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Tell HN: Google Photos API does not allow downloading original images

18 points by tommoor ↗ HN
Inspired by the NYTimes story[1] of the past few days of several families that were locked out of their Google accounts forever I decided to try syncing my photo library from Google Photos to S3 using rclone, but it turns out Google Photos does not support getting your original quality photos back OUT. The only way is through the manual and laborious "takeout" process.

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html

9 comments

[ 27.2 ms ] story [ 658 ms ] thread
capableweb
I have no love for Google, but Takeout is very easy. Check a checkbox, receive a tar/zip file and you have your originals. Not really a laborious process, unless they changes it last week or so.
babycake
Wait really? I can't download my original file? Is there official docs on this, I couldn't find it on google. Instead I had to find it on here:

https://www.theverge.com/22440156/google-photos-download-sav...

> Now you get to choose from a variety of different options: Whether you want your data to be emailed to you as an attachment or sent to Drive, OneNote, Dropbox, or Box;

So does this mean I'll need DOUBLE the storage space in my google cloud just to download my photos in original quality?

What kind of horrible dark pattern is this... We need to raise hell on this issue, it's so ridiculous.

capableweb
Not sure what you or Verge is talking about. You don't NEED double storage space to get your original photos.

1. Go to google.com/takeout

2. Select "Google Photos"

3. Select "Email download link" (which should be pre-selected)

4. Click "Create archive" or whatever it says

Now you just wait for the email to arrive, then click the link. No storage space needed anywhere, just click the link and download like any other HTTP transfer.

I've been doing this once every 6 months or so for years, have been the same way always. Probably the reason no one is raising hell about this is because you seem misinformed.

babycake
My confusion is that if I have 10 GB of photos in my Google Photos, that counts towards the Google cloud storage. Gmail contents also contribute to the total cloud storage. So if Google Takeout is taking my 10 GB photos and creating 10 GB zip files for download, where is it gonna store those zip files? If I sent it to my gmail, doesn't that mean I'll get 10 GB of new zip files that takes up my gmail storage space?

If I send it to my Google Drive, then those 10 GB zip files take up my drive storage space... So Google Photos + zip files... that's 20 GB. Double the storage right? And if I don't have enough space to store those zip files, then I'll have to upgrade my storage space and pay more money...?

Where is Google Takeout storing those zip files if not on my storage space?

capableweb
What you receive in your email is not email attachments with the backup, but links that starts the download. So no additional storage is being used.

Maybe they should make it clearer, but for me "Email download link" is already pretty clear.

FWIW: The download link ends up being something like https://takeout.google.com/takeout/download?j=X&i=0&user=X&r... and doesn't count to any of your storage quotas.

Raed667
I wanted to back my google photos to my NAS the same way I do with Google Drive. And according to Synology this is not possible.

Yes Google Takeout exists, but I want recurring automated backup and not links sent through email. Yes I can script my way around it, but I shouldn't have to.

znpy
If you’re an european user you can ask for a complete dump of your data according to gdpr, and if they don’t give back __your__ data (the originals) you can bring them to court.

It’s nice to be european.

steve_john
When a photo is edited in Google Photos, you can : Open the photo. Click 3-dots