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. As of 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.
On November 11, 2020, Google announced plans to end free unlimited photo storage on Google Photos. The new Google Photos limit will be 15GB which Google claims is equivalent to 15GB.
The Google Photos storage limit will come into effect on June 2021. After which, if you go over 15GB you will need a Google One subscription. I am guessing if you’re reading this you don’t want to pay or want to avoid paying for a Google One subscription to store Google Photos.
What I can tell you, is 15GB is not enough. With most modern smartphones 128GB+ and the camera the most popular feature, you will max out on 15Gb fast. Also, if you have been using Google Photos for a while, I can guarantee you will already be significantly over 15Gb (even if pre-2021 files don’t count to the quota).
If you want to stop using Google Photos and move them to another service, you need to download them first. This article outlines how to download your entire Google Photos library, at once, so you can upload it to another photo storage service.
Update: If you don’t want to download and just want a free way to transfer your Google Photos to somewhere else, try MultCloud. I have written up a free guide to transferring Google Photos to One Drive.
How to Download your entire Google Photos Library
- First, head over to Google Takeout. This will show a list of all Google services where you can download your data.
- Scroll down the list and make sure you only select Google Photos (you may need to hit Deselect All first, then select Google Photos).
- There are two options that display “Multiple formats” which you can’t change and “All photo albums included”. The latter lets you download only specific photo albums.
- You will then need to select your export frequency, Export Once, should be enough if you’re cutting the strings with Google.
- For File Type and Size, I recommend “zip”. For file size, use “2GB”. A word of warning though, depending on how long you have been using Google Photos it could still result in 100s of files. You can always export again as larger file sizes (50Gb is the max) once you know what you’re dealing with. Also, FYI files larger than 2GB are zipped as zip64 (which may be an issue unzipping on older systems).
- Click Create Export… and wait.
You should get an email confirming “Archive of Google data was requested” and then a few hours or days later (depending on how many photos you have) links to download the zip files. In my tests, it’s was about 4-6 hours to get the export. The good news, this lets you download all your Google Photos at once without having to download them one-by-one.
If you need to check the status of your Google Photos download, this link should work but you will need to login to your Google account.
Once you download your photos, you can use 7zip to uncompress the archive. I’d also recommend making a backup of your Google Photos download to an external drive until you work out a long-term storage option.
I don’t really have any recommendations on where to move if you’re leaving Google Photos. At the moment I’m experimenting with Microsoft One Drive (moving my Google Photos to OneDrive using MultCloud). Amazon Prime includes free storage for Prime subscribers, although I am now nervous about free services since Google changed its policy.
Transfer from Google Photos to One Drive (Free)
I found this service call MultiCloud that lets you transfer your photos from Google Photos to One Drive for free for the first 30Gb. If you sign up here, you’ll get an extra 2GB free (32GB total).
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!