Google Photos: what's possible and the Takeout route

You can't add Google Photos as a new account in Storage Studio. In March 2025 Google stopped letting apps like Storage Studio read your Google Photos library: an app can now see only the photos it uploaded itself, so a connection would show an empty library. The way to bring your photos across is Google Takeout — export the library to a cloud drive you've connected, then copy it with Data Transfers.

What you see when you choose Google Photos

Google Photos is still in the Add Account list, so you can find it. Choosing it shows Google Photos isn't available right now and explains why, instead of a sign-in that would end in an empty folder. The card has an Open Google Takeout button, which opens Google Takeout in your browser.

The Takeout route, step by step

Google Takeout is Google's own export service. It can deliver your whole library straight to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box.

1. Connect the account you want the export to land in, if you haven't already — for example Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box.
2. In Storage Studio, choose Google Photos in Add Account and click Open Google Takeout (or go to Google Takeout in your browser).
3. In Takeout, choose Google Photos and ask for the export to be delivered to that same cloud account. Google prepares the export, which can take a while for a big library.
4. When the export has arrived in the account, open Data Transfers and click New Transfer.
5. Choose Copy. For Source, browse the cloud account to the export folder. For Destination, pick a folder on your Mac or your external drive.
6. Start the transfer.

%% caption: Getting a Google Photos library onto your Mac or external drive
flowchart LR
  A[Google Photos library] -->|Google Takeout export| B[A cloud drive you've connected]
  B -->|Data Transfers, Copy| C{Where should it go?}
  C --> D[A folder on your Mac]
  C --> E[Your external drive]

Copying to your external drive keeps the photos off your Mac's built-in disk. If you want to check what will be copied before anything moves, turn on Dry run (preview only) — see trying a transfer first with Dry run.

If you connected Google Photos before

A Google Photos account that was added in an earlier version still shows in your list, but Google's rule applies to it too:

• it's offered only as a destination in Data Transfers, never as a source, because reading from it returns nothing;
• it doesn't appear in the Storage Studio location in Finder — see why Google Photos isn't in the Finder location;
• it can't be used as a backup destination.

You can keep it or remove it — see testing, editing and removing an account. Removing it doesn't touch your photos at Google.

Photos from Apple

If the photos you want are in iCloud Photos under a different Apple ID, that library can be read directly — see iCloud Photos of another Apple ID.

See also: Cloud accounts · Accounts Storage Studio doesn't connect · Copying between two cloud accounts