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Yikes, this is kind of scary. Google Photos is the only place to find some of my older photos. What’s the easiest way to download my entire library for backup o

Yikes, this is kind of scary. Google Photos is the only place to find some of my older photos. What’s the easiest way to download my entire library for backup on a physical drive?

cj 4y ago
Google Photos used to have the option to sync all photos into Google Drive but that feature was removed. I’m guessing the raw data is still available via Google Takeout
iforgotpassword 4y ago
Takeout
willcipriano 4y ago
I do takeout once a year for such an eventually. https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/
- mwambua 4y ago
  Ah, awesome! Thanks!
- benhansenslc 4y ago
  I have been having real problems trying to do Google takeout with my Google Photos. I keep getting an error emailed to me saying "However, we were unable to create a copy of all your files. You can still download your files until September 25, 2022, but please be aware that there will be data missing." Apparently I am not the only one[1][2]. Other people have a mix of errors[3]. It is not the reliable data extraction I was expecting for something as valuable as my family photos. Google is losing a lot of trust from me based on this. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25591630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25591630 [2]: https://sysc.org/what-is-google-takeout/ https://sysc.org/what-is-google-takeout/ [3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/khited/google_takeout_google_photos_only_needed_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/khited/google...
buro9 4y ago
I used this not too long ago: https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync and it stores photos and videos in a YYYY/MM directory structure. It works extremely well, and you can re-run it any time to sync new files locally too. I used it like that for a few months before I finally installed syncthing on my phone and stopped using Google Photos altogether. Now what I do is take photos on my phone, have them sync to a NAS. And on the NAS I used a modified version of this https://forum.syncthing.net/t/android-photo-sync-with-exiftool-based-script/15937 https://forum.syncthing.net/t/android-photo-sync-with-exifto... to build up a YYYY/MM folder organisation and move files older than 30 days from the syncthing folder into my archive. My archive is then in my Plex so it's still accessible to me. In essence: 1) Take photo (implicit sync to NAS), 2) wait 30 days, 3) archive photo into long term directory naming convention, whilst making available to Plex and deleting the version from my phone (by deleting the syncthing version it will delete the one on the phone after 30 days too).
- exhilaration 4y ago
  Do you know if gphotos-sync downloads the photos in their original quality/version?
  - buro9 4y ago
    It does. The only thing that it gets wrong is that it cannot restore the file created date to video. But in the grand scheme of things, that's a nit.
    - exhilaration 4y ago
      Unfortunately it looks like it's subject to the same limitation of the Google Photos API: Photo download compresses the photos even if you ask for the original file https://gilesknap.github.io/gphotos-sync/main/explanations/googleapiissues.html#pending-api-issues https://gilesknap.github.io/gphotos-sync/main/explanations/g... I've been putting off a Google photos back up for years, and this was my excuse - waiting for this issue to be resolved. But I'm being a fool, 60% compression is better than losing everything.

Yikes, this is kind of scary. Google Photos is the only place to find some of my older photos. What’s the easiest way to download my entire library for backup on a physical drive?

cj 4y ago

Google Photos used to have the option to sync all photos into Google Drive but that feature was removed. I’m guessing the raw data is still available via Google Takeout

iforgotpassword 4y ago

Takeout

willcipriano 4y ago

I do takeout once a year for such an eventually. https://takeout.google.com/ https://takeout.google.com/

mwambua 4y ago
Ah, awesome! Thanks!
benhansenslc 4y ago
I have been having real problems trying to do Google takeout with my Google Photos. I keep getting an error emailed to me saying "However, we were unable to create a copy of all your files. You can still download your files until September 25, 2022, but please be aware that there will be data missing." Apparently I am not the only one[1][2]. Other people have a mix of errors[3]. It is not the reliable data extraction I was expecting for something as valuable as my family photos. Google is losing a lot of trust from me based on this. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25591630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25591630 [2]: https://sysc.org/what-is-google-takeout/ https://sysc.org/what-is-google-takeout/ [3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/khited/google_takeout_google_photos_only_needed_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/khited/google...

buro9 4y ago

I used this not too long ago: https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync and it stores photos and videos in a YYYY/MM directory structure. It works extremely well, and you can re-run it any time to sync new files locally too. I used it like that for a few months before I finally installed syncthing on my phone and stopped using Google Photos altogether. Now what I do is take photos on my phone, have them sync to a NAS. And on the NAS I used a modified version of this https://forum.syncthing.net/t/android-photo-sync-with-exiftool-based-script/15937 https://forum.syncthing.net/t/android-photo-sync-with-exifto... to build up a YYYY/MM folder organisation and move files older than 30 days from the syncthing folder into my archive. My archive is then in my Plex so it's still accessible to me. In essence: 1) Take photo (implicit sync to NAS), 2) wait 30 days, 3) archive photo into long term directory naming convention, whilst making available to Plex and deleting the version from my phone (by deleting the syncthing version it will delete the one on the phone after 30 days too).

exhilaration 4y ago
Do you know if gphotos-sync downloads the photos in their original quality/version?
- buro9 4y ago
  It does. The only thing that it gets wrong is that it cannot restore the file created date to video. But in the grand scheme of things, that's a nit.
  - exhilaration 4y ago
    Unfortunately it looks like it's subject to the same limitation of the Google Photos API: Photo download compresses the photos even if you ask for the original file https://gilesknap.github.io/gphotos-sync/main/explanations/googleapiissues.html#pending-api-issues https://gilesknap.github.io/gphotos-sync/main/explanations/g... I've been putting off a Google photos back up for years, and this was my excuse - waiting for this issue to be resolved. But I'm being a fool, 60% compression is better than losing everything.