Switching phone brands (say, iPhone to Android or vice versa) usually means your photos are safe as long as they were in a cross-platform account like Google Photos, but a brand-specific service like iCloud Photos needs a deliberate export step first.
What you need
- Your old phone, or at least access to its backup account
- Your new phone
- A little time before you hand over or wipe the old phone
The key question to answer first
The key question is whether your existing backup lives in a service that works the same on both platforms (Google Photos does) or one tied specifically to your old brand (iCloud Photos is Apple-specific, though it does have a Windows and limited Android presence).
How to carry your backup across
- Identify what service your photos currently backup to. Check your old phone’s photo app settings to confirm whether it’s Google Photos, iCloud Photos, or a phone-maker’s own service (like Samsung Cloud).
- If it’s Google Photos, simply sign in on the new phone. Google Photos works the same on Android and iPhone, so signing into the same account on your new phone brings your whole library across with nothing extra needed.
- If it’s iCloud Photos and you’re switching to Android, export your library first. Apple provides a way to request your iCloud photos as a download (via privacy.apple.com or the Move to Android app), which you then need to import into Google Photos or another Android-friendly service.
- If it’s a phone-maker-specific service (like Samsung Cloud), check its export options. These services usually offer some way to download your data, but the exact steps vary — check that specific service’s current help pages.
- Once photos are on the new phone’s service, turn on backup there too. Set up ongoing automatic backup on the new phone so you’re not relying on this one-off transfer for future photos.
Check photos are backing up on the new phone
On the new phone, open your photo app and scroll back to your oldest photos to confirm your whole history came across, not just recent ones.
If photos don’t transfer automatically
If an export or transfer tool times out or fails on a very large library, check whether the service offers a way to export in smaller batches rather than all at once.
Next step
Once you’re set up on the new phone, it’s worth confirming the restore actually worked properly — see Restore photos from an Android phone’s backup and check it worked.
Sources and date checked
Based on Apple’s and Google’s own published data-export and Move to Android documentation. Checked 22 September 2026.