how to move photos from icloud & google storage to iPhone storage ?

Here are Apple's instructions on how to turn off iCloud Photos on one device – or everywhere.

How to turn off iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Note that while you are using iCloud Photos, iCloud backups do not include photos. If you forgot your passcode, and had to reset and erase your phone to get back in, you could restore your photos by turning iCloud Photos on again – you wouldn't need a separate, duplicate copy in an iCloud backup.

Once you turn off iCloud Photos, iCloud backups may start including photos. If they do, you won't be saving any iCloud storage space. Your phone will still try to store all of your photos in iCloud – just in a different "bin" (that is also less convenient to access).

It is possible to manually copy photos from your iPhone to a Mac or PC.

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

So if you weren't safeguarding your photos with iCloud in either way (iCloud Photos or iCloud backup), you could still import new photos to a computer from time to time, and back up that computer. But this would require more discipline to remember to do the imports/backups.

Joshdobbo wrote:

hi, my iPhone 16 pro max is well over its 5GB free space & now wont sync anything, i dont want to buy more as ive seen my iPhone itself has 65.2GB left out of 256GB ( mostly apps ) my question is how do i get my google photos ( app ) & icloud photos onto my iPhone storage ?

Can you afford $12? That's all it costs per year to go from 5GB to 50GB of iCloud storage. You're looking to create so much extra work for yourself and possibly set yourself up to lose data should something go wrong. Honestly, just buy the extra space in iCloud. You can honestly spend more money on two specialty drinks at Starbucks.

See this --> Buy iCloud+ or upgrade your current storage plan - Apple Support

Is your question “How do I put all of my eggs into one basket, so that if anything happens to that basket, I lose all of my photos?”

It sounds like once you turn off iCloud Photos, you will next be asking how to shut off iCloud backups - or where to find the control to exclude photos from this backups.

iCloud Photos is a synchronization service - not an alternate storage location.

When you are using it, you normally have copies of all of your photos in iCloud itself, and on all synchronized devices - given enough space in iCloud, enough space on each device, and chances for the devices to synchronize with iCloud.

You can use “Optimize… Storage” to let individual devices store lower-quality, space-saving copies of photos, but the system will still try to make sure that each device has some version of all of the photos.

Joshdobbo wrote:

hi, my iPhone 16 pro max is well over its 5GB free space & now wont sync anything, i dont want to buy more as ive seen my iPhone itself has 65.2GB left out of 256GB ( mostly apps ) my question is how do i get my google photos ( app ) & icloud photos onto my iPhone storage ?

If you are determined to store your photos only on your phone, without any copies in iCloud Photos, iCloud backups, Google Photos, etc., you can certainly do so.

Just don’t expect us to spend a lot of time telling you how to put all of your eggs in one easily lost basket. Or ask how to get your non-backed- up photos back when catastrophe strikes.

Joshdobbo wrote:

i could spend that without issues, however my phone itself has ample storage space, so is it not possible for my phone photos / google photos be transferred to my iPhone storage ?

Do you have any idea how many times a day someone comes to this forum, to ask how to get data back they didn't sync or backup anywhere and their phone is either broken beyond repair or stolen? Assuming because you have enough storage on your phone protects your data is an unfortunate assumption.

I once lost thousands of photos of a trip to Paris in 2001 because I foolishly didn't back them up anywhere. Painful lesson learned. I now not only pay for enough iCloud Storage for backups, but I store my photos on a backup service as well as Amazon Photos.

Joshdobbo wrote:

no i appreciate that, i was just curious if its possible to even do. my photos would be be backed up elsewhere on a regular basis but i just wanted to allow some extra space to allow for other stuff, but still have access to photos. seems buying space is the better option on this occasion , appreciate your help though.

Simplest and safest thing to do.

Take care!