"Google Photos import" is one search that hides two very different jobs. Some people want to get photos into Google Photos, from a computer, a phone, or Google Drive. Others have years of memories already sitting in Google Photos and want to import that library out, into a desktop app or another service they control. The top search results usually answer only half of that, so this guide covers both directions in one place, plus the metadata pitfalls that quietly break either move.
The two things people mean by "Google Photos import"
Before you start clicking, decide which way you are actually moving files:
- Importing into Google Photos: uploading images from a computer, phone, or Google Drive so they appear in your Google Photos library.
- Importing a Google Photos library elsewhere: exporting everything you have stored in Google Photos so another app, drive, or service can read it.
The steps, and the things that can go wrong, are different for each. Here is how to do both cleanly.
How to import photos into Google Photos
Upload from a computer
Open photos.google.com in a browser, sign in, and either click Upload and choose Computer, or simply drag a folder of images onto the page. For a set-and-forget option, install Google Drive for desktop and add your photo folders under its backup settings so new files upload automatically. During upload you choose a quality setting: Original quality keeps full resolution, while Storage saver compresses images to save space.
Back up from a phone
In the Google Photos app, open your profile, go to Photos settings, then Backup, and turn it on. Every new photo you take is then imported to your account in the background. This is the most common way libraries grow, and also the reason they grow faster than people expect.
Import from Google Drive
Google Drive and Google Photos stopped syncing automatically back in 2019, so files in Drive do not appear in Photos on their own. To move them, open Google Photos on the web, click Upload, and choose Google Drive, then select the images you want. They are copied into Photos rather than linked, so you end up with two copies unless you delete the originals afterward.
One thing to watch: every import counts against the 15 GB shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos on a free account. A large one-time import is the fastest way to hit that ceiling, so check your remaining storage first.
How to import your Google Photos library into another app
Moving the other direction, out of Google Photos, always starts with an export. There is no button that hands your library directly to a desktop program, so you download it first and import from the resulting files.
Export with Google Takeout
Go to takeout.google.com, deselect everything, then select only Google Photos. Choose the albums you want, pick a file type and size, and Google prepares a set of downloadable archives. For large libraries this can take hours and arrive as several multi-gigabyte zip files, so plan for the disk space.
Transfer straight to another service
Takeout can also send a copy directly to some other cloud services instead of downloading a zip, which avoids the download-and-re-upload round trip. It is convenient, but you are handing your library to another cloud provider rather than keeping it on hardware you own, so the privacy trade-off is the same one you may be trying to leave.
What quietly breaks during a Google Photos import
Both directions can move files successfully and still mangle the details that make a library usable. Watch for these:
- Split metadata. A Takeout export often stores dates, captions, and GPS coordinates in separate .json sidecar files next to each image rather than inside the photo's EXIF. Some apps read those sidecars and merge them back; others ignore them, leaving your photos with wrong or missing dates.
- Compression. Anything uploaded under Storage saver was re-encoded, so exporting it later gives you the compressed version, not your original file. Only Original quality uploads come back untouched.
- Lost structure. Album names, favorites, and archive status do not always survive the round trip, and re-importing can create duplicates if you run the process more than once.
None of this means the move is a bad idea. It just means you should verify a small batch before trusting the whole library to it.
A local-first way to hold your library after export
If the reason you are exporting is that you want your photos on your own machine instead of a cloud account, the natural next step after a Takeout download is to point a desktop photo manager at that folder. That is exactly what Memora is built for: it is a local-first photo manager for Windows 10 and 11 that indexes photos where they already sit, with no re-upload.
A few current capabilities make it a comfortable landing spot for a library leaving Google Photos:
- Local AI semantic search. Describe a shot, "kids on a beach at sunset", and Memora finds it, with no manual tagging and all processing done on your own computer.
- RAW and catalog support. It reads RAW files natively and can import existing Lightroom and Capture One catalogs, so a serious library does not start from scratch.
- One-time Pro option. A single Memora Pro upgrade (29.99 EUR) adds AI culling and face recognition for photographers who want them.
It is worth being clear about the boundary: Memora is a Windows desktop application, not a cross-device cloud sync service. If your goal is having every phone snapshot appear automatically on five devices, a cloud service suits you better. If your goal is owning and searching a large library offline, a local manager is the better home. For the wider set of options, see our guide to the best alternatives to Google Photos, and if privacy is the driver, our look at Google Photos and privacy.
A short checklist before you import either way
- Back up first. Keep the source untouched until the import is verified. If you are exporting from Google Photos, do not delete anything in the account until you have confirmed the download. Our notes on backing up Google Photos cover this in more detail.
- Check the metadata. Open a handful of imported photos and confirm the dates, and any location data, came across correctly before processing the rest.
- Test a small batch. Run 20 or 30 photos through the full workflow, uploading in, or exporting and importing into your new tool, before committing tens of thousands.
- Mind your storage. Importing into Google Photos eats the shared 15 GB; importing out needs local disk space for multi-gigabyte archives.
Sort out which direction you are actually moving, protect the metadata, and test a small batch, and a Google Photos import becomes a routine file move rather than a gamble with your memories.