Migrate from iCloud to Google Photos from my Mac (changed from iPhone to Galaxy S7 Edge)

[catu]

Hi,

This is quite confusing, let me try and make it simple. I used to have an iPhone and changed to a Galaxy S7 Edge. I couldn't access my iCloud photos from my Galaxy, so I decided to change to Google Photos... now here comes the complicated part.

I have over 60,000 photos on iCloud, so first I'm dowloading originals to my Mac. I set up Google Photos uploader to upload from "Mac Photos" folder. So as soon as the originals download, Google Photos is uploading them. I ran into some problems:

1. I ran out of storage on my Mac because of dowloading originals to Mac. This would be solved if Google Photos had an option of freeing up computer space (deleting the already uploaded files) but I can't find it for the desktop, I can only find it on my Galaxy (but I need to delete the already uploaded photos to free up computer space so I can continue to download originals from iCloud.) So the question: Is there an option to delete the already uploaded files to Google Photos from my computer?

2. This is silly, but if I delete a photo directly from "Mac Photos" (I hate it how all Mac apps are called "Photos," "Mail," etc) will it be deleted from Google Photos?

I want to cancel iCloud service and use everything on Google, but this is making it difficult.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[SpookDroid]

Hi there,

Unfortunately, nope. There is no direct option on a computer to free up space once the pictures have been backed up. This is in the mobile version because of the limited storage nature of a mobile device, but a computer is usually seen as having a bigger storage and one where the pictures are residing primarily. So, unfortunately, I would just suggest to download your iCloud pictures in batches. Once the batch has been uploaded to Photos, delete them from your computer and download the next batch. Rinse and repeat.

If you delete a picture from your computer, the online copy still lives on. However, if you delete the online copy from the Photos app or the web client, it will prompt the deletion of the physical copy as well on all linked devices (you'll see a warning about this before it happens, so don't worry you'll miss it unless you automatically click YES to everything without reading).

 

[catu]

Thanks there's just a slight problem. I have no way of knowing which photos Google Photos uploaded from my "Mac Photos" folder. So how do I know which photos to delete? (I have over 60,000 photos so going one by one is not an option)

Thanks!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[gammerthumbs]

Google.com/photos or drive I believe

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[SpookDroid]

Thanks there's just a slight problem. I have no way of knowing which photos Google Photos uploaded from my "Mac Photos" folder. So how do I know which photos to delete? (I have over 60,000 photos so going one by one is not an option)

Thanks!

Posted via the Android Central App

I haven't used the Desktop client in a while, but at least on mobile there is an indicator on pictures that haven't been backed up. If not, only thing I can think of is to start from scratch. Delete everything from Photos and start over.

Also, note that as long as the file name remains the same and in the same folder (filepath needs to be the same), Photos won't duplicate it so you should, in theory, be able to delete all files in your computer, download by batches, and Photos would only upload those 'missing' from your cloud backup.