GOOGLE PHOTOS TAKEOUT METADATA ZIP

A given folder name may exist in multiple zip files each with a subset of the total set of files in that folder. In other words the files in any particular folder may have been spread across several zip files. This means many folders have been duplicated across the zip files. However the files are organized to fill up two GB files efficiently. Troubles Using FinderĪt first I assumed that I simply needed to unzip the files and move them to a common folder.

GOOGLE PHOTOS TAKEOUT METADATA ZIP FILE

Takeout limits each zip file to two GB and the files within each zip are selected based on what will fit within the limit rather than using a strictly logical organization. When I did this I wound up with 10 zip files.

GOOGLE PHOTOS TAKEOUT METADATA DOWNLOAD

After that click the Next Step button and customize the download options. After you marvel at all the data Google does keep, the easiest path is click the Deselect All option, then scroll down to Google Photos and select that. The Takeout service is found by going to the My Account page and selecting Data and Personalization -> Download Your Data. This makes it suitable for backup purposes. While the original intent of the Takeout service may have been to leave the Google-sphere, the service only creates a copy of the data. It’s generic enough to handle all of the data formats that Google has developed over the years. Goggle Takout was designed for the use case of someone who needs to get all of their stuff out of the Google Cloud. So how do I back up my collection of pictures? One way I have found is to use Google Takeout to download a set of zip files containing all of my pictures along with Google’s own metadata, fomatted as JSON files. The phone will continue to sync with Google Photos but new pictures will not make their way into Google Drive (and my Time Machine backup). My pixel 3 has no SD card so I will hit this point some day.Īfter Google stops synchronization between Google Photos and Google Drive, the pictures I keep in Google Photos will become distinct from the ones I keep in Google Drive.

If you run out of space on your phone you may have no other option but to delete a bunch of photos. If you do not back up the Google Drive like I do, you are out of luck. Some people have noted with dismay that deleting Photos on your phone can cause propagating deletes throughout the synchronized stores causing a cherished photo to disappear. This is important because the files that Google syncs to my Google Drive do not include the album folders or meta data. I have some albums in Google Photos but generally I want my photos organized by creation date. Google Photos syncs with Google Drive and Apple’s Time Machine backs up my Google Drive onto a local disk drive. The phone syncs with Google Photos in the cloud. Generally when I take photos on my Pixel 3 phone, I just let the system handle things. Regardless, it is happening and this impacts the way that I use Photos. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on specific use cases. After July 2019, Google Photos will no longer sync with Google Drive.

Google photos takeout metadata