Hi everyone,

I’ve already made two posts about this issue, but unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a solution yet. I’m hoping someone here might have experience with this kind of migration and can help me figure out the best approach.

Here are my previous posts for context:

Previous post 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/s/gYxZXppBHZ
Previous post 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/s/mmlfgIt1xL

I’m trying to move all my photos and videos from Google Photos to Apple Photos/iCloud, but I’m having trouble exporting a shared album that contains photos and videos uploaded by both my wife and me.

Here’s what I’ve figured out so far:

When I export my Google Photos library using Google Takeout, the photos uploaded by my wife to our shared album are missing. The export only includes the photos that belong to my own library.

I’ve tried using the “Save” button to save all the photos from the shared album to my personal Google Photos library, but unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to work. Even after trying this, my wife’s photos are still missing from my export.

I’ve also contacted Google Support, but they weren’t able to help me resolve the issue.

Google Takeout includes the actual photo/video files and separate JSON files containing metadata, such as dates and other information.

My idea for a workaround:

I export my photos and videos using Google Takeout, including the metadata files.

My wife exports the same shared album from her Google Photos account, also including the metadata files.

I combine both exports locally in a folder on my Windows PC, keeping the photo/video files and their corresponding JSON metadata files together.

I then upload the combined collection to Apple Photos/iCloud.

My goal is to make sure that all photos and videos are included, without missing anything, and that they appear in the correct chronological order in Apple Photos, based on their original capture dates rather than their download dates.

My questions:

Would this approach work, or am I overlooking something important?

Will Apple Photos recognize the metadata in the JSON files automatically when I upload the photos, or do I need to merge the metadata into the actual photo files first?

Can I do this properly on a Windows PC without needing a Mac?

Will combining both exports ensure that I have all the photos and videos from the shared album?

And how can I avoid losing the original dates or creating unnecessary duplicates?

I’d really appreciate any advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar Google Photos to Apple Photos migration.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi all

So I have like 509gb of data on my Samsung locally

I want to get an iPhone.

Can I go for a 512gb? If I store all my photos on iCloud and still view them in gallery. Is this possible ?

Or should I get a 1tb like my current Samsung?

Thank you for your help

Since begnining, I have turned of Photos app to be uploaded to iCloud, yet it has 55mb of data on it. I checked everywhere but all are empty.

And there is no other device's backup attached my account.

How to reclaim it correctly?

Note: I tried to turn off and delete but then a pop-up in Photos app says it will be deleted in 30 days so I undo the delete thinking that all my photos and videos from photos app might got deleted permanently in 30 days.

I have a 1.2 TB photo library on an external SSD. My main machine is 1 TB. Can you guys advise me on the best setup to use to back up my photo library whenever I add more photos to it? is iCloud the way? I have a Time capsule that's 2 TB, I also have a NAS synolgy.

I built a2g.photos for my own family's needs and thought it'd be useful to others.

You paste a shared album's link (the owner turns on Anyone with the Link, or Public Website on albums made before iOS 27), and it copies the album into a Google Photos album, then keeps adding new photos as people post them. No Apple ID needed; it only uses the album's public link.

It's for families where some people use Android, and for anyone with a Nest Hub, Google TV or Chromecast, which can only show Google Photos. Apple's new HomeView (out Nov 13) can show a shared album directly, so if you're getting one of those you won't need this.

- iOS 27 albums come across at full resolution, videos included. Older albums only share smaller copies, and it takes the largest one Apple offers.

- It only adds photos: deleting from the shared album doesn't delete from Google Photos.

- One album (up to 100 photos) is free; $5/month for unlimited albums and scheduled syncs.

How it works: https://a2g.photos/guides/icloud-shared-album-to-google-photos

Happy to answer questions.

I have a blank pinned item and also a pin named Myrtle Beach. Neither can be deleted. I have tried to repair the library with no luck. I am on a M1 MacBook Air on macos27. Is this a known bug or does anyone know how to delete these?

Hey everyone,

I’m switching from a Samsung Galaxy to an iPhone. My entire photo and video collection—about 1.6 TB—has been stored on OneDrive for years, carefully organized into folders and subfolders.

For example:

CONCERTS → ROCK → METALLICA → MetLife 2025

I’d like to move everything into iCloud Photos, keeping that hierarchy as folders and albums in the iPhone’s Photos app.

I have access to a Mac, but given the size of the collection, I’m also wondering whether a cloud-to-cloud transfer is possible.

Has anyone successfully done something similar? Is there a tool or workflow that preserves the folder structure, original quality, and capture dates for both photos and videos?

I’d really appreciate any firsthand advice before I start moving everything.

I have live photos on, and I found a specific frame I wanted in a photo to be my key photo perfectly as is. However, whenever I click on "make key photo" it for some reason crops out the part that I want included in the photo. Any way to fix this?
I believe the photo was taken on Center Stage, but even if it wasn't, I can't figure out how to select the specific frame I want under live photo edits without my phone cropping out that part which I specifically want included.
Any help?

I'm the dev of Slean, a photo cleaner for iphone and android.

the main idea is simple: it shows the file size on every thumbnail and lets you sort your whole library biggest first. on my own phone the top of that list was mostly old videos and screen recordings I'd forgotten about, and dealing with a few of those freed a lot more space than going through photos one by one.

as a cleaning concept; swiping through thousands of photos one at a time never made much sense to me.

slean also groups duplicates and similar shots, filters screenshots, and can compress photos and videos with a before/after size preview.

I tried to keep the whole thing feeling close to the built-in photos app too, rather than turning cleanup into another busy utility. everything runs on the phone, no account, no ads.

slean.app

would love feedback from people with big libraries. what would you want to see first when you open something like this?

Both I and my wife use iPhone to take pictures of our kids so the pictures are on iCloud but:
1. Each of us have a different library. Shared library exists but face recognition doesn’t work on shared library alone.
2. I would like photos to be sorted into folders with photos of the same kid in the same month. I’m just old school and the flowing gallery does not work for me sometimes.

Any simple solution other than full blown Immich?

I stupidly forgot my passcode to my iPhone and locked myself out permanently and then even more stupidly couldn’t remember the password to my iCloud account so now my iPhone is sitting in recovery and I’m waiting to even be able to reset my password and hopefully recover some contacts and photos from my old phone. It’s looking doubtful because I’m not sure how much was backed up. Is there anything I can do? all of my photos of loved ones were on there as well as everything else important as you can imagine

Please don’t shame me I know I’m stupid I’m desperate I’ll do anything to get these back.

Hi,

I’m planning to purchase a WD My Passport External Drive (https://www.jbhifi.co.nz/products/wd-my-passport-4tb-portable-hard-drive-usb-3-0-2019-black) to store my photos and videos. However, I only have a MacBook.

I saw some people say that usually WD My Passport is a “read-only” on Mac. Does this mean I can’t access the files, i.e. download (or resave) them in the future? And how do we deal with this?

And also I saw a variant that has a “For Mac” - is this one more compatible?

https://www.jbhifi.co.nz/products/wd-my-passport-5tb-portable-hard-drive-usb-c-3-0-for-mac-2019-midnight-blue

And also, I may use it on a windows pc in the future so I would really like to have the flexibility.

My gf and I went on a two week round trip and now we have hundreds and maybe even over a thousand photos. Is there a central way we can both add and edit photos in one place?

I pay $2.99 a month for icloud storage but my gf does not.

I miss the days when Apple ran its own service for prints and books, but those days are gone. I recently used Fuji, but see the application is not supported on Apple Silicon. And so what Application/Service do you recommend to print photos from your library?

Thanks.

Ich habe eine Frage zu iCloud. Ich hoffe einer von euch kann mir helfen. Ich habe auf meinem iPhone viele Fotos und Videos, größtenteils von Konzerten. Jetzt ist der iCloud Speicher voll. Ich habe nur 200 GB, will aber keine 9,99€ für 2TB ausgeben.

Meine Frage nun, wenn die Fotos und Videos in 30 Tagen gelöscht werden, werden dann nur die Fotos von der ICloud gelöscht oder auch die Fotos die aktuell auf meinem IPhone sind ? Ich habe ein bisschen Angst, dass die Fotos vom iPhone nämlich auch auf einmal weg sind.

Und ja ich weiß, da steht, dass nur die Fotos und Videos von der iCloud gelöscht werden. Ich habe aber trotzdem ein bisschen Sorge, dass die Bilder von meinem Handyspeicher auch aufeinmal weg sind

i know iCloud Photos is no longer officially supported on such old versions of iOS, but I'm wondering if syncing still works in practice for legacy Apple devices (like those stuck on iOS 9). Has anyone recently tested syncing photos and videos with an older Apple device in 2026?

Even if official support is gone, does syncing still work with Apple's servers in real-world use, or has it completely stopped? I'm particularly interested in first-hand experiences rather than just official compatibility requirements.

Thanks!

Hi everyone! I recently traded in my iPhone 15 for an iPhone 17 and transferred all my data to my new phone. At first, I thought all my photos had transferred successfully because I could see my more recent pictures, as well as the photos I was most concerned about from my study abroad experience in January–March of this year.

However, I recently realized there’s a huge gap in my photo library from mid-March through May, and all of those photos seem to be missing. These were some of my favorite memories from studying abroad, including trips to Morocco, Spain, France, and other places. It honestly breaks my heart to think I might have lost all of them, and I’m desperate to find a way to recover them.

I know it might be a long shot, but has anyone experienced something similar or have any tips or tricks for recovering lost photos? Is it possible to restore an old iPhone backup or access a previous backup from before I traded in my phone?
I would be so grateful for any advice or suggestions. These photos mean so much to me, and I’m really hoping there’s still a way to get them back. Thank you!

In August 2016, someone asked on Apple Community: "Can you tag/label photos in iPhone/iOS?" They wanted to add Keywords on the iPhone the way Photos on the Mac can, so the Photos search would find them. 1,351 people clicked "Me too."

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7629334

The answers over the years: make one album per keyword by hand, or use an app that keeps its tags inside itself, where Photos can't see them.

Starting with iOS 27, apps can write keywords into your Photos library. I'm the developer of EyeSay, and version 1.0.4 is built on that:

• You type categories in your own words: "receipts", "outfits", "dog on the beach", "birthday cake".
• An AI model built into the app sorts your library into those categories. It runs on your iPhone or Mac. No account.
• You review each category first: remove photos that don't belong, add ones it missed.
• Then save: as real albums in Photos (named "ES · receipts"), as Photos keywords on each photo, or both. Only missing keywords are added, and you can undo a save from history. Nothing is written until you tap Save.

Honest limits:

• Keywords need iOS 27 or macOS 27. Albums work on older versions.
• The AI makes mistakes, which is why there's a review step.

App Store: [https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6809178063?pt=129418431&ct=reddit_applephotos&mt=8]

If you've been waiting on this since 2016: which keywords would you set up first?