How To Transfer Photos Between 2 iCloud Accounts

This article will tell you how to transfer photos between 2 iCloud accounts. You can implement this goal by using only one iPhone or one iPhone and a macOS or Windows machine. This article also tells you how to import photos from your macOS or Windows folder to the iCloud account.

Table of Contents

1. Transfer 2 iCloud Accounts Photos Use One iPhone Steps.

1.1 How To Login iCloud Account On iPhone.

Open iPhone, click the Settings button on the screen.

Then click the Sign in to your iPhone menu item on the top area.
Input your Apple ID, click Next on the top right corner.
Input the password, click Next on the top right corner.

Enter the iPhone passcode on the next screen, then it will bring you to the Settings —> Apple ID screen.

1.2 How To Force Download(Sync) The iCloud Photos To The iPhone.

Now we should make sure all the iCloud photos have been downloaded to the iPhone, then we can transfer the photos to another iCloud account.
Log in to your iCloud account on iPhone.

Press Settings —> Apple ID —> iCloud —> Photos.
Press Download and Keep Originals item on the iCloud Photos setting screen to check it, this will download the original photos to your iPhone instead of the thumbnails.
On the Settings —> Apple ID —> iCloud —> Photos screen, turn off the iCloud Photos toggle button and then turn on it, this will force iPhone to sync ( download ) the photos from the iCloud.

1.3 Transfer Photos From iPhone To Another iCloud Account.

Log in with the source iCloud account on iPhone, and force download all the iCloud account photos to the iPhone.
Log off the source iCloud account, and keep all the photos copied on the iPhone.
Log in with the target iCloud account on the iPhone, now what you need to do is to wait for the photos to sync to the iCloud. Or you can force sync the photos to the iCloud by reading section 1.2.

2. Transfer 2 iCloud Accounts Photos Use One iPhone & One macOS Computer Steps.

2.1 Log In iCloud Account On macOS.

Click the System Preferences menu item on macOS to open the System Preferences window.
Then click the Apple ID icon on the top right corner.
Input the apple id and password and then you can log in to it.

2.2 How To Force Sync (Upload) macOS Photos To iCloud.

Open the macOS System Preferences window.
Click the Apple ID icon on the top right corner.
Click the iCloud item on the left side panel.

Uncheck & recheck the Photos in the Apps on this Mac using iCloud list.
Now when you open the macOS Photos app, when you scroll down to the window’s bottom, you will see the uploading status there.
You can click the Pause link to pause the uploading and click the Resume link to continue to upload at night.

2.3 Transfer Photos Between 2 iCloud Accounts Using iPhone & macOS Computer.

Log in with the target iCloud account on your macOS computer ( refer to section 2.1 ).
Log in with the source iCloud account on your iPhone ( or iPad ) ( refer to section 1.1 ), and make sure all the iCloud saved photos have been downloaded to the iPhone (refer to section 1.2).
Use a USB line to connect the iPhone & macOS computer, press Trust on the iPhone screen to let the macOS computer access the iPhone.

Open the Photos app on macOS, then you will see the iPhone on the Photos window left panel.
Click the iPhone item on the Photos window left panel, then it will display all the photos on the right side.
Now click the Import All New Photos button on the Photos window upper right corner, then it will import all the photos stored on the iPhone to the macOS Photos app.

Now you can wait for the photos to sync or you can force sync the photos at once ( refer to section 2.2 ).

3. Transfer 2 iCloud Accounts Photos Use One iPhone & One Windows Computer Steps.

3.1 Install iCloud For Windows And Configure It.

Install iCloud for Windows.
After install, search the keyword iCloud in the Windows 10 search box located at the bottom left corner and open the iCloud application.

Input your target iCloud account Apple ID and password to log in to iCloud in the popup window.
Check the Photos checkbox in the iCloud settings window, and check all the checkboxes in the popup window.
Now you have connected your Windows PC with the iCloud account, and all the photos in the Windows system can sync with the iCloud service.

3.2 Transfer Photos Between 2 iCloud Accounts Using iPhone & Windows Computer.

Log in to the source iCloud account on iPhone and force download all the photos to the iPhone.
Log in to the target iCloud account on Windows.
Use a USB line to connect the iPhone with the Windows PC.

If this is the first time you connect the iPhone to the PC, it will popup a confirm dialog on the iPhone screen, it ask you whether you trust the device or not, you need to select trust.
If the confirm dialog does not popup, you can use another USB line to connect the iPhone and PC to try, in my case,when I use another USB line, the trust confirm dialog popup( please refer https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202778, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204095).
After that, when you open a windows file explorer you can find the Apple iPhone on the windows file explorer left side.

Click the Apple iPhone item, then click the Internal Storage on the windows file explorer right side.
Click the DCIM folder, and then you can find all the photos folders under it.
Now you can copy those iPhone photo files and then click the iCloud Photos item on the windows explorer left side and then paste those photos into the iCloud Photos directory.

4. Upload Photos From macOS Folder To iCloud.

Log in to the iCloud on macOS.
Click the Photos app to open it.
Click the File —> Import… menu item on the top menu bar, then you can import the photos from your macOS folder.

After import, you can force sync ( refer to section 2.2 ) or wait for the auto-sync.

5. Upload Photos From Windows Folder To iCloud.

Open a File Explorer, and click the iCloud Photos folder in the file explorer window left side.
Open another windows file explorer and go to your local images saved folder.

Drag & drop the images from the windows local folder to the iCloud Photos folder.