Any and all advice, guides, and reviews are unbiased and based on my personal experience. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions, which helps support my website. This does not have an impact on posts or my opinion of any reviewed products. If you find this post helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!
IMPORTANT 2024 UPDATE
Some of this blog post is a little moot given Google, Apple, and Microsoft are now offering something similar direct with the Data Transfer Initiative. Right now (2024), Microsoft doesn’t support direct transfer but you can migrate Google Photos to iCloud easily direct with Google and Apple. Apple has a How To/Support article here. If you use Google Take Out, there is now an option to upload the Zip files direct to One Drive (you would then need to Unzip and sort). You can read more on how to connect Google Takeout to OneDrive here.
Google Photos to One Drive Migration
I previously wrote about how to download Google Photos here, this Guide tells you how to do this for free, using a cloud-to-cloud transfer. It’s free and easy to do but will require patience for the transfer to occur. The benefit of this approach is there’s no need to download your Google Photo library first then re-upload it via OneDrive, the transfer occurs in the background.
Why do you want to do this? I’m guessing you’re here because you already know. But just in case, on November 11, 2020, Google announced plans to end free unlimited photo storage on Google Photos. The new Google Photos limit will be 15GB. The Google Photos storage limit will come into effect on June 2021. I can guarantee you will already be significantly over 15Gb (even if pre-2021 files don’t count to the quota).
How to Transfer your entire Google Photos Library to One Drive FREE!
- Sign Up for a free account at MultCloud.
- Verify your email address, then sign back into MultCloud.
- On the left side, click Add Cloud.
- Select Google Photos, then follow the prompts to sign in and authorize your Google Account.
- On the left side, click Add Cloud
- Select OneDrive, then follow the prompts to sign in and authorize your OneDrive account.
- On the left side, select Create a Transfer Task.
- Now on the main window, click on “From” and select Google Photos. Then check the box to ensure Google Photos is selected. You can expand the tree and make sure every folder is selected.
- Again, in the main window click on “To” and select One Drive. I recommend creating a new folder, so on the far right side of OneDrive, you will see a folder icon with a plus sign. Click it and create a new folder, I called mine GooglePhotoSync.
- Click Options, Click Email, Check “Send Email Notification when Completing Task”. Put in your email and click Save.
- Optionally, you can rename the Task, something like “GooglePhoto2OneDrive”.
- Click Transfer Now. Your photos will now start transferring.
Note: There is a 30GB transfer limit on the free version of MultCloud. This was more than enough for a few years of Google Photos but if you have been using Google Photos for a while, then you will want to buy a MultCloud subscription. MultCloud does offer occasional discounts. I should note, if you have more than 30GB of photos then an annual subscription offers better value because MultCloud does charge a per GB fee for exceeding the transfer limit on free plans.
The transferring of Google Photos to Microsoft One Drive takes time and it will vary based on your photo library size. You do not have to be logged in to MultCloud, literally set, forget, wait for it to be done. On the free plan, MultCloud limits your transfer speed. If you’re not in a hurry, this is OK. If you are in a hurry or have a lot of data, then I recommend buying an annual MultCloud subscription for the initial Google Photos to OneDrive transfer. You don’t have to buy a monthly or annual subscription if you’re patient. That said, a paid subscription is going to be about 5x faster. Just remember, if you do buy a MultCloud month-to-month plan they have per GB pricing. If you want to always sync between Google Drive and One Drive, then an annual or lifetime MultCloud subscription is recommended.
MultCloud Sign Up Bonus
If you sign up to MultCloud with this link, from time to time they offer a bonus of 2GB of MultCloud data transfer on the free plan. That’s right, to get a bonus of an extra 2GB of free MultCloud data transfers.
Thoughts on Mover.IO as an Alternative to MultCloud
Mover.io, which Microsoft owns, is not an option to transfer your Google Photos to OneDrive. This is because Mover.io currently only supports Google Drive and not Google Photos. Hopefully, that will change in the future.
Any and all advice, guides, and reviews are unbiased and based on my personal experience. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions, which helps support my website. This does not have an impact on posts or my opinion of any reviewed products. If you find this post helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!