photos you've taken on your iPhone: The high quality option compresses photos to a 16 MP maximum, but at this point, all iPhones already take photos at 16 MP or smaller.
Once you hit continue, the back up & sync process begins (presuming you are on a Wi-Fi network or using cellular data). The more photos you have, the longer this automated process will take, so don't be worried if it takes a while to finish up.
Once you're finished, it's time to familiarize yourself with the Google Photos interface. When you open the app again, you'll have access to your photo and video content through three tabs: Assistant, Photos and Albums.
Under Photos and Albums, you can peruse and organize your content. In addition, the Assistant screen has a few organizational shortcuts (Create Album, Collage, Animation, Movie, etc.) for easy searching, sharing and editing. Below, you'll see a feed of auto-created content that Google Photos generated from your photos and videos. You may see animations, edited photos, collages and more.
To access your photos from a computer, just navigate to Google Photos in your browser and sign into your account. There, you can see your content and an expanded version of the mobile interface anytime, anywhere. You can also download or share photos as needed.
Once you're satisfied that your iOS device's photos have been uploaded to your Google Photos account, you're ready to delete them from your phone or tablet. You can either do this piecemeal through Apple's Photos app, or you can use a built-in Google Photos tool to do so all at once.
To use Google Photos, open the app and tap the three-line menu icon on the top left portion of the screen. Select 'Free up space' from the menu. From there, Google Photos detects images and videos saved on your local device that have already been backed up by Google. You'll receive a notification asking to confirm the removal. Once you're ready, hit Remove.
The only downside of removing these photos from your local device is that you will not be able to share or post them directly from apps like Messages, Mail or social media. However, you can do all of these directly through Google Photos: Open the app, Tap 'Photos', then select the item you wish to share. Tap the square sharing icon in the lower left hand corner and make your selection.
You can also download or delete individual items from your local device on at a time. After you select the image in question, tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper right corner. If the image is already on your device, you'll see a 'Delete from device' option. If it's not, you'll see 'Download' instead.
Using Google Photos to replace the iCloud Photo Library
After you've uploaded your photo library to Google Photos and cleared up space on your device, you can either go back to using the built-in iOS photo library and tools, or you can use Google Photos to replace the iCloud Photo Library.
Transfer Photos From Iphone To Google Drive
If you just want to do a one-time backup to Google Photos, then turn off the 'Back up & sync' function in Google Photos. Open the app on your device, then go the Menu > Settings > Back up & sync. You can always do another backup if you run into more storage issues.
If you leave 'Back up & sync' on, Google Photos automatically syncs photos from your camera roll to the cloud when you launch the app. In this way, it provides convenient cloud storage similar to the iCloud but with fewer constraints. Most notably, you'll never run out of storage, as long as you're uploading in high (rather than full) quality.
Other advantages? If you ever decide to switch to Android, it will be easy to access all of your photos on your new device. Also, Google Photos' automatic organization tools are arguably more accurate, and more fun to use, than those in Apple Photos.
How To Download Photos From Google Drive To Iphone
If you have Google Photos continually backing up and syncing, it's safe to turn off the iCloud Photo Library on your device (Settings > Photos & Camera > iCloud Photo Library). This frees up your iCloud for essentials like device backups, so you can keep using your beloved iPhone without being subject to Apple's stingy cloud policies.