Recently, my girlfriend gifted me an iPhone, which led to this unconventional operation—probably something only tech-savvy users in mainland China would need to do.

For Google Photos to iCloud transfers in the US region, you can directly use Google Takeout for one-click migration.

Download All Google Photos

1. Follow the Google Photos Takeout Helper README to create a new export task.

2. Wait for the export completion email and open one to gather basic data for batch downloading using scripts.

   • File list:

     

   • Right-click to copy a download link:

     https://takeout.google.com/takeout/download?j=1162e805-3b09-494c-ba99-6bb0bb7719b9&i=0&user=105433832262546547905

   • Install a browser extension that can export download tasks as command-line tools, such as cliget:

     

   • Obtain the command:

     aria2c --header 'Host: takeout-download.usercontent.google.com' --user-agent ... 'https://takeout-download.usercontent.google.com/download/takeout-20250303T133330Z-001.zip?j=1162e805-3b09-494c-ba99-6bb0bb7719b9&i=0&user=779537051113&authuser=0' --out 'takeout-20250303T133330Z-001.zip'

   • Notice that the file index is controlled by the “&i=0&user=” parameter in the URL, where the first file corresponds to i=0.

3. Write a batch download script:

   #!/usr/bin/env python3
   import subprocess
   from pathlib import Path
   
   command_template = r"aria2c --header 'Host: takeout-download.usercontent.google.com' --user-agent ...'https://takeout-download.usercontent.google.com/download/takeout-20250303T133330Z-011.zip?j=1162e805-3b09-494c-ba99-6bb0bb7719b9&i={{index}}&user=779537051113&authuser=0' --out 'takeout-20250303T133330Z-{{index}}.zip'"
   
   for i in range(50):
       print(i)
       if Path(f"takeout-20250303T133330Z-{i}.zip").exists() and not Path(f"takeout-20250303T133330Z-{i}.zip.aria2").exists():
           print(f"takeout-20250303T133330Z-{i}.zip exists")
           continue
       url = f"https://accounts.google.com/AccountChooser?continue=https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout/download?j%3D1162e805-3b09-494c-ba99-6bb0bb7719b9%26i%3D{i}&[email protected]"
       # download to photos_{i}.zip
       command = command_template.replace("{{index}}", str(i))
       subprocess.run(command, shell=True)

4. After downloading multiple ZIP files, extract them (since these ZIPs are not stripped archives but individual compressed files):

   for file in *.zip
       7z x "$file"
   end

5. Use Google Photos Takeout Helper to process the files:

   • Fix timestamps:

     gpth-linux --fix Takeout/

   • Convert:

     gpth-linux --input Takeout/ --output photo/ --albums "shortcut"

   • Fix timestamps in the target folder:

     gpth-linux --fix photo/

Import to iCloud Photos

1. Set up a macOS virtual machine for uploading photos. Third-party tools like rclone can upload to iCloud (though not Photos specifically), but they are slow—testing showed it could take up to 3 days.

   • Follow ultimate-macOS-KVM.
   • Install macOS (I chose OSX14) and allocate sufficient storage (I allocated 256GB). Log in with your China-region iCloud account.

2. Enable SSH: Allow a remote computer to access your Mac.

   • Edit the boot.sh VM startup script:

     ############## REMOVE THESE LINES AFTER MACOS INSTALLATION ###############
     #-drive id=BaseSystem,if=none,file="$VM_PATH/BaseSystem.img",format=raw
     #-device ide-hd,bus=sata.4,drive=BaseSystem
     ##########################################################################
     
     -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 -device "$NETWORK_DEVICE",netdev=net0,id=net0,mac="$MAC_ADDRESS"
     -device qxl-vga,vgamem_mb=128,vram_size_mb=128
     -monitor stdio

   • Connect from the host machine:

     ssh <your-name>@localhost -p 5555

3. Run a WebDAV server in the photo folder and forward the port to macOS:

   • rclone serve webdav --addr :8080 .

   • ssh -R 8080:127.0.0.1:8080 <your-name>@localhost -p 5555

4. Mount WebDAV in macOS: Mounting a Shared Folder Using WebDAV on Mac.

5. Use macOS Photos to import the images. Follow this method: Reddit r/applehelp.

6. Wait for the upload to complete. Testing showed that 150GB (~11k photos) took about a full day.

   • Disable Mac power-saving to prevent upload pauses: Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac.

     

   • Then, wait:

     

Conclusion

As geeks, we must investigate whether we have an exit strategy—meaning ways to export our data. Similarly, the Mac VM serves this purpose.

In summary, Apple is a great design company but also a terrible tech company.

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