For anyone who feels held hostage by iCloud’s 5 GB free storage or just want to try another photo storage app, Apple launched this week a new service designed to make photos and videos stored in iCloud easier to Google Photos.
As reported by MacRumors and further set out in Apple Support Pages, Apple’s new transfer service enables users in the US, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the European Union to easily transfer content stored in iCloud to Google Photos wear.
Suppose you already have accounts for both services and you have the correct login rules (including active) two-factor authentication set up on your Apple ID), the whole process is pretty simple. All you have to do is sign up here with your Apple ID, select “Transfer copy of your data” and then 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 the original files in iCloud remain untouched and undone. However, because Google does not support exactly the same range of file types as Apple, things like Live Photos, Smart Albums, and certain RAW files may not be available or displayed correctly in Google Photos.
G / O Media can get a commission
If you run out of space in Google Photos during the transfer, you will need to buy more storage space yourself and do the transfer again. The same applies to last minute changes, deletions or additions you make before you start the transfer, which may not be included. There are also some fine details, such as that Apple only transfers the most recent edit of a photo and cannot share photos that are part of shared albums.
But all in all, it’s pretty simple. TThe only downside is that the transfer, depending on the amount of data and other factors, can take three to seven days to complete.
The interesting coincidence is that Apple’s new iCloud transfer service was completed just a few months before Google unlimited photo storage in Google Photos in June. It’s also because Apple is being scrutinized by lawmakers and acting in a legal battle with Epic Games over its alleged competitive behavior.. However, Apple will soon feel less concerned about people who may be jumping from iCloud ship in search of more free storage (Google Photos provides 15 GB free storage compared to iCloud’s 5 GB, but it’s definitely not unlimited anymore), perhaps the timing of Apple’s new photo transfer service is not so coincidental.