Most people are aware of the free photo storage offered by Google. However, many Amazon users, even those who are Amazon Prime subscribers, don’t realize that Amazon has free unlimited photo storage, even for full-resolution RAW image files. If you would like to move your Google photos to Amazon Photos, there isn’t a direct transfer feature available. You’ll need to download them from Google and move them into the Amazon account. The following steps show how to do this easily.
Also read: 6 Useful Tricks to Get the Most Out of Google Photos
rDownload and Export Pictures from Google Photos
First, you will need to download the photos you want to move from Google Photos to your Amazon Prime Photos to your computer. Here are the steps.
1. Navigate to Google Takeout where all your Google data is stored.
2. You will see a massive list of app data from all the apps you use. Click on “Deselect all” because it’s much faster than doing each one independently.
3. Scroll down until you find Google Photos and check the box next to it. If you want to download specific albums or other formats, click on Multiple formats and All photo albums included buttons. Deselect the items you do not want.
4. Scroll to the very bottom to find and click the “Next step” button.
5. Choose your delivery method. I used the option to deliver a download link to my email because I know there are many pictures there. Leave the other options – export type, file type, and archive size – as they are and click “Create export.”
Wait for the archive to be created. It can take quite a while, depending on how many photos are present in the Google Photos account. Once you get the email from Google Photos, the folder will be in the ZIP format. First, extract the ZIP folder and upload the extracted images to the Amazon account as shown next.
Also read: 9 Smart Hacks to Save Money on Amazon
Upload Pictures to Amazon Photos
To use Prime Photos, you need an Amazon Prime account. If you have Prime, then you automatically have Prime Photos. There is nothing else you need to do to set it up. If you don’t have an Amazon Prime account, create one, then follow the given instructions.
1. You will need the Amazon Photos app on your computer. To obtain it, open the Amazon Photos download page on your computer. Click the Download button.
2. Open the file and launch the installation. Click Install. The application should launch automatically after you install it. Open it if it doesn’t launch.
3. Sign in to your Amazon account in the app and follow the on-screen instructions to set it up.
4. Drag the Google Photos folder that you received from Google to the Amazon Photos window. Make sure you are uploading the extracted folder and not the ZIP folder that you receive from Google.
5. You will be asked to choose the folder where you want to save the photos. You can even create a new one.
Similarly, if you have other image folders, repeat the process of dragging the folders to the Amazon Photos App window.
Switch to Amazon Photos
If you want to completely switch to Amazon Photos from Google Photos on your Android phone, first make sure all the pictures on your phone are backed up to Google Photos. Apart from that, you will need to delete the already backed up photos on Google Photos from your phone using the “Free up space” feature. This will eliminate the possibility of ending up with doubles of all those images on your Prime account if you want to install the Amazon Photos app later. Make sure you do those two things before taking out data from Google Photos.
To use Free up space on Google Photos, follow these steps:
1. Open the Google Photos app.
2. Tap on the profile picture icon at the top followed by “Free up space.” The app will let you know if all of your photos are backed up before you take this action.
Next, install the Amazon Photos app on your mobile phone. Open the app and decide whether you want to automatically back up photos and devices and turn the toggle switch off or on.
Also, open the Google Photos app Settings, turn off the “Back up & sync” option by tapping it. If you don’t do this, you will have backups in both places, which may not be a bad thing.
Also read: Best Ways to Track Amazon Price Drops
Amazon Photos vs. Google Photos
Amazon only allows for 5GB of video as part of its storage, but images are unlimited. You may wish to keep the videos off this server or upgrade to 100GB for $11.99 a month if you feel you must have your videos on Amazon.
There are other options on Amazon Photos, such as Family Vault and ordering prints directly from Amazon, that you may want to check out.
Keeping photos backed up is a priority for most people because we don’t want to lose those memories, and using Amazon Photos is a great way to give you peace of mind. If you don’t like Amazon Photos, check out other Google Photos alternatives.
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