Google Photos is the de-facto place for most people's photos these days. The app comes pre-installed on Android smartphones and offers unlimited free storage at high quality and a generous 15 GB storage if you want to store photos in original resolution. This is not easily beaten at all& and only Microsoft& with its 1 TB OneDrive solution& comes close in terms of price-per-gigabyte ratio. It does not come remotely close to what Google Photos is capable of since OneDrive is a storage solution and not much else when it comes to photos and media on an Android smartphone.
Previously& Google Photos was merely a filter app that would sieve your photos from your Google Drive folder (specified or otherwise) and show them in the app. Deleting a photo in the folders in Google Drive would remove it from Photos& and deleting a photo while in Google Photos would remove it from Google Drive. In a sense& it was an open system. Google Photos is now a closed-loop app. Photos are uploaded from your devices to the Google Photos cloud. They may or may not take up space in your 15 GB quota. There is no way to officially export photos and media easily because Google wants to tie you into its ecosystem. This is true for every other provider as well. Since this change came into effect& people have been searching for the best ways to download photos from Google Photos& download photos from Google Photos to Mac& download photos from Google Photos to Android& iPhone& or download photos from Google Photos to PC.
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How To Download Photos From Google Photos To Your PC and Mac
Sure& you can use the one-by-one method to download your photos from Google Photos to your PC and Mac. You open the Google Photos website and start downloading one by one. How many photos do you have& again? Yeah& let's not get into this method. What's the best way to download all photos from Google Photos then?
The best way to download photos from Google Photos to your PC and Mac is by using the web browser and Google Takeout. There is only one concern with this method that will be broached later in the article.
Using Google Takeout
Google Takeout works only in a web browser. Here is what you do to download all photos from Google Photos to PC and Mac.
Step 1: Visit https://takeout.google.com and sign in to your account.
Step 2: This is Google's full data export facility& so by default& everything is selected.
Click “Deselect All” to deselect all the data.
Step 3: Scroll and select Google Photos.
By default& everything in Google Photos will be selected. You can choose to ignore some folders if you want to.
Step 4: Scroll and click Next Step.
Step 5: Select Delivery Method as Add To Drive
This is where the concern that was previously talked about lies. It pertains to storage space. Google provides 15 GB storage for everything but gives unlimited storage for photos up to High Quality. When you set the Takeout to Add To Drive& your photos will take up space in Google Drive since you will have a copy of photos with you now. So& your photos will only be backed up till the free space in your Google Drive storage. In case you have a lot of photos& you may want to use other options such as choosing select albums to backup and then copying them over and repeating the process.
Step 6: Select frequency as once and maybe change the size to 10 GB to manage better. Create Export.
Your ZIP file containing photos downloaded from Google Photos will be available in Google Drive.
Using A Desktop Browser
If you must download using the one-by-one method since you believe that would be a faster way for you (you have very few photos)& then this is how you download photos from Google Photos to PC using a web browser and Google Photos website.
Step 1: Visit https://photos.google.com and sign in.
Step 2: Open an album and select one photo.
Step 3: Hover over every photo you want to download and select the round checkmark
Step 4: To the top-right& click the ellipses and select Download. Select the desired destination and download photos from Google Photos to your PC and Mac.
Using Backup and Sync App On Windows and macOS
Backup and Sync app integrates with File Explorer in Windows and Finder in macOS to sync Google Drive to your PC and Mac and vice versa.
Step 1: Open Google Drive and download the Backup and Sync app from the link at the bottom (link downloads the correct installation package for your operating system).
Step 2: After signing in& the app will prompt you to sync files and folders on your PC and Mac to Google Drive& along with the option to select what you want to sync. Choose per desire.
Step 3: Select Sync My Drive to the computer and select if you want to sync all or sync only specific files and folders. You can select all or just the folders that contain your photos.
Step 4: When everything is done& you will see Google Drive in your File Explorer and macOS Finder sidebar. You can see your files and folders and download photos from Google Drive as needed.
How To Download Photos From Google Photos To iOS Devices
Despite iPad now comes with its own iPadOS& iOS& and iPadOS apps are the same for most purposes. Remember how we postulated above that Google does not want you to take your photos out of Google Photos? It does so with such alacrity and audacity that you can only download one photo at a time from Google Photos on iOS devices.
Step 1: Download Google Photos for iPhone and launch it.
Step 2: Sign in with your Google credentials.
Step 3: Navigate to your photos in Google Photos and select a photo. Tap the ellipses at the top-right and select Share To to open in any other app or save to Apple Files.
Selecting that option prompts you to choose where in Files to download the photo from Google Photos to your iPhone and iPad.
Step 4: Select location in iCloud Drive and proceed.
How To Download Photos From Google Drive To Android
Downloading multiple photos from Google Photos to Android smartphone is easier in the Google Photos app on Android but with one catch. You can only add these photos to another app such as Google Drive or Dropbox& or OneDrive if you want to download and upload to another drive. If you add photos to Google Drive& you can then use the Drive app to download them to the device.
Step 1: Launch Google Photos and select a photo. Tap the dates to select the groups of photos together.
Step 2: Tap the Share button and select Save to (Google) Drive. You can use another cloud drive app you may have on your device& but we will use Google Drive for the sake of scope.
Your photos are sent from Google Photos to Google Drive in the location you specified& and now you can download them from Drive to your phone:
Step 1: Open Google Drive
Step 2: From the bottom tabs& select the Files tab
Step 3: Navigate to where you saved your photos when adding to Drive from Google Photos.
Step 4: Tap and hold any image
Step 5: Tap the icon at the top (solid square inside dotted square). All your photos will be selected.
Step 6: Tap the ellipses at the top-right and select Download from the list of options.
All photos will be available in the ‘download' folder on your device's internal storage.
Using Wondershare InClowdz To Manage Google Photo
Wondershare has built a reputation for itself in bringing the best experiences to customers worldwide and adding value to their everyday lives through technology that serves them meaningfully. InClowdz is another wonder from the Wondershare Company that carries forward the legacy of Wondershare and solves a relevant problem that people face today – managing their ever-growing list of cloud storages.
InClowdz lets you sync data between cloud services and provides a seamless method to sync data across cloud storage regardless of the company. Follow these quick steps to connect your Google Drive (or any other) to InClowdz and get started with experiencing the new wonder from Wondershare:
Migrate, Sync, Manage Clouds Files in One Place
- • Migrate cloud files such as photos, music, documents from one drive to another, like Dropbox to Google Drive.
- • Backup your music, photos, videos in one could drive to another to keep files safe.
- • Manage all cloud drives such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, box, and Amazon S3 in one place.
- • Sync clouds files such as music, photos, videos, etc., from one cloud drive to another.
Step 1: Get InClowdz here: https://drfone.wondershare.com/cloud-migration.html
Step 2: Select Migrate module from the sidebar
Step 3: Click Add Cloud Drive in the source drive to connect your Google Drive. You will need to authorize InClowdz.
Step 4: Click the Management module from the sidebar
Step 5: Click on your Google Drive account& and you will be able to see your Google Drive contents.
You can do everyday things akin to the regular Google Drive app or website& such as creating folders& copying/ renaming/ moving and deleting files and folders& and such. In one click& you can also migrate files and folders from Google Drive (or any other cloud) to another cloud (if you have at least one more drive connected).
Conclusion
Downloading all photos from Google Photos is not as straightforward as it used to be on any device. Today& the best way to download all photos from Google Photos remains using the Google Takeout option that creates a ZIP file in your Drive or another cloud storage or even gives you a link to download to your computer should you want it that way. This is the simplest method you can use by far& but you need to do it on a computer& regardless of the operating system. If you want to do it on a mobile phone& it is not that easy on either Android or iPhone since Google Photos doesn't export directly any longer and you have to switch apps& first to upload to Google Drive and then to download your photos from Google Photos and Google Drive.
Are you interested in knowing how to work smarter in 2021? How to manage your cloud drives more efficiently& and how to move data between them in one click? Use Wondershare InClowdz and feel your productivity shoot through the roof!
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