4 ms·

I Ditched Google Photos

10 points by storageiscool 3y ago

Hi Hacker News! I've been tinkering with a setup at home for replacing Google Photos. I few months ago I felt comfortable ditching it now with my TrueNAS and Immich setup. My first machine was a FreeNAS (before TrueNAS lol) box I had bought several years ago which came pre-built and installed with FreeNAS. Suffice to say, it was easy to get started and I configured it to my liking at the time. But it was slow. I built a more performant NAS (with better specs) after that using an old computer I had lying around. It is what allowed me to stop using Google Photos and go full self-hosted! I've since started a shop where I take refurbished computers, upgrade and optimize them for storing pictures and videos and sell them. If you're interested, please check it out at https://adevbox.com/ I'd also be curious to hear about your photo/video serving and backup solutions. I'm using Tailscale to access my Immich instance when I'm not home. Accessing my media from outside my home was a blocker for getting rid of Gphotos.

dakial1 3y ago
I tried doing a NAS backup (not moving away for Google Photos) using Photostructure (great software, very dedicated developer) but I got stuck on how to take my 1.5TB of photos out of Google Photos. I want to download takeout files (120+ files) directly to my Synology 220+ but Google takeout is very cumbersome and I can't get a way to queue them and automate the task. They really could make an effort to make Google Photos NAS sync easier....
- mceachen 3y ago
  Heya! I'm the author of PhotoStructure, and my Google Photos account (before I started working on PhotoStructure) is about that size, too. I wrote up some tips here: https://photostructure.com/faq/takeout/ https://photostructure.com/faq/takeout/ This is what I did: 1. First try to fetch all your Google Photos via Takeout in one archive. If it fails (like it did for me), try different-sized .tgz archives. I had to use the 10 Gb option (using 50gb caused an internal-to-google error). If that fails to work, the last resort is to manually create by-year albums, shove all photos from that year into that album, and do a takeout of just that album. Repeat as necessary for every year. Yes, this is a huge PITA--which is why I recommend the following: 2. Install an app on your phone to *directly* upload the original photos and videos from your phone to your NAS/home server. I have several recommended apps here: https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/#how-do-i-back-up-files-on-my-phone https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/#... At this point, you can still use Google Photos (for viewing and as a last-ditch backup), but your originals are safe (without all the Google Photo downsampling and metadata shenanigans), and you're free to use whatever self-hosted software you want (like PhotoStructure, but there are a ton of alternatives, as well). FWIW, I also tried this software: https://github.com/mholt/timeliner https://github.com/mholt/timeliner -- it does what it can, but the files you get via the API has a bunch of metadata stripped from it. I even had captured-at times get mangled with older photos.
  - mholt 3y ago
    Re: Timeliner (I'm the author), I'm currently building the successor to it, Timelinize. It's in private alpha preview currently, and still under active development. In Timelinize, I'm focusing on importing Takeout archives first (though I'll reinstate API downloads later) because of this exact problem. Timelinize has a vastly improved schema and can handle data from any data source, not just Google Photos. For example it also imports iPhone backups. I think PhotoStructure is a great project and I've taken some inspiration from it
    - dakial1 3y ago
      It seems that a Timelinize and Photostructure combo would greatly benefit those trying to escape Google Photos claws. Where can I sign-up for the Beta?
      - mholt 3y ago
        Timelinize is still in alpha (under heavy development) so you can follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/timelinize https://twitter.com/timelinize -- I'm still working on a landing page, been too busy with the actual app. If you want to try the development previews in alpha, though, just let me know how to contact you and I'll send you an invite.
Iulioh 3y ago
Honestly the most important feature for me is the search function where you can find text of objects in photos and the map+time search function I can't really ditch Google photos without these
- ghazayel 3y ago
  Same, the search feature is the major added value to Google Photos
- storageiscool 3y ago
  I was quite impressed by Immich’s ML and search features. They generate embeddings from your pictures and search works across them so you can do things like search for objects in the picture. It also has map+time features. I’d give it a try if you haven’t already. It’s under active development atm
beardyw 3y ago
> I Ditched Google Photos You don't give the reasons why. Having off-site backup is always wise. I keep my original photos at home.
- storageiscool 3y ago
  Ownership of data and monthly recurring costs. You’re right about the offsite backup. I follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy and upload to AWS Glacier cold storage as my offsite. It’s cheap and I can switch/turn it off if costs change. My NAS remains as the hot storage.
Raed667 3y ago
My only problem with Google Photos is that I can't back it up to my NAS the same way I can easily do with Google Drive. Currently the only option is to request a Google Takeout every couple of months and manually copy the ZIP to the NAS which is a pain.
sacrosanct 3y ago
I'm sufficiently paranoid that I don't connect multi-terabyte photo storage to the cloud

10 points by storageiscool 3y ago

dakial1 3y ago

I tried doing a NAS backup (not moving away for Google Photos) using Photostructure (great software, very dedicated developer) but I got stuck on how to take my 1.5TB of photos out of Google Photos. I want to download takeout files (120+ files) directly to my Synology 220+ but Google takeout is very cumbersome and I can't get a way to queue them and automate the task. They really could make an effort to make Google Photos NAS sync easier....

mceachen 3y ago
Heya! I'm the author of PhotoStructure, and my Google Photos account (before I started working on PhotoStructure) is about that size, too. I wrote up some tips here: https://photostructure.com/faq/takeout/ https://photostructure.com/faq/takeout/ This is what I did: 1. First try to fetch all your Google Photos via Takeout in one archive. If it fails (like it did for me), try different-sized .tgz archives. I had to use the 10 Gb option (using 50gb caused an internal-to-google error). If that fails to work, the last resort is to manually create by-year albums, shove all photos from that year into that album, and do a takeout of just that album. Repeat as necessary for every year. Yes, this is a huge PITA--which is why I recommend the following: 2. Install an app on your phone to *directly* upload the original photos and videos from your phone to your NAS/home server. I have several recommended apps here: https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/#how-do-i-back-up-files-on-my-phone https://photostructure.com/faq/how-do-i-safely-store-files/#... At this point, you can still use Google Photos (for viewing and as a last-ditch backup), but your originals are safe (without all the Google Photo downsampling and metadata shenanigans), and you're free to use whatever self-hosted software you want (like PhotoStructure, but there are a ton of alternatives, as well). FWIW, I also tried this software: https://github.com/mholt/timeliner https://github.com/mholt/timeliner -- it does what it can, but the files you get via the API has a bunch of metadata stripped from it. I even had captured-at times get mangled with older photos.
- mholt 3y ago
  Re: Timeliner (I'm the author), I'm currently building the successor to it, Timelinize. It's in private alpha preview currently, and still under active development. In Timelinize, I'm focusing on importing Takeout archives first (though I'll reinstate API downloads later) because of this exact problem. Timelinize has a vastly improved schema and can handle data from any data source, not just Google Photos. For example it also imports iPhone backups. I think PhotoStructure is a great project and I've taken some inspiration from it
  - dakial1 3y ago
    It seems that a Timelinize and Photostructure combo would greatly benefit those trying to escape Google Photos claws. Where can I sign-up for the Beta?
    - mholt 3y ago
      Timelinize is still in alpha (under heavy development) so you can follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/timelinize https://twitter.com/timelinize -- I'm still working on a landing page, been too busy with the actual app. If you want to try the development previews in alpha, though, just let me know how to contact you and I'll send you an invite.

Iulioh 3y ago

Honestly the most important feature for me is the search function where you can find text of objects in photos and the map+time search function I can't really ditch Google photos without these

ghazayel 3y ago
Same, the search feature is the major added value to Google Photos
storageiscool 3y ago
I was quite impressed by Immich’s ML and search features. They generate embeddings from your pictures and search works across them so you can do things like search for objects in the picture. It also has map+time features. I’d give it a try if you haven’t already. It’s under active development atm

beardyw 3y ago

> I Ditched Google Photos You don't give the reasons why. Having off-site backup is always wise. I keep my original photos at home.

storageiscool 3y ago
Ownership of data and monthly recurring costs. You’re right about the offsite backup. I follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy and upload to AWS Glacier cold storage as my offsite. It’s cheap and I can switch/turn it off if costs change. My NAS remains as the hot storage.

Raed667 3y ago

My only problem with Google Photos is that I can't back it up to my NAS the same way I can easily do with Google Drive. Currently the only option is to request a Google Takeout every couple of months and manually copy the ZIP to the NAS which is a pain.

sacrosanct 3y ago

I'm sufficiently paranoid that I don't connect multi-terabyte photo storage to the cloud