For those who feel they have been held hostage by 5 GB of iCloud from free storage or just want to try a different photo storage app, this week Apple released a new service designed to facilitate the transfer of photos and videos stored on iCloud to Google Photos.
As reported in MacRumors and more detailed in Apple support pages, Apple’s new transfer service allows users located in the USA, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Union to easily move content stored on iCloud to Google Photos.
Assuming that you already have accounts for both services and have the appropriate login credentials (including active ones) two-factor authentication configuration in your Apple ID), the whole process is quite simple. All you have to do is between here with your Apple ID, select “Transfer a copy of your data” and follow the rest of the steps.
The important thing to know is that the service sends a copy of your photos and videos to Google, which means that all original files on iCloud will remain intact and not deleted. However, since Google does not support exactly the same variety of file types as Apple, it is possible that things like Live Photos, Smart Albums and certain RAW files are not available or are displayed correctly in Google Photos.
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Also, if you run out of space in Google Photos during the transfer, you’ll need to manually purchase more storage and redo the transfer. The same applies to any last minute changes, deletions or additions made before starting the transfer, which may not be included. There are also some small details, like Apple, just transferring the most recent edition of a photo and not being able to transfer photos that are part of shared albums.
But, in short, it is quite simple. TThe only real disadvantage is that, depending on the amount of data and some other factors, the transfer can take three to seven days to complete.
The only interesting coincidence is that Apple’s new iCloud transfer service arrives a few months before the end of Google unlimited photo storage on Google Photos in June. This also occurs when Apple is being scrutinized by lawmakers and in a legal fight with Epic Games over its anti-competitive behavior. However, with Apple soon feeling less concerned about people potentially leaving the iCloud boat in search of more free storage (Google Photos Offers 15 GB of free storage compared to the 5 GB of iCloud, but it’s definitely not unlimited anymore), perhaps the timing of Apple’s new photo transfer service is not so coincidental, after all.