Migrate Google Drive to Google Photos

loltim · 4 Feb 2017 at 11:40

Morning,

How can I migrate my photos from Google Drive to Google Photos? I've had my Drive account (100GB) since before Google Photos was free and unlimited. It's only £1.50 a month but it just seems a waste, unless Google Drive has any other benefits? The only one I can see is you can create folders with Drive, rather than sort photos into albums?

Obviously I'm aware I could download and upload the files but I only have a 2Mbps upload on my FTTC connection so looking at other methods.

Thanks,

AndyCr15 · 4 Feb 2017 at 11:49

Google Photo's is only unlimited for the slightly down sized pics (unless you have a Pixel?)

I've always seen them as the same thing really. They use the same data quota. My Google Photo's are in a folder in my Drive...

Maybe try setting that up (Photo's appear in Drive) and just moving all your pics in there. As I said though, that will only help if they are lower than 1600 pixels wide I think.

KIA · 4 Feb 2017 at 14:10

How much data and how many files do you need to migrate?

Don't know if this is will be to your liking, but you could rent a Windows VPS if it'll take too long for your connection to upload the data.

The cheapest Vultr Windows VPS is $0.03 per hour.

https://www.vultr.com/

loltim · 4 Feb 2017 at 16:40

KIA said:
How much data and how many files do you need to migrate?

Don't know if this is will be to your liking, but you could rent a Windows VPS if it'll take too long for your connection to upload the data.

The cheapest Vultr Windows VPS is $0.03 per hour.

https://www.vultr.com/

50GB.

Are the photos viewable on an Android app?

AndyCr15 said:
Google Photo's is only unlimited for the slightly down sized pics (unless you have a Pixel?)

I've always seen them as the same thing really. They use the same data quota. My Google Photo's are in a folder in my Drive...

Maybe try setting that up (Photo's appear in Drive) and just moving all your pics in there. As I said though, that will only help if they are lower than 1600 pixels wide I think.

They sort of are the same thing I agree - that's why I had hoped it would be easy to move the files across so I can cancel my Drive subscription. A lot of my photos are taken on my OnePlus 3 (16MP) so yes much wider than 1600. I guess that's one of the advantages of using Google Photos on my phone as it automatically uploads photos AND resizes them.

bah, it's looking like i'll have to download my whole Drive and upload to Google Photos on a borrowed Internet connection. I'm not sure that's worth the faff over just paying £1.50 a month.

How about someone helps me justify the cost instead? What else can I do with Drive?

AndyCr15 · 5 Feb 2017 at 09:51

loltim said:
bah, it's looking like i'll have to download my whole Drive and upload to Google Photos on a borrowed Internet connection.

Well no, you'll have to download them, resize them all, then upload them. Otherwise you're in the same position again.

In fact, otherwise, just turn on 'Photo's show up in Drive' and drag and drop them over I would think. (Actually, just tried this, doesn't look like it's worked)

loltim said:
How about someone helps me justify the cost instead? What else can I do with Drive?

Personally Drive is now my main cloud storage. I love the app will scan a document for you and upload it in one go. So many documents I now scan upload and throw away the originals. Old pay slips, some bills, old MOT's and service documents etc.

loltim · 9 Feb 2017 at 11:36

AndyCr15;30472341 said:
Well no, you'll have to download them, resize them all, then upload them. Otherwise you're in the same position again.

You can set the web app to upload as high quality rather than original size. BUT, I don't know that just because the files are resized to qualify for free storage, that when I move them over to Drive they actually come out of my storage allowance or they're truly free?

Not wording this very well. What I'm trying to say is- will a 1kb image count as free if it's in my Drive folders or would it have to be in Google Photos to not use my storage allowance?

AndyCr15;30472341 said:
Personally Drive is now my main cloud storage. I love the app will scan a document for you and upload it in one go. So many documents I now scan upload and throw away the originals. Old pay slips, some bills, old MOT's and service documents etc.

Yeah but you get 15GB free. How many hundreds of docs would you need to store to use 15GB's worth?