Moving Google Photos to OneDrive — will I lose dates, people/faces, and photo organization?

Muaz Mohammed 0 Reputation points
2026-09-08T08:42:08.89+00:00

I’m planning to cancel my Google One subscription and move my entire Google Photos library to OneDrive.

My main concern is the metadata and organization of my photos.

If I transfer/import all my Google Photos to OneDrive:

Will the original date and time each photo was taken stay correct?

Will OneDrive organize the photos by their original dates, or could hundreds/thousands of photos suddenly appear as if they were all created/imported on the same day?

What happens to People & Faces from Google Photos? I assume Google’s face groups won’t transfer, but will OneDrive scan the photos again and create its own people groups?

Will original GPS/location metadata stay with the photos?

Has anyone here transferred a large Google Photos library to OneDrive and had issues with dates or metadata?

Is it better to use a direct cloud transfer, Google Takeout, or another method to preserve everything properly?

My biggest fear is transferring years of photos and then finding out that they all show the transfer date instead of the actual dates they were taken.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually done this.

Windows for home | Other | Music, photos, and video
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  1. Lychee-Ng 28,300 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-08T14:46:48.8566667+00:00

    Hi Muaz Mohammed,

    I can get what you're intending to do and the concern over it, especially when you have years of photos carefully organized. The short answer is that OneDrive can preserve the useful photo metadata and also has its own People/facial-grouping feature, but you should not expect a perfect clone of the Google Photos library.

    1 - Regarding the original dates/GPS/location information

    • The embedded metadata will be moved with the files regardless of platform. So everything (the dates, locations, and so on) should retain, unless it's Google Photos-specific information.
    • The files transferred to OneDrive may receive new file-level metadata, such as Uploaded (Added date). The good news is that Gallery is currently sorted by Taken (Created date) instead of Uploaded.
    • In short, you should not end up with your entire OneDrive photo gallery as if every picture were taken on the migration day. However, the locations data is not a field to group photos right now.

    User's image

    2 - Regarding People & Faces:

    • Please refer to: Group photos by people in OneDrive Photos | Microsoft Support
    • Microsoft is still gradually rolling out the feature, so it may not yet appear for every account.
    • Existing people/face groups are Google-specific information, should be separated from the photo files and cannot be transferred directly.
    • OneDrive uses its own AI algorithm to recognize similar faces and groups them, so the final organization results might not fully match your Google Photos.

    With a library covering many years, I think it's better to be careful. You shouldn't cancel Google One or delete anything until you have verified the transferred library, especially the dates and locations. For your situation, I recommend:

    1. Using the direct Google Photos > Microsoft OneDrive transfer:
      1. Please check: Import other cloud files using OneDrive | Microsoft Support
      2. Avoid manually downloading and re-uploading thousands of photographs
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    2. If you need to transfer, do it with a small selection first, including:
      1. Very old and recent photos
      2. Photos taken on different phones/cameras
      3. Photos with known GPS locations
      4. Edited photos and videos.

    Only after verifying the results should you transfer the full library and cancel Google One/delete anything from Google Photos.

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