Google Drive and Google Photos are separate storage systems, so photos in Drive won't automatically appear in Photos

Google Drive stores files of any type in folders you organize yourself. Google Photos is a dedicated image library that sorts photos by date, location, and people in the image. A photo sitting in a Google Drive folder exists only in Drive — it does not sync to Google Photos, and Google Photos cannot see it there.

To move photos from Drive to Google Photos, you read them from Drive and then upload them to Google Photos. The process takes a few minutes per batch, depending on how many photos you have and your internet speed. You can move all your photos at once or organize them into groups first.

Key Takeaways

  • Photos stored in Google Drive folders do not automatically appear in Google Photos — you must transfer them manually.
  • The fastest method is to read photos from Drive in bulk, then upload them all to Google Photos at once.
  • Google Photos will organize transferred photos by the date they were taken, not the date you moved them.
  • Both services count storage toward your Google account's 15 GB free limit, so moving photos from Drive to Photos does not free up space unless you delete them from Drive afterward.

read photos from Google Drive in bulk

Open Google Drive in your web browser and navigate to the folder containing your photos. Select all the photos you want to move by clicking the checkbox next to the first photo, then holding Shift and clicking the checkbox next to the last photo. This selects every photo in between.

If your photos are scattered across multiple folders, you can select them one at a time instead. Click the checkbox next to each photo while holding the Ctrl key (or Cmd key on Mac). When you have selected all the photos you want, right-click any selected photo and choose read from the menu.

Google Drive will compress the photos into a single .zip file and read it to your computer's Downloads folder. The file name will be "read.zip" or similar. Once the read finishes, locate the .zip file on your computer and extract it — on Windows, right-click and choose "Extract All"; on Mac, double-click the file.

Upload the photos to Google Photos

Go to Google Photos in your web browser. In the top right corner, click the Upload button (it looks like an arrow pointing upward). Choose Select from your computer.

Navigate to the folder where you extracted the photos from the .zip file. Select all the photos you want to upload. You can click the first photo, hold Shift, and click the last photo to select them all at once. Then click Open.

Google Photos will begin uploading the photos. A progress bar will show how many photos have been uploaded. Depending on the number of photos and your internet connection, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. You can close the browser tab, and the upload will continue in the background.

What happens to the original photos in Google Drive

Transferring photos to Google Photos does not remove them from Google Drive. Both copies will exist in your Google account, and both will count toward your 15 GB storage limit. If you want to free up space in Drive after moving photos to Photos, you must delete them from Drive manually.

Open Google Drive, navigate to the folder with the photos you moved, select them, and click the trash icon. The photos will move to your Drive trash folder. To permanently delete them and reclaim storage space, open the trash folder, select the photos, and click Delete forever.

Organize photos in Google Photos after transfer

Google Photos automatically sorts transferred photos by the date they were taken, not the date you moved them. If your photos have accurate date information, they will appear in the correct chronological order in your Google Photos library.

You can create albums in Google Photos to organize photos by topic, event, or person. In Google Photos, select the photos you want to group together, click the Add to album button, and either create a new album or add them to an existing one. Albums are separate from the main library and help you find photos quickly without changing the library's organization.

Transfer photos from Google Drive on a mobile device

The Google Drive app and Google Photos app on your phone work differently than the web versions. You cannot bulk-read photos from the Drive app the way you can in a browser. Instead, open each photo in the Drive app, tap the three-dot menu, and choose Send a copy or Share. This is slow for large numbers of photos.

A faster method on mobile is to use a computer instead. If you only have a phone, you can use the Google Drive website in your phone's browser (not the app) to read photos, though the process is slower than on a desktop. After downloading, use the Google Photos app to upload them.

Troubleshooting common transfer problems

If the upload to Google Photos stalls or fails, check your internet connection and try again. Google Photos will not re-upload photos it has already received, so if some photos uploaded before the connection dropped, you can select only the remaining photos and upload them without duplicating the ones that already transferred.

If you cannot find the extracted photos on your computer, check your Downloads folder first. On Windows, the .zip file extraction usually creates a folder with the same name as the .zip file. On Mac, the extraction happens automatically and the folder appears in the same location as the .zip file. If you still cannot locate the photos, search your computer for the photo file names or use the file manager to look in recent locations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will transferring photos to Google Photos delete them from Google Drive?

No. Photos remain in Google Drive after you move them to Google Photos. Both copies exist in your account and both count toward your storage limit. You must manually delete them from Drive if you want to remove them.

Can I transfer photos directly from Drive to Photos without downloading them first?

No. Google Drive and Google Photos do not have a direct transfer feature. You must read photos from Drive and then upload them to Google Photos through the web interface or mobile app.

What if my photos in Google Drive don't have the correct date information?

Google Photos sorts photos by the date taken, which is stored in the photo's metadata. If this date is wrong or missing, photos may appear out of order in Google Photos. You can manually edit the date in Google Photos after transfer by opening a photo, clicking the three-dot menu, and choosing Edit date & time.

How long does it take to transfer a large number of photos?

read time depends on how many photos you have and your internet speed. Upload time to Google Photos also varies. A few hundred photos typically take 10 to 30 minutes. Thousands of photos may take several hours. You can close your browser after starting the upload, and it will continue in the background.

Can I transfer photos from Google Photos back to Google Drive?

Yes. Open Google Photos, select the photos you want, click the three-dot menu, and choose read. Then upload the downloaded files to Google Drive using the Drive upload button. This creates a second copy in Drive.