Google Photos is a handy tool from the search engine giant. It offers powerful features to store, edit and organize your photos and videos over the cloud. You can seamlessly share your media with your loved ones and sync them across other devices that you own. There may be times when you need to transfer the content from one Google Photos account to another. Before we look into that part, let us discuss some of the great features that Google Photos offers.
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Why is Google Photos so popular? What features does it offer?
Google Photos is not an ordinary image/ video storage platform. It is a powerful platform equipped with an abundance of most commonly used photo and video editing features. You can crop, rotate your photos. You can add filters, draw with a markup pen, highlight certain portions, add a text, change date-time stamps, save shots from motion graphics, and do much more. In contrast, the video editing features include tools to stabilize your shaky videos, cut & shorten longer video frames, add soundtracks, change video orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
As Google Photos gives users unlimited photo storage space for free, it is perhaps the single most preferred online backup option for many college-going youngsters and avid photographers.
The app is powered with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that can automatically recognise faces from your own photos and photos of your friends you’re tagged in. It’s not just about humans, Google Photos can recognize your pets as well. If you’re a cat or dog owner, Google Photos AI algorithm will make things pretty simple. As you upload new pet’s photos, the app will automatically sort and group them together at one place. Similarly, you can voice search photos of your pets by using voice commands such as “cat” or “dog”. It’s that simple! The results are almost instant.
Google Photos is compatible with both Android and iPhone. No matter which device you use, you can still access your photos by logging in to your Google Photos account through a web browser. In contrast to Google Photos app, you need an Internet connection every time you want to view, edit or share your photos/ videos. This is the most important drawback for PC users.
The Android and iPhone app automatically backups your photos, videos online as soon as you’re connected to a Wifi. As default, Google Photos does not backup your stuff when you’re connected using cellular data. It does so to save you from unexpected carrier charges. You can still change this option from the app settings, if you wish to.
As a cloud backup solution, Google Photos uploads your photos/ videos online and deletes the original copies from your smartphone. This handy feature can free-up a significant amount of storage space and make room for new files. With Google Photos, you don’t need to carry an external hard disk or USB stick every time you travel across the globe.
How do I transfer my photos from one Google Photos account to another?
If you’re looking to transfer your photos/ videos from one Google Photos account to another, you have several options:
Method 1: Manually download & re-upload your media
The first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is to download photos/ videos and reupload them again. Simple and straightforward, isn’t it? Not really. There are several drawbacks of using this method.
Unless you’re using a fiber optic Internet connection or you’re a business user with a symmetrical plan, it can take an enormous amount of time if you’ve hundreds of thousands of photos and videos in your cloud library. In the vast majority of home broadband connections, the upload speed is considerably slower than the download speed offered. It is primarily because of two reasons. First, the majority of Internet activities at home need more download bandwidth compared to upload bandwidth. As a result, most ISPs focus on download speed factor. Second, file uploading requires the information to travel in both directions (from you to the server, and vice versa).
Another major drawback is that your Google Photos captions, descriptions and date changes will be lost during the migration. All those efforts you’ve put in for several hours will go into vain.
Step 1: Download photos from old account
- Open the Google Photos website on your PC and log-in to your old account.
- Select the photos/ videos you want to migrate.
- Click on the More Options icon, followed by Download.
- Google Photos will start downloading your media.
Step 2: Check your photos for duplicates
Once the download is completed, it’s important to check the downloaded images for duplicates. Deleting duplicates will not only free-up your storage, but reduce the overall transfer time.
- Download a duplicate photo scanner, PictureEcho.
- Click on Add Path. Select the folder that contains your downloaded photos. Hit Start Search.
- After the search is completed, PictureEcho will display a list of all duplicate photos along with image thumbnails. Use the Select Duplicates button and select one of the following batch selection options:
- Retain smaller/ bigger images in each group
- Retain low/ high images in each group
- Retain newest/ oldest images in each group
- Select by image locations
- Click on Select Action, and move the duplicates to another folder or delete them permanently.
PictureEcho Features:
- Fully automated scan
- Uses advanced algorithms to generate results
- Instant file preview
- View image thumbnails to take quick decisions
- Scan filters make it incredibly easy to customize it
- Powered with several batch selection algorithms
- No compulsion to delete duplicate files. You can move them to another folder, or leave them as they are.
Step 3: Re-upload your photos on new account
Now, re-upload your media to a new account. To do so, just login to your new Google Photos account. Click on Upload, select Computer. Select your downloaded files and then click Open.
Method 2: Set up a partner account (Recommended)
Nobody likes to be kept waiting. Why spend several hours or days transferring your data when you could do it in just a few minutes? You read it right.
A better way to transfer your Google Photos images/ videos is to add a new account as your partner and then remove the old account from the Partner settings. In contrast to the previous method, you will NOT lose your photo captions, descriptions, and any date changes that you’ve made. On top of that, the transfer process is done “over the cloud”. Simply follow the process given below, sit back and relax. Google will do the job for you.
Step 1: Add new account as your partner
- To begin with, visit the Google Photos website from your PC and log-in to your old account.
- Click the Settings icon on the upper right corner of your screen.
- In the Settings page that opens, look for the Partner Sharing section.
- Click on Get Started.
- Type in the name or email address of your new Google account. If your new account is not added to your contacts, the name suggestion feature might not work.
- Select your account, and click Next.
- In the next page, Google Photos will prompt you to configure photo access permissions. Select “All Photos” unless you want to migrate fewer photos.
The other options include “Photos of specific people”. Use this option if you wish to migrate only your photos or photos of specific individuals. After selecting this option, Google Photos will prompt you to select the individuals.
Another option is “Only show photos since this day”. Use this option only if you want to migrate photos of a time duration and exclude older older photos.
- Click on Next, followed by Send Invitation.
- Google Photos will send an invitation to your new account.
- Login to your new Gmail account and click the invitation link and approve it.
Step 2: Remove old (original) account from partner settings
- Login to your new Google Photos account on a PC.
- Click on Settings, followed by Partner Sharing.
- Select the original account’s Google user name and then click on Remove Partner.
- Confirm your action.
Method 3: Using third-party cloud transfer services
Last but not the least, you can use third-party cloud transfer services to migrate data from one Google Photos account to another. There are many Web-based cloud data transfer services such as MultCloud, CloudHQ, CloudFuze and Mover.io. You can transfer individual files, perform batch transfer or cloud-to-cloud synchronization.
Although these services are NOT freeware, some of them do offer free plans with limited features. For instance: MultCloud offers a free plan with 30 GB of monthly bandwidth cap and slower transfer speeds.
Cloud transfer services offer several benefits:
- Get access to all your cloud storage accounts under one roof
- Organise and manage your files with ease
- Running short of free space? Easily move files to an account with idle storage
- Batch copy/ move files from one cloud account to another much like File Explorer.
- Bandwidth friendly. No need to download files to your PC and then re-upload again.
- Saves time: As your files are moved “over the cloud”, you don’t need to do much
Disadvantages
Some paid users have complained about slower transfer speed. Some of these services don’t offer a Desktop sync client. You can only access them from your browser.
