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Make an independent copy of your photos

A copy on a drive you hold still opens after a lost password, a closed account or a phone nobody can unlock.

Last checked 18 October 2026 · by FortifiedWall

The photos and videos on your phone are kept in one account, your Apple Account or your Google Account. Getting into that account needs one password and one phone. Your Apple Account is your account with Apple, the one your iPhone, iPad or Mac is signed in to. Your Google Account is your account with Google, the one you sign in to Google Photos with.

If the password is lost, if the account is closed, or if the phone is one that nobody can unlock, the photos in that account are out of reach. A copy on a drive that your family can hold is the only copy your family can still open after a lost password, a closed account or a phone that nobody can unlock.

A shared album is an album you let other people see from their own phones. A shared album only shows other people the photos in your account, so a shared album is not a copy. If the account is closed, other people can no longer see the shared album.

The copy goes onto an external drive. An external drive is a small box that stores files and plugs into a phone or a computer with a cable.

Before you start

  • About an hour to set up. The copying itself takes longer and can run overnight.
  • An external drive with more space than your library; your library is all your photos and videos together. Your phone's storage settings show how much space the photos take.
  • Wi-Fi and the password for your Apple Account or your Google Account.
  • A label for the drive.
  • Page 4 of the workshop worksheet to write down where the drive is kept. If you do not have the worksheet, use a sheet of paper that you keep with your important papers.

Make the copy

Do only the part for the company your photos are with: Apple or Google. Your photos are with Apple when the app you open to see them is the Photos app that came with your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Your photos are with Google when the app you open is Google Photos. If you use both apps, do both parts. Both parts include a download; to download is to copy something from the company's computers onto a device of your own. After your own part, do the steps under For everyone.

If your photos are with Apple

These steps are for photos kept in iCloud Photos. iCloud is Apple's name for the storage that comes with your Apple Account. iCloud storage is kept on Apple's computers. iCloud Photos is the setting that keeps the photos from your Photos app in iCloud.

There are three ways to make the copy: an iPhone or iPad with the drive plugged into it, a Mac, or any computer signed in at iCloud.com. Use only the way for the device you have in front of you. Each way downloads the originals. An original is the full-size photo exactly as it was taken. An original has no edit applied to it.

On an iPhone or iPad. Plug the drive into the iPhone or iPad before you start.

  1. Keep the full-size originals on the iPhone or iPad. Open the Settings app. Find your name and tap it. Find iCloud and tap it. Find Photos and tap it. Find iPhone Storage and tap it. Find Download and Keep Originals and choose it.
  2. Copy one year of photos onto the drive. Open the Photos app. Find Select and tap it. Choose the photos and videos from one year. Find the Share button and tap it. Find Export Unmodified Original and tap it. Find Locations and choose your drive under it. Find Save and tap it. Export Unmodified Original copies only the photos you chose, so go through the library one year at a time.

On a Mac. Plug the drive into the Mac before you start.

  1. Bring the full-size originals onto the Mac. Open the Photos app. Find the menu named Photos and click it. Find Settings and click it. Find iCloud and click it. Find Download Originals to this Mac and click it. Wait for the download to finish. Apple's page, as we read it, does not say how the Mac shows that the download has finished.
  2. Copy the photos onto the drive. Select the photos and videos you want. Find the menu named File and click it. Find Export and click it. Choose the drive as the place to save the photos. Apple's page, as we read it, says nothing about the screen after Export, so we cannot say what it shows.

On any computer at iCloud.com. iCloud.com is Apple's website, where you can sign in to your Apple Account from any computer.

  1. Choose up to 1,000 photos. Open the website iCloud.com/photos and sign in with your Apple Account. Find Select and click it. Choose up to 1,000 photos and videos. If you have more than 1,000, you will do this step and the next more than once.
  2. Download the originals and move them onto the drive. Find the More button and click it. Find More Download Options and click it. Find Unmodified Originals and choose it. Find Download and click it. Apple's page ends at Download, so we cannot say where the files land on the computer. When you find the files, plug the drive into the computer and move the files onto the drive.

If your photos are with Google

Google Takeout is Google's page for asking for a copy of the data in your Google Account.

  1. Ask for your photos only. Sign in to your Google Account. Open Google Takeout at takeout.google.com. The page opens with every Google product you use already ticked. Untick every product except Google Photos. Find Next step and click it.
  2. Choose how the copy comes to you. Find Send download link via email and choose it. Of the ways offered, the email link is the simplest. Choose a one-time export. An export is Google's word for the copy it makes for you. Choose Zip files. A zip file is one file with many files packed inside it. Choose a large archive size, such as the 50 GB option, so the copy comes in fewer pieces. An archive is one of the packed files. GB is short for gigabyte, a measure of storage space. Find Create export and click it.
  3. Download the files and move them onto the drive. Google emails you when the copy is ready. The email can take minutes or days; most people get it the same day. The link in the email works for about seven days, and each archive can be downloaded five times, so download the files soon after the email arrives. Then plug the drive into the computer and move the files onto the drive. Google's page ends at the download, so we cannot say where the files land on your computer or what you will see when you open a zip file.

For everyone

  1. Check that the copy opens. Unplug the drive and plug it into a different computer. Open one photo from the oldest year and one photo from this year. Both photos should open.
  2. Label the drive and write down where it is. On the drive, write whose photos these are and the date. On page 4 of the worksheet, write where the drive is kept and who holds it. Tell that person.
  3. Repeat once a year. Copy the new year's photos the same way. The worksheet's third yearly question asks whether the copy still opens and whether the copy includes this year's photos.

Your family can use the copy only if they know where the drive is kept.

What this does not do

  • The copy holds only the photos that existed on the day you made it. Photos taken after that day are not in it until you repeat the steps.
  • Photos copied from an Apple Shared Album may not keep their full resolution, and they lose their comments and likes. Resolution is how much detail a photo holds.
  • In a Google copy, each photo file gets a new file date; a file date is the date a computer shows next to a file. The original date is kept inside the file's own data. Extra details such as comments land in a separate file.
  • A drive can fail, so keep a second copy in another place.
  • The copy does not preserve your account or your albums as you arranged them. The copy preserves the original photos.

If your screen looks different

On an iPhone or iPad, Export Unmodified Original appears only after you have selected photos in the Photos app and tapped the Share button. On an iPhone or iPad with older software, the drive may not appear under Locations. If the drive does not appear, use the iCloud.com way on any computer instead. On the Takeout page, Google Photos may be listed as Google Photos or as Photos; both names are the same product. On an iPhone or iPad, if a name on this page is not on your screen, search the Settings app for the word Photos.

Sources

Related

  • Set up Apple Legacy Contact: name a person who can ask Apple for your photos, messages and notes after you pass away.
  • Set up Google Inactive Account Manager: tell Google who to contact and what they may download once your Google Account has gone unused for a time you choose.
  • All guides: practical settings to change one at a time.
  • Cybersecurity Consultation: a calm one-on-one video call with a cybersecurity expert who won't judge you, for when a message or an account you think was taken over feels too confusing to sort out alone.
  • Is This A Scam?: forward a suspicious email, text or document and get back an assessment you can understand and act on.

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