Google Drive and Google Photos are separate services with different purposes
Google Drive stores files of any type — documents, spreadsheets, videos, photos — in folders you organize yourself. Google Photos is built specifically for photos and videos, with automatic organization by date, face recognition, and search by object or location. If you have photos sitting in Google Drive folders, moving them to Google Photos puts them in a service designed to find and display them.
The process depends on how many photos you have and whether you want to keep them in Drive afterward. A few dozen photos can move in minutes through the web interface. Thousands of photos might be faster using Google's backup tool or downloading to your computer first. Either way, you keep full control — nothing disappears from Drive unless you delete it yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Google Photos and Google Drive are separate services; moving photos between them does not happen automatically.
- The web method works for any number of photos but requires you to select and move them folder by folder.
- Google's Backup and Sync tool can move entire Drive folders to Photos in the background without manual selection.
- Photos in Google Photos count toward your storage limit just like files in Drive, so moving does not free up space.
- You can keep photos in both places at once, or delete them from Drive after confirming they arrived in Photos.
Moving photos through the Google Photos web interface
Open Google Photos in your browser and sign in with the same account that holds your Drive files. Click the upload button (the up arrow) in the top left, then select "Select from your computer" or "Select a folder from your computer" depending on whether you want to move individual photos or an entire folder at once. Navigate to your Google Drive folder on your computer — but wait: Google Drive folders do not appear in this dialog unless you have synced them locally using Backup and Sync or Google Drive for desktop.
If you have not set up local syncing, use this method instead: open Google Drive in another browser tab, find the photo or folder you want to move, right-click it, and select "read." This downloads the file to your computer's Downloads folder. Then return to Google Photos and upload from there. For a single photo this takes seconds. For a folder with hundreds of photos, the read and upload will take longer depending on your internet speed and file sizes.
After the upload finishes, Google Photos will process the images — this can take minutes to hours depending on how many you uploaded. You can check progress by opening Google Photos and looking at the upload status in the top right. Once processing is complete, the photos appear in your Google Photos library organized by upload date.
Using Google Drive for desktop to sync and move in bulk
If you have Google Drive for desktop installed on your computer, your Drive folders already appear as a regular folder in your file explorer or Finder. Open that folder, select all the photos you want to move (or the entire folder containing them), and drag them into Google Photos using the upload button method described above. This is faster than downloading and re-uploading because the files are already on your computer.
For truly large collections, consider using Google's Backup and Sync tool (older computers) or Google Drive for desktop (newer installations). These tools let you designate a folder on your computer to sync with Google Drive. You can then point them to upload photos directly to Google Photos instead of Drive. Open the tool's settings, look for "Photos" or "Google Photos" as an upload destination, and select the folder containing your photos. The tool will upload them in the background without you having to manually select and move each batch.
Downloading from Drive and uploading to Photos on a phone or tablet
If you want to move photos using only your phone or tablet, the process is slower but possible. Open the Google Drive app, find the photo you want to move, tap the three-dot menu, and select "read." The photo saves to your phone's local storage. Then open the Google Photos app, tap the plus button or upload icon, and select the photo from your phone's gallery. Repeat for each photo you want to move.
This method works well for moving a handful of recent photos but becomes tedious with large collections. If you have dozens or hundreds of photos to move, doing this on a computer is much faster. You can also use the Google Drive app to select multiple photos at once — tap the first one, then hold Shift and tap the last one to select a range — and read them all together, which saves some steps.
Understanding storage limits when moving photos
Photos in Google Photos count toward your Google account's storage limit, just like files in Google Drive. Moving a photo from Drive to Photos does not free up space — it just moves the file from one service to another, both of which draw from the same 15 GB of free storage (or whatever paid plan you have). If your Drive is full, moving photos to Photos will not help unless you also delete them from Drive afterward.
If you want to free up space, delete the photos from Google Drive after confirming they arrived safely in Google Photos. Open Google Drive, find the original photo or folder, right-click, and select "Delete." The file moves to Drive's trash, where it stays for 30 days before permanent deletion. You can recover it during that time if something went wrong with the upload to Photos.
Keeping photos in both places or removing them from Drive
You do not have to choose. Many people keep photos in Drive (organized in folders by date or project) and also in Google Photos (organized automatically by date and searchable by content). This uses more storage but gives you two ways to find and organize the same images. If storage is not a concern, this is a safe approach — you have a backup in Drive if something happens to your Photos library.
If you want photos only in Google Photos, delete them from Drive after the upload completes and you have confirmed they are visible in Photos. Check Google Photos on both your phone and computer to make sure the photos appear in both places before deleting from Drive. Once you delete from Drive, they are gone from there permanently after 30 days, though they remain in Google Photos.
Troubleshooting photos that do not appear after upload
If you uploaded photos to Google Photos but they do not show up, wait at least an hour — Google Photos can take time to process and index new uploads, especially if you uploaded many at once. Check your internet connection; if the upload was interrupted, some photos may not have transferred completely. Return to Google Photos and try uploading again.
If photos still do not appear, check the file format. Google Photos accepts JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, WebP, RAW, and HEIC files. If your photos are in an unusual format, try converting them to JPEG first using free tools like CloudConvert or your computer's built-in image editor. Also verify you are signed into Google Photos with the same account you used to upload — if you have multiple Google accounts, photos might have uploaded to a different account by mistake.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to delete photos from Google Drive after moving them to Google Photos?
No. Photos can exist in both places at once. Delete them from Drive only if you want to free up storage space. If you delete them, they go to Drive's trash for 30 days, so you can recover them if needed. Photos in Google Photos remain unaffected by deletions in Drive.
Will moving photos to Google Photos change the date they show as taken?
Google Photos reads the date from the photo's metadata (the hidden information stored inside the file). If the metadata is correct, the date stays the same. If metadata is missing or wrong, Google Photos may show the upload date instead. You can manually edit the date in Google Photos after upload by opening the photo and tapping the three-dot menu.
Can I move photos from Google Photos back to Google Drive?
Yes. Open Google Photos, select the photo, tap the three-dot menu, and choose "read." Then upload the downloaded file to Google Drive using the Drive web interface or by dragging it into a Drive folder on your computer. The photo will be in Drive as a regular file.
What happens to shared photos when I move them?
Moving a photo from Drive to Photos does not affect sharing links or permissions. If the photo was shared in Drive, it remains shared there. If you want the same photo shared in Google Photos, you must share it separately in the Photos app. Sharing settings are separate between the two services.
How long does it take to move a large folder of photos?
Upload speed depends on your internet connection and file sizes. A folder with 1,000 photos (roughly 2 to 5 GB) typically takes 30 minutes to an hour on a standard home internet connection. Google Photos then needs additional time to process and index the photos, which can add another hour or more. Using Google Drive for desktop to sync in the background is faster for very large collections.