Three years after Apple and Google teamed up to create a tool for transferring photos from iCloud to Google Photos, the option to go the other direction is available.
The two tech giants collaborated again to make a data portability tool that enables users to transfer from Google Photos to iCloud Photos, as reported by 9to5Mac.
The cooperative effort is part of the Data Transfer Project, an open-source initiative focused on data portability. A blog post on the DTP website said the new tool would be rolled out over the next week.
“Beginning today, Apple and Google are expanding on their direct data transfer offerings to allow users of Google Photos to transfer their collections directly to iCloud Photos. This complements and completes the existing transfers made possible from iCloud Photos to Google Photos and fulfills a core Data Transfer Initiative (DTI) principle of reciprocity. The offering from Apple and Google will be rolling out over the next week and is the newest tool powered by the open source Data Transfer Project (DTP) technology stack, joining existing direct portability tools available to billions of people today offered by DTI and its founding partners Apple, Google, and Meta.”
Support pages on Apple and Google sites provide details on transferring photos and videos from Google Photos to iCloud.
It should be noted that the tool that allowed transfers from iCloud to Google Photos, the transfer is only a copy. The photos and videos are not deleted from Google Photos after the transfer.
Also, photos and videos don’t need to be downloaded as the process directly connects Google Photos and iCloud.
Finally, Apple and Google say that the process can take several hours and a few days, depending on the size of the videos and photos being transferred.
Child accounts or Managed Apple ID accounts cannot use this tool.
Step-by-step instructions for initiating a Google Photos to iCloud photos transfer are below.
How to transfer photos and videos
- Go to Google Takeout
- Follow the instructions to start an export from Google Photos.
- Choose “Apple – iCloud Photos” as the destination to transfer and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Tap Allow to share permission with Google to add photos and videos to iCloud.
- You can check the status of or cancel your transfer on Apple’s Data and Privacy page
- When you start a transfer and when a transfer is complete, Apple sends email notifications to the email addresses associated with your Apple ID account.