San Francisco, March 4 (IANS) Apple has finally allowed iPhone users in select countries to transfer their images and videos from iCloud library to Google Photos, and the content transfer will take between three days to a week.

According to Apple support document, you can request to transfer a copy of photos and videos stored in iCloud Photos to Google Photos.

"Transferring photos and videos from iCloud Photos doesn't remove or alter the content you store with Apple, but sends a copy of your content to the other service," the company said on its support page.

This service is initially available to customers in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the US for transfers to Google Photos, and is likely to arrive in India soon.

The transfer process takes between three and seven days and Apple takes this time to verify that the request was made by authentic users.

"Some data and formats available in iCloud Photos — such as Smart Albums, Live Photos, or some RAW files — may not be available when you transfer your content to another service," the tech giant informed.

Google Photos also has a limit of 20,000 photos per album. If you transfer an album with more than 20,000 photos, the additional photos are still transferred but are not added to the album.

Before you request to transfer your iCloud Photos content, make sure that you are using iCloud Photos to store photos and videos with Apple; your Apple ID uses two-factor authentication; you have a Google account to use Google Photos and your Google account has enough storage available to complete the transfer.

If your Google account runs out of space during the transfer, not all of your items will be transferred.

The transfer includes copies of photos and videos that you store in iCloud Photos, associated with your Apple ID in various formats.
Only the most recent edit of the photo is transferred and not the original version. Duplicates appear as just one photo.

"If you add, update, or delete content after the transfer starts, or if your images and videos are still uploading, these changes or additions might not be included in the transfer," Apple said.

--IANS na/