Which import should I use?
Pick the right way to bring your photos in, depending on where they live today.
Every import starts on the Imports page in the sidebar. What you choose there depends on where your photos are now.
A few photos, or a folder on your computer
Use Upload from this device at the top of the Imports page. Click Choose photos and videos or Choose a folder, or drag files and folders onto it. On a phone, you can pick straight from your camera roll.
This is the quickest way in, but it only brings what is inside the files themselves: the date and place your camera recorded.
A few photos from Google Photos
Use Pick from Google Photos. You choose the photos and videos in Google’s own page, up to 2,000 at a time, and they arrive within minutes. It is the quick way to bring in last weekend’s party. Photos picked this way arrive without a location. See Pick photos from Google Photos.
A whole library
Under Move a whole library there are three choices. Each one reads a different kind of export, so it can bring along details the files alone don’t carry.
| Your photos are in… | Choose | What comes across besides the photos |
|---|---|---|
| Google Photos | Google Takeout (whole library) | Dates, places, descriptions, people’s names, favorites, archived photos and albums |
| Photos on a Mac | Export from Apple Photos | Dates, places, titles, captions, keywords and people’s names |
| iCloud Photos (no Mac needed) | iCloud Photos data copy | Original dates, favorites, hidden photos and albums |
If your photos are in Google Drive, use Google Drive (Takeout). It brings in the photos and videos and remembers each one’s folder. See Import photos from Google Drive.
Three imports keep your folders as Folders: Google Drive (Takeout), Export from Apple Photos and Folders. See Import a folder from your computer. Google Takeout keeps your albums as albums, and the iCloud data copy keeps its albums too. Neither makes Folders.
Live Photos stay together with the Google Photos, Apple Photos and iCloud imports.
Apple Photos or iCloud?
Both bring your Apple library across. Pick by what matters most to you:
- Export from Apple Photos needs a Mac with your library on it. It keeps titles, captions, keywords and people’s names, but not albums.
- iCloud Photos data copy works from any computer. It keeps albums, favorites and hidden photos, but not captions or keywords.
You can do both. Anything already in your library is recognized and not added twice, and the details from the second import fill in around the first. See Duplicates, skipped and failed files.
Before you start
- Use a computer. Whole-library imports work best in a desktop browser, with the computer plugged in and not set to sleep.
- Check your space. A big library can be hundreds of gigabytes. If a file would take you over your storage limit, that file won’t import.
- Set aside time. Getting the export from Google or Apple can take hours or days. The upload itself depends on your connection, and you can pause it.