How do I get a copy of all my photos out of iCloud or Google Photos?
Both services will hand you the whole library as files — the routes that produce genuine originals, and the ones that quietly give you compressed copies.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 1 hr 30 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
Use the data export route, not the phone. Apple provides a photo transfer and data-and-privacy download; Google provides Takeout. Both produce full-size originals and both deliver in large chunks. Download to a computer, extract everything, open a sample from each year, then keep the copy on a drive that is not syncing.
Do this first
This is the step that converts a synced library into an actual backup, and it is the step almost nobody takes until they are already in trouble. Both companies provide a proper export route because they are required to; both make it slightly awkward, and both offer easier-looking routes from the phone that give you smaller files.
What you'll need
- A computer
- An external drive with enough space
- A wired or fast connection (optional)
Step by step
- Work out roughly how large the library is.The cloud account's storage page tells you what the photo library occupies. Your destination drive needs comfortably more than that, and the download itself needs the same amount of temporary space on the computer if you are extracting archives.
- Use the account-level export, not a share sheet.Google's is Takeout, where you select Google Photos and request an archive. Apple's is in the data-and-privacy section of the account, which offers a copy of your photos, and separately a direct transfer to another service. These routes give originals.
- Choose a sensible archive size.Both let you set the size of each downloadable chunk. Smaller chunks are more downloads but far more recoverable if one fails partway. A failed single enormous archive means starting again.
- Wait — properly.Preparing a large library can take a day or more, and the download links expire after a set period, so start it when you will be around to download the parts. This is the main reason people abandon the process.
- Extract everything into one folder tree.The archives arrive as numbered parts. Extract all of them before deleting any, and do not stop halfway. Google's export includes a small metadata file alongside each image, which carries the date and location; keep them if you may re-import later.
- Verify by sampling, not by counting alone.Compare the file count against the library count, then open images from the earliest year, the middle and the latest, and play two videos. Check that a file's dimensions look like an original and not a web-sized copy.
- Move the copy onto a drive and disconnect it.The whole point is a copy your phone cannot reach. Put it on an external drive, label it with the date, and unplug it. Store it away from the computer if you can — ideally at a relative's house or a workplace.
- Repeat on a schedule you will actually keep.Once a year, or after any event whose photographs you would grieve over. Two annual exports on two drives, alternating, is a genuinely robust household arrangement.
Common mistakes
- Letting the download links expire — They are valid for a limited window. Miss it and the whole preparation has to be requested again.
- Deleting archives as you extract to save space — If extraction fails partway you cannot go back. Extract everything, verify, then delete the archives.
- Leaving the export on the same computer as everything else — One failure, one theft or one ransomware event takes both. The copy has to be somewhere else to count.
Alternatives
- Plug the phone into a computer and import: Fast and simple, but it only exports what is physically on the phone. On an optimised library that may be placeholders, and it will not include anything only in the cloud. Fine as a supplement, not as the whole export.
- Desktop sync client set to download originals: Both platforms offer a computer app that keeps a full local copy. Convenient and continuously current — but it is part of the mirror, so deletions reach it. Useful, but only becomes a backup when the computer itself is backed up separately.
- A second, different cloud service: Uploading the export to a different provider's account gives you an off-site copy under a separate login. Good protection against account loss; costs a second subscription.
- Direct service-to-service transfer: Apple and Google both offer a transfer to the other. Useful when moving platforms, but it produces another synced library rather than an archive.