Get all your photos into one place, without duplicates

Gather photos from old phones, computers and cloud accounts into one home, then clean up the duplicates.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 6 steps · ▶ 4 videos
What you'll need
  • Your phones, computers and cloud account logins
  • Enough storage space in the place you choose
  • About 30 minutes to start (copying can run overnight)

  1. Pick one home for your photos

    Choose one main place, usually the cloud service that matches your phone: iCloud Photos (5 GB free) for iPhone, Google Photos (15 GB free, shared with Gmail and Drive) for Android, or OneDrive (5 GB free) if you live on Windows. Most big libraries need a paid plan, so check the storage you'll need first.

  2. Turn on backup on every phone

    On each phone you use, turn on backup to the home you picked. In Google Photos, photos that are already backed up aren't uploaded again, so turning backup on twice doesn't create copies.

  3. Bring in your old cloud accounts

    iCloud to Google Photos: sign in at privacy.apple.com and choose Request to transfer a copy of your data. It usually takes 3-7 days, and your iCloud photos stay where they are. Google Photos to another service: use Google's Transfer data option (Google Takeout).

    💡 Tip: Transfers send copies. Don't delete anything from the old account until you've checked that everything arrived.

  4. Add photos from computers and old drives

    Copy old folders to one computer first, then upload them to your photo home. Google Photos can back up computer folders from its website in Chrome or Edge.

  5. Clean up duplicates

    📱 iPhone / iPad: Open Photos and look for the Duplicates collection (under Utilities). Review each set, then tap Merge. Photos keeps the best-quality version and moves the extras to Recently Deleted. On a Mac, the Photos app has the same Duplicates collection.

    🤖 Android: Google Photos skips exact copies it has already backed up. For folders on a Windows or Mac computer, the free, open-source dupeGuru has a Picture mode that finds look-alike photos.

    ⚠️ Careful: Always review before deleting. Similar-looking shots aren't always true duplicates.

  6. Keep a second copy

    One place to find photos isn't the same as a backup. Keep a second copy on an external drive too (see the 3-2-1 rule).

🎉 All done!

Learn more: The 3-2-1 backup rule and Photo storage full? Menu names vary by app and software version. These steps were checked against official help pages in October 2026.

Related game: Safe or Risky?. Related explainer: Sharing family photos: shared albums made simple .

Official help pages

Steps checked against these pages in October 2026. If a button looks different, look for a similar label.