Google Takeout to iCloud: Photos Transfer or iCloud Drive Folders?

Two Routes, Two Different Results

Sources: Apple's Transfer a copy of your photos and videos to iCloud Photos, Google's How to download your Google data, and our own test exports.

Check Whether Your Account Offers iCloud Photos

Apple's instructions start at Google Takeout's transfer page, takeout.google.com/takeout/transfer/custom/photos, and note that you'll see the option only if it's available for your account. Open that link while signed in to the Google account you want to move. On the Google Workspace account we tested, Takeout answered that exporting content to a third-party service was not available for the account and switched to the normal Takeout page, where only downloads and the Drive, Dropbox and Box deliveries remained.

On the Apple side, the transfer also needs:

• iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive turned on;
• enough iCloud storage for the library;
• Advanced Data Protection turned off;
• a regular Apple Account — not a child account or a Managed Apple Account.

Method 1: Takeout's Transfer to iCloud Photos

This is Google and Apple's own data transfer: Google sends the files to Apple, nothing is downloaded, and your originals stay in Google Photos. The steps below follow Apple's help page.

1. Prepare iCloud. On your iPhone or Mac, turn on iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive, check that iCloud has room for the library, and turn Advanced Data Protection off if you use it (Settings → your name → iCloud).
2. Start the export. Open Google Takeout's transfer page and follow the instructions to start an export from Google Photos.
3. Choose Apple. Pick Apple - iCloud Photos as the destination and sign in to your Apple Account.
4. Allow. Tap Allow to let Google add photos and videos to iCloud. Apple emails the addresses on your Apple Account when the transfer starts and again when it's complete.
5. Wait, then check. The transfer can take from several hours to a few days. Photos and videos appear in the Photos app in an album called Import from Google with the transfer date. Anything missing — RAW files, unsupported formats — is in iCloud Drive in a folder of the same name. You can follow or cancel the request at privacy.apple.com.

Keep iCloud Photos on until the transfer finishes: turning it off stops the import, and only the items already transferred stay. To finish, turn it back on and request another transfer — Apple says the repeat won't add duplicates. A storage error is handled the same way: add iCloud storage, then request again.

Method 2: Unpack a Takeout Into iCloud Drive With CloudsLinker

When Takeout doesn't offer iCloud Photos, or you want the export's folder structure rather than a single import album, export Google Photos to one of the clouds Takeout can deliver to and copy the unpacked folders into iCloud Drive. CloudsLinker reads the zips where Takeout left them and writes the photos into iCloud Drive from its own servers, checking each file against the CRC-32 checksum in the archive.

At takeout.google.com, click Deselect all, tick Google Photos and go to the next step. Keep .zip with 2 GB or 10 GB parts and choose Add to Drive, Add to Dropbox, Add to OneDrive or Add to Box — whichever is offered and has room. Google emails you when every part has arrived. Connect that account to CloudsLinker with Add Cloud; all four sign in on the provider's own page.

In CloudsLinker open Add Cloud and choose Google Takeout. Set Cloud with your export to the account with the zips and tick the folder that holds them — Takeout in Google Drive, Apps › Google Download Your Data in Dropbox or OneDrive. Click Check archives, review the folders and file count, name the Takeout and click Add Takeout.

Choose Add Cloud → iCloud Drive. Apple offers no OAuth for iCloud Drive, so the dialog asks for your Apple ID and its regular password — an app-specific password is rejected — then click I got it, Authorize Now iCloud Drive and enter the six-digit code Apple sends to a trusted device. Beforehand, turn on Access iCloud Data on the Web and turn off Advanced Data Protection (Settings → your name → iCloud).

Open Transfer. In Source, expand the Takeout and tick the Photos from YYYY folders — every photo once — or album folders if you want albums as folders (album photos are stored twice in the export). In Target, expand iCloud Drive and create a folder such as Google Photos. Copy is the only mode for a Takeout. Click Create transfer.

The task runs on CloudsLinker's servers; Task monitor shows files and bytes done. If it stops, run it again — files already in iCloud Drive with the same size are skipped.

When the folders are complete, delete the zips from the cloud that received them, remove the Google Takeout in CloudsLinker, and turn Advanced Data Protection back on if you use it.

Getting iCloud Drive Folders Into Apple Photos

Files in iCloud Drive don't appear in the Photos app by themselves. If you want them in the library as well:

1. On a Mac with iCloud Photos on, open Photos and choose File → Import.
2. Select a year or album folder from iCloud Drive and import it. Photos reads the capture date stored in each file; the JSON files are not used.
3. Repeat per folder, then check the imported count before deleting anything from iCloud Drive.

Images without an embedded date — screenshots, pictures saved from chat apps — fall back to the file's date, which after a Takeout is the export date. Their original date is only in the matching .supplemental-metadata.json (photoTakenTime); tools such as exiftool can write it back before you import.

iCloud Storage for a Google Photos Library

iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive share the same storage. If you copy folders to iCloud Drive and import them into Photos, the photos count twice until you delete the iCloud Drive copy. Google Photos' storage page shows the library size to plan with; the Takeout export itself can be larger when you include album folders, because album photos are stored twice. iCloud Drive accepts files up to 50 GB.