The Best Way to Archive Old Photos from iCloud (And Free Up Storage)

Most people's iCloud storage problem isn't recent photos — it's the thousands of photos from 3, 5, or 10 years ago that are sitting in iCloud, costing money every month, and rarely if ever looked at.

Archiving old photos is the most effective way to free up iCloud storage while keeping everything you've ever taken. Here's how to do it properly.

Why Archiving Makes More Sense Than Deleting

When people look at their iCloud storage bill, the instinct is to delete. But deleting old photos carries real risk — you can't undo it, and you might regret it years later.

Archiving moves old photos to a different location (an external drive or Google Photos) while removing them from iCloud. You still have them; you're just not paying Apple to store them.

For most people with a few years of iPhone photos, this approach can free up 50–200GB of iCloud storage without losing a single photo.

What Counts as an "Archive-Worthy" Photo

A good rule of thumb: if a photo is more than 3 years old and isn't a favourite or in an important album, it's a good archiving candidate.

Photos that are worth keeping in iCloud (recent or ongoing):

Last 2–3 years of camera roll

Favourited photos

Photos in active albums (family, travel, etc.)

Screenshots you actively reference

Photos that are safe to archive:

Everything older than 3–5 years that isn't a favourite

Burst photos (where you took 20 shots of the same thing)

Videos you've already watched and don't need instant access to

Option 1: Archive to Google Photos

Archiving to Google Photos keeps your old photos accessible anywhere — on any device, from any browser. It's the best option if you want ongoing access without carrying a hard drive around.

How to do it with Migrate Moments:

Open [Migrate Moments](/download) on your Mac

Set the destination to Google Photos and connect your account

Set the archive age cutoff — photos older than your chosen date will be exported

Turn on "Protect favourites" and "Protect album photos" so important photos stay in iCloud

Click "Export to Google Photos"

Migrate Moments downloads your originals from iCloud and uploads them to Google Photos. After the transfer is verified, you can delete the archived photos from iCloud — Migrate Moments will prompt you with a confirmation showing exactly what's been verified before anything is deleted.

Option 2: Archive to External Drive

If you prefer a physical backup or don't want to pay for Google storage, an external SSD is a solid option.

How to do it with Migrate Moments:

Plug in your external drive

Open Migrate Moments and select External Drive / Folder as the destination

Select your drive and set the archive age cutoff

Run the export

Photos are organised automatically into folders by year and month — `2021/January/photo.jpg` — making them easy to browse in Finder.

Option 3: Both (Belt and Suspenders)

The safest approach is archiving to both Google Photos and an external drive. This gives you:

Cloud access via Google Photos for browsing on any device

A local backup on the drive in case Google Photos is unavailable or you close your account

You can run Migrate Moments twice — once for each destination. It tracks what's been exported to each location separately.

How to Protect Important Old Photos

Before archiving, take a few minutes to protect the old photos you care about most:

Favourite them. In Photos on iPhone or Mac, tap the heart icon on any photo you want to keep in iCloud. Migrate Moments has a "Protect favourites" option that will skip these.

Put them in albums. If there are photos from a particular trip or event that you want to keep accessible in iCloud, add them to an album. The "Protect album photos" option in Migrate Moments skips anything in an album.

This way, even after archiving, your most important old photos stay right where they are.

After Archiving: How Much Storage You'll Free Up

The amount you free up depends on your library, but typical results:

3 years of iPhone photos: 20–50GB

5 years of iPhone photos: 50–150GB

10+ years: 100–400GB

Videos take up the most space — a single 4K video can be 500MB–2GB. If you have a lot of old videos, archiving them will have the biggest impact on your storage bill.

What to Do After the Archive

Once your photos are verified in Google Photos or on your external drive, Migrate Moments will let you delete the archived photos from iCloud. After that:

Go to Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage

Check your new storage usage

If you've freed up enough, consider downgrading your iCloud plan

The change takes effect at the end of your current billing period.

Download Migrate Moments for Mac →

Related articles

How to stop paying for iCloud storage by switching to Google Photos

How to free up iCloud storage without losing photos

How to export your iCloud Photo Library to Google Photos on Mac