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I have a lot of photos in Google Drive, in random folders.

I want to move them to Google Photos, because I really like the phone/tablet application - while the web app is... less good.

I have no idea how to do that. I moved them to some magical folder in Google Drive called "Google Photos". I have no idea what that folder does - it seems to be auto-synced with Google Photos in the way Google Photos app -> Google Photos folder, but not the other way (folder -> app) - nothing I put there appears in the actual Google Photos app.

How do I put the photos there? There are both in Google Drive, I can see both "Google Photos" and my old photos in Google Drive web app, but I cannot move them there no matter how much I try.

edit:

In this confusing help article which makes the relation between Google Drive and Google Photos even less clear, Google tells me to click on "search" and then "Google Drive". That produces "No results" on both android app and web app.

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6
  • Googling the question around seems impossible because something about Google+ seems popping up, I am not using Google+ at all
    – Karel Bílek
    Aug 18, 2015 at 17:43
  • This seems to be still the case. I was wondering if the "No results" on the Google Drive search was because I was using google apps for business but a customer support rep told me this simply doesn't work and will be removed. Looking at google photos now, the button seems to be gone. Still no option to sync between drive -> photos
    – patchrail
    Jul 6, 2016 at 2:57
  • As of 2018, the Google help article now mentions in the "See photos & videos from Google Drive in Google Photos" to turn on the Google Drive option from Google Photos settings
    – protongun
    Jan 11, 2018 at 1:29
  • Google recently added a tool to Google Photos to import photos from Drive: support.google.com/photos/answer/6156103
    – JDB
    Jul 25, 2019 at 20:26
  • Why do you want that? Do you really want to share all of your pictures with the whole universe? Google Drive has the only reasonable way to share pictures, even that the correct settings are difficult to find, because the default always is to include the whole universe. But in Drive you CAN share in private, while in Photos everything you share is publicly shared to anybody who gets access to a very very very very short link.
    – Tino
    Aug 11, 2019 at 10:02

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
47

While on Google Photos click Upload, (probably upper right corner), then click "Google Drive". If for some reason that didn't work, just read this short official Google help made to answer this exact question, it will tell you what's wrong.

If after clicking upload "google drive" doesn't show up, It's probably because your account is work/school. One workaround is to share the photos to a non-educational account, and follow the method given at the beginning of this answer.

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  • 11
    No Google Drive there. Just "Computer".
    – Tino
    Aug 11, 2019 at 9:52
  • 7
    +1. The question-asker should mark this as the best answer.
    – Ryan
    Aug 13, 2019 at 22:50
  • 7
    Does not import all a directory at once as far as I could try. I can just select picture by picture: this is just crazy from Google not to be able to move all Google Photo directory to Photo...
    – MacKentoch
    Aug 15, 2019 at 18:17
  • 4
    To upload all images on your drive, after you click on "Google Drive" as described by @Santropedro then click in the search bar. In the drop down menu click file type then click "Images". Now you should be able to ctrl-a to select all the images and then click "UPLOAD" in the bottom right-hand corner. Do the same for videos too.
    – jesseaam
    Sep 9, 2019 at 14:49
  • 3
    The best answer so far in 2019!
    – Mohsen
    Sep 12, 2019 at 18:54
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  1. Login to Google Drive
  2. Click on the Settings button (Settings button)
  3. Select Settings
  4. Make sure Create a Google Photos folder — Automatically put your Google Photos into a folder in My Drive is checked.
    Create a Google Photos folder
  5. Find and select the image you want to move.
  6. Click on the Actions button (Actions button), and click on Move To...
    Move To...
  7. Select Google Photos
    Google Photos button
  8. Click on the Move button button.
  9. Your photo has now been moved from Google Drive to Google Photos

Side note: If you want to go the opposite direction (Photos → Drive), then login to Drive, select Google Photos on the left side, select the picture(s) you want to move, click the action button → move, and select the Drive folder to move to.

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  • 7
    For whatever reason (maybe my old experiments?), my folder "Google Photos" in drive contains entirely different photos than what is actually in Google Photos. Moving photos there does not move them to Google Photos. When I renamed the fake "Google Photos" folder to "Fake Google Photos", it renamed and I don't get another "Google Photos" folder, even with the settings turned on (and I turned it off, reloaded, turned it on).
    – Karel Bílek
    May 19, 2017 at 12:59
  • 4
    Everything uploaded via Google Drive takes up quota space. support.google.com/photos/answer/6156103 Google Photos 'Recover Storage' specifically excludes Google Drive. support.google.com/photos/answer/6314648 The only official way to upload to Google Photos "High Quality"/free tier is with the Backup and Sync app. There may be unofficial options. github.com/3846masa/upload-gphotos Older Picasa API-based alternatives are slowly failing, such as no video. github.com/jackpal/picasawebuploader
    – user423430
    Jul 24, 2017 at 6:57
  • 2
    Does moving an entire folder with subfolders work (as in do the photos later appear in photos.google), or just individual images?
    – Lucas Walter
    Sep 30, 2017 at 17:53
  • 4
    I checked too- There is no option to Move to Google Photos
    – user2617804
    Oct 27, 2018 at 7:37
  • 3
    This answer is obsolete since google stopped syncing photos and drive, see my answer below.
    – Santropedro
    Aug 27, 2019 at 15:21
25

The only way I found, which is super stupid and as anti-user-friendly as they go (I guess that's the new Google), is to

  • download the files (it will take a while, will create a big ZIP file and might crash the Google Drive app)
  • unzip them, because while Google Drive gives you zip, Google Photos doesn't allow ZIP (output of an app is not accepted in basically the same app, awesome)
  • upload to Google Photos, hope that it will actually upload and not crash in the middle
  • then you will end up with the photos in both places, so you will need to delete one so it doesn't count twice to your quota

Not a good user experience. But maybe there is a better way?

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  • 4
    Google now offers a tool to upload photos from your hard drive: photos.google.com/apps You can use the Google Drive application to download all your photos in drive, then use the Google Photos Backup app to upload them all to Google Photos.
    – KurtPreston
    Jul 27, 2016 at 15:30
  • The newer answer below (webapps.stackexchange.com/a/106152/162414) is now a better way to do this.
    – jfritz42
    Aug 3, 2017 at 16:52
  • @jfritz42 That answer does not work.
    – Adam_G
    Jul 4, 2018 at 1:26
  • This answer is massively impractical compared to the current OFFICIAL correct answer I provided below.
    – Santropedro
    Sep 10, 2019 at 17:05
  • 1
    New answer below! webapps.stackexchange.com/a/132183/139613
    – Tom
    Oct 12, 2019 at 5:42
2

Seems it has moved to drive.google.com->settings Google Drive Settings screenshot

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6
  • Adding a screenshot or a Google help link would be more helpful.
    – serenesat
    Aug 19, 2015 at 17:07
  • 4
    I don't seem to have this option
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Aug 20, 2015 at 6:36
  • 1
    I don't have this option either
    – Karel Bílek
    Sep 14, 2015 at 13:11
  • 7
    this is exactly the other way around (“Automatically put your Google Photos into a folder in My Drive”). OP wants to move photos from Drive to Photos.
    – törzsmókus
    Jul 22, 2016 at 13:09
  • 2
    In addition to the comment from @törzsmókus, the integration shown in this answer seems to be gone anyway as of the July 2019 public announcement (see the answer from Santropedro posted on July 26, 2019). Since this answer today is overcome by events and no longer an available option.
    – Juan
    Nov 3, 2019 at 19:32

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