Soon, you can transfer photos directly from Google to Apple's cloud storage

While the option to transfer images from Apple's iCloud to Google Photos has been available for some time, Google and Apple have collaborated to offer the service other way round

Apple and Google have collaborated to offer a solution for transferring photos directly from Google Photos to iCloud Photos as part of the Data Transfer Initiative (DTI). This comes after both the companies collaborated in 2021 to allow easier file transferring from iCloud Photos to Google Photos. According to an update on the DTI webpage, the offering from Apple and Google will be rolling out over the next week.

Currently, if a user wants to transfer pictures, they have to first download from Google Photos and then upload it on the Apple iCloud. However, this process is going to be a lot easier with the direct transfer option, which will allow users to transfer photos from Google Photos to Apple iCloud directly without requiring download and upload steps.

According to an update on Apple's support page, this service will be available to Apple account holders in over 240 countries and regions. If the service is available for a user, the option will be available within Google Takeout. As per Apple, the service is not available for child accounts or managed Apple ID accounts. Additionally, users cannot import photo and video data to iCloud while “Advanced Data Protection” for iCloud is turned on for the account.

Apple has also confirmed that when you transfer photos and videos from Google Photos to iCloud Photos, the files are not deleted from Google Photos.

Supported file types

The list of supported file types includes JPEG, HEIC, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, MP4 and MOV. For other photos and video files that cannot be transferred to iCloud Photos, such as RAW files, Apple said that these will be transferred to iCloud Drive instead.

How to transfer photos and videos from Google Photos to iCloud Photos

• Go to the transfer Photos view of Google Takeout
• Go to your Google Account Dashboard
• Under “Recently used Google services” or “Other Google services,” scroll to Photos and then tap Transfer data.
• Choose the data you want to copy and tap on continue option.
• 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.

Your photos and videos appear in the Photos app in an album called “Import from Google” with the date of the transfer. If some of your photos or videos are missing from iCloud Photos, check iCloud Drive for a folder called "Import from Google" with the date of the transfer.

You can check the status of or cancel your transfer on Apple's Data and Privacy page. Additionally, when the transfer starts and when it is complete, Apple will send an email notification to the email addresses associated with your Apple ID account.