Google Takeout
Our Google Takeout Guide will walk you through the step-by-step process.
- Start a Google Takeout export.
- Wait for Google to prepare your export.
- Download your export files.
- Download Google Photos Takeout Helper by The Last Gimbus
- Run Google Photos Takeout Helper.
Pros
- Free
- Google Photos Takeout Helper by The Last Gimbus is free and open-source.
Cons
- Each export file is 50gb, and can take hours to download. We had to babysit our downloads over the course of a few days.
- The export files contain duplicate data. They're many times larger than your actual photo library.
- The export files are often incomplete. In our testing, we lost date EXIF data on 20% of our library.
Quiver Photos
Follow our Quiver Photos Walkthrough to get started.
- Download the desktop application
- Sign in and connect your Google Photos library.
- Import your media item records to the Web App.
- Download and run the Desktop App
- Start the download process and keep your computer running until it can finish.
Pros
- 100% date EXIF recovery
- 100% geo location EXIF recovery
- Downloads both the JPEG and MOV files for HEIC motion photos
- Minimized bandwidth; Download each file exactly once
- Free Tier allows 1000 free downloads
Cons
- Libraries over 1000 items will require a paid subscription
- You may have to babysit the download. It's easy to restart, but it can fail.