HOW TO FIX YOUR GOOGLE PHOTOS STORAGE PROBLEM: th-cam.com/video/R_f1em_7mjU/w-d-xo.html HOW TO FIX GOOGLE PHOTOS STORAGE PROBLEM FOREVER with these tips: th-cam.com/video/P61Su8sa_2c/w-d-xo.html HOW TO OPEN GOOGLE PHOTOS: photos.google.com HOW TO OPEN GOOGLE TAKEOUT: takeout.google.com If this video helps, LEAVE A COMMENT below to say hi - I'd love to hear from you. You can also help me by clicking THUMBS UP or get to 10,000 subscribers CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL thanks! youtube.com/@neilmossey?sub_confirmation=1
Hi I may have lost some film and photos.. in the download. Using a Chromebook and a notification comes up unconfirmed download not supported, Have I lost all the ones that state this?
Thank you! I wasted hours trying to download 500 pics at a time from Google! This method was so quick and easy. I downloaded 1 year at a time onto my external hard-drive. You saved my mental sanity!
I have a feeling its not wanting to deal with the massive amount of bandwidth necessary to handle many people downloading all files at the the same time.
Brilliant video. I went to copy photos from my Pixel 7 to my computer and found they weren't there. I had been looking at them and didn't realise they were uploaded and not physically on my phone. Downloaded straight away....thanks for a great video.
Thanks for the kind comment Sarah. The Google Takeout does strip the photos of metadata (like time and date) though Another way to do it is to put the photos you want into an album and download that album - it's a bit longer but all the information is downloaded. Good luck with your Google Photos!
Thank you for the informative video! I used to work in the tech industry, and it's literally beside me how simple tasks such as downloading your photos can be so difficult. Great video and thank you for the help.
Good one Neil !!! So many TH-camrs try to explain TakeOut & they drone-on for so long BUT your TH-cam is clear and specific on how to do it in one short video.
This is just what I didn't know I needed!! I was downloading all of my photos and videos the first way you showed and it took so long. Can't wait to try this more efficient way of downloading everything to an external hard drive. Thank you!
Mate! A thousand thanks! This has been popping up recently, and frankly I didn't even know google was backing up ALL my photos and videos! Of course, Google websites are completely USELESS in solving this issue- and you did in only a couple of minutes! I owe you a serious pint! 💪😅🍻
That's really great to hear David, thanks for taking the time to leave this kind comment. It does strip the metadata from the photo files, so the other way to do it is to put everything you want into an album and download the album, but that takes ages. Good luck with your Google Storage and thanks again!
Thanks-you so much. I was stressing clicking each individual photo, just for it to unselect and having to start over again. This video has definitely been absolutely amazing. Very grateful, thank-you very much.
Heyy amazing video!! Really needed this it helped alot tho i have a question suppose the storage is full and we arent recieveibg mails we ll still get thir right???
Hi thanks for the kind question - yes the download still works if you are maxed out on storage, and it's what I used before I started deleting stuff on my Google Drive. Hope this helps and good luck.
Great tutorial thanks! Especially nice that you took the time to have visuals to correspond with your instructions. So many people get to: "What hamburger icon??" 👍
I like how concise your instruction was, however, I believe you skipped a step at the end. When you click on the download from your email it will be sent in a zip file. You need to tell them they need to right click on that file and EXTRACT ALL for each one!
Hey Neil I really enjoy your You tube lessons - so very helpful. Enjoy the way you present - you are a very funny guy. Thanks for all the hot tips. Kind regards from Al Down Under.
I downloaded to my macbook backup LACIE but on the top right of my Macbook it states in red, "Permissions required" so it didn't download to Lacie. In chrome download history "failed - insufficient permissions" . How do I proceed? I am so happy to have found your TH-cam Neil . Thank You!
Hi Neil. Where were u 3 weeks ago . 😢 I sadly came to a conclusion i wasnt going to win and subscibed. This is after i tried downloading pictures to a picture keeper but idk were to find majority of photo s. I lost several phones 1 thing google did was stored them in the cloud anyway. I didnt know thought they were lost but now i see them all. Im not sure how this will work out now that my pics are held hostage. Lol but im going to try and i will let u know. Also my concerns are after i do so will i be able to cancel???. I guess time will tell. Im super impressed thou and glad that i did accidently find you. I am subscibed to you with 2 thumbs up.
Hi Monica Thanks for the kind comment and great question: This downloads only and leaves everything in place. So it's great as a safety backup for photos and videos. It's safe to use! Hope this helps. Good luck with your storage and thanks again.
Hi Cleo - thanks for the kind question. Google Drive strips out all of the metadata - all the extra information attached to a photo file - and puts it into the .json file of the same name. I don't use these, but some people use them. Hope this helps!
Very well paced video. Straight to the point. Humour actually made me chuckle out loud. Tell the little one she can have her dinner now because I have liked, subscribed and commented. :) God Bless You and your Family. Peace be with you.
Thanks for the kind question Noa - not long - certainly not more than a few hours. But I found that the download was ready before the email is sent. Try going back to the Google Takeout page and it will tell you if it is ready - right at the top it shows the Exports being prepared. Hope this helps!
Nice i automatically follow this channel. If i deleted the photos from GP. Is it deleting my photos on phone? Can i specify which photo , based on date to backup to GP?
Hi thanks for the kind question. Yes, if you delete photos from Google Photos, the app is set up to remove them from your phone. So please make sure they are backed up to somewhere else, like a hard drive, external drive, or memory stick. And unfortunately no, we do not seem to be allowed to set the date that the backup starts from: Google Photos seems to only backup everything on our phones. So, I backed up my pictures and deleted them from my phone when starting a new Google Photos account. Hope this helps - good luck with your storage!
URGENT PLEASE. I've just read all your other comments, and now I see that I will loose the meta date, this is important that I keep it, so please let me know if it's ok to cancel these zip files/packages, that I won't loose the google photos. thanks in anticipation. great vids too. thanks
Hi Adrienne, thanks for the kind question. Ordering a download won't harm your original files in the Google cloud, they're just prepared for download and when downloaded the files remain on google's servers. The only way I can see to download the photos with metadata attached is to put all your photos into one very big album, or big albums and click download on the album. Hope this helps
Thanks a bunch. I am 28 years young and I take a TON of photographs. I am that guy when I ask someone to take a photo or I am taking the photo - I take a TON to make sure there's at least 1 good one. I never really delete the extras though lol. Besides that point, am I the only one who is scared to start to try and delete duplicates / delete junk or organize photos taken? My actual; question is what is the best way to deal with this type of situation?
Good tips, Neil! Surprising (frustrating?) this isn't part of the app. Oh and your videos are cool, but maybe you could tone down the glass breaking and bell ringing sound effects! 😛
If this works as you've shown ... THANK-YOU. it's currently creating the export and we shall see. It was driving me crazy. Cheers and again ... Thank-you!!!😊
Thanks for the kind comment Lisa, really appreciate it. Let me know if you hit any problems. It does strip out the metadata from the photos into separate files. If you'd prefer them combined, go into Google Photos and put all the photos/videos you want into massive albums and download the album. Good luck!
This is an AMAZINGLY helpful and easy to follow video! This looks the most promising of everything I have researched. Quick question - can this be used to simply make a copy of all Google Photos or will they automatically be removed/deleted from Google Folders after the export? In other words, I don't necessarily want them gone from Google Photos quite yet, I just want a copy for backup. Asking BEFORE I try! :)
Just started the export process it says it could take hours to days to complete. I hope it takes under 1 hour. Thank you for the fun to the point video. Under 10 minutes for just under 5gn of data. Not bad.
Hello, have you already tried it? I am considering to upgrade my Google One Sub from 200GB to 2TB but don ´t know if I will still be able to save all of the pictures after upgrading it. Sorry for my English and greetings from Europe!
Hey Neil, Do you know if it is possible to download the photos directly to an external hard drive? Or must one download them to your computer first? My computer storage is full also, so that is why i'm asking. Thanks!
Hi Neil, thanks so much for your video with clear instructions and for sharing the website. Just wondering if you can shed some light on my circumstance, I received the email up to 35 minutes after requesting the photos and vids via the 10GB option then it said mine is 31.02GB but, my storage is 15GB on my Google account, I went through this process on my laptop so I'm unsure why it has so much over, I have over 30GBs of photos and vids on my phone that backs up to Google but, I'm unsure if it was trying to transfer excess but, my Google account isn't over 15GB so I'm puzzled. Can you clarify what's going on here? I thought I'd try download them all at once and it crashed and failed to download, so I'll try download it by having it at the default 2GB as recommended then try download them 1 at a time to be more manageable for the system. Also, just a question, when you download the content, it has the download date, but, does it still have the original date photos and videos were taken in the properties of the image? I hope so...
Hi Hautai Thanks for the kind comment and questions. The total download might be over 15GB if the photos and videos are stored at Storage Saver quality - happily the download gives us the photos and videos at Original quality - so this might explain the difference? Downloading 15x 2GB doesn't sound like fun though - hope you're able to download in larger chunks. Also - I should have mentioned this in the video, but the downloads separate the metadata in the properties into separate files. I don't know why because it's really unhelpful. If you want to download and keep the properties in the file, we have to download them directly from the Google Photos site. One way to do this a bit more quickly is to put the photos into albums and download the album one album at a time. I hear this keeps the properties intact. Hope this helps and good luck with your downloads!
Hi Edythe Thanks for the kind comment and question - yes, if you download, it's just a download of a copy and doesn't affect any pictures or videos in the app or in Google Drive... They all stay in place. Hope this helps!
Hi Neil, thanks for the video. Is it possible to also extract the date and time of the photos? Unfortunately this information got lost during the download. Thanks for your support!
The only problem with this method is I have like 5 million folders all fragmented, when all I wanted was a flat single folder with all my photos, any ideas?
Tysm! But question, when doing this, does it restore the date/time the picture had when it was in google photos? For example, i have a picture from 2019 in Google photos. I want to download that to my gallery while also keeping that time and date.
Hi thanks for the kind question - forgive me, I think Google strips out the data using this method. If you want to keep the data with the picture file, it's best to download the picture individually from Google Photos. Hope this helps.
Hi, thanks for your video, I have deleted my Google photos accidentally which is more than 10 GB but I couldn't find them in the trash, so could you please guide me how to restore and recover the photos and videos. Your help is highly appreciated. Regards
Hi thanks for the kind question and forgive me I've only seen this message. Have you tried going to takeout.google.com and downloading everything they store under the 'photos' section. They might still be in there, I hope this helps.
This is a nice way to download all the photos. But it frustrates me that you don't get back the date of the time you took the photo. Behind every photo you download is the time and date of the download. ...today at 8:45 for example. do you know a solution for this.
Hi thanks for the kind question - I'm so sorry to hear this. My photos are originally named by the phone with the date and time so I didn't notice this but can see that on mine it has all the metadata - phone, dimensions and even focal length - but not the date and time data. All of this information seems to be in the .json file which has the same file name and the .json suffix. I don't know how to reunify the json data with the photo or video file I'm afraid, so the data is there but frustratingly not in the original picture file. I really hope you find a workaround for this and sorry I can't be of more help. Thanks again.
Thank you for this input. I haven't tried it yet, but will shortly. Like you, I am out of space with Google, and refuse to pay for more. I want to download about half of my photos which go back many years. I would like to put them on a portable hard drive and run slide shows of them all. Is this possible? Can they go directly to the hard drive instead of a computer? Would they have to be extracted from zip form before a slide show would run? Also, I don't need all of the meta data, is there a way to avoid it?
Hi Sharon Thanks for your kind message and question. It is possible to do this, but I think it's only possible to download everything first and then choose what you need for the slide shows. My download of everything was quite manageable, and yes you can choose to download directly to the hard drive or memory stick. Once it is downloaded, just right click on the download to select 'unzip' which creates the new unzipped folder and you can then delete the original downloaded zipped folder. The metadata will be in separate folders - the file size of those is tiny and can just be deleted - just delete everything except your folder of photos & videos. Hope I've understood the question correctly and not suggesting things you already know. Thanks again and good luck!
@@neilmossey Oh my Gosh!! Thank you so much. I really didn't expect a reply, but one can always hope!! I'm printing out your reply, so I can have a quick and easy record of your advice. You've been a tremendous help. Thank you again!
sir !!! nice , pls guide what to do further , i have down load all photo so what next step ? as after down load still space not arranged , do i need to delete from gmail ? after down load to lap top ?
Hi @Neilmossey Thanks for making this video. This may be a silly question, and I don't see that anyone else in the comments has asked it, but when I followed your method, Google seems to have separated all my photos and saved them in a bunch of separate takeout folders, so I have multiple folders with the same name, but each folder contains different files, some .jpg and some .json. Is there an easy way to determine that all my photos have been exported, without me manually having to go through every single folder?
Thank you. Just found your video and now waiting for photos to download. Have selected 10gb as suggested but what happens if photos are more than 10gb. Do I get a notification of what is left and not downloaded?
Hi Sheila thanks for the kind message - You've probably seen this already but the 10GB only refers to the size of the download chunks - so you should be able to download everything. Hope this helps and good luck with your storage!
Thank you. Yes I realised that and it was a great tip. I'm still left with the photos on the drive though even though I've downloaded so now have to try and delete them which is proving an issue
Hi @darkoak-varnish6404 really appreciate the kind question. Yes! It's what I used to backup before removing things to bring it back down under 15GB Hope this helps! You can download by album as well, so you could put everything into a single album and download that. Hope this helps and good luck with your storage!
Hi thanks for the kind question - the smaller size zip means that you'll get the same files downloaded, but in more folders - the zip is the size of the chunks to download the same data. Hope this makes sense. Good luck with your download!
thanks for the information. I have downloaded the zipped files, but after unzipping, many files are in .json format and not viewable. Is there any way to open them?
Hi @CarrotAuntie - thanks for the kind question - I believe the .json files contain the metadata for each photo and video. If you right click on the file name, and choose the "Open with" option, then open using your web browser, so something like Chrome or Safari. Hope this helps!
HI Neil ,great videos i have a problem hoping you can help ..on my google photo there is a red tear drop symbol how do i get rid of it ,thanks john Perth
Hi John Thanks for the kind question - I'm so sorry I've not seen or heard of this before. Might it be the 'edit red eye' feature. I don't have this feature, but if you google: google photos help red tear drop there seems to be some help articles about it. Good luck with your storage and thanks again
Hi Harshada - I've got you covered! Follow the steps in this playlist - if it's Google Photos try the photos video, if it's Gmail follow the Gmail video. th-cam.com/video/5G_N4AnLMiM/w-d-xo.html Good luck with your storage and thanks for your kind question.
This was super helpful but most of my images downloaded as either .json or .jpg.json files and none of them can be opened. Does anyone know why this is? Im afraid to delete everything from google photos before I know I have all my pics.
do you know if doing this it saves the meta data from google photos to the hdd/sdd you transfer it to? also, does this method allow for the LIVE photos to be saved as live phots to the hdd/sdd its being transferred to?
Hi Krystal Thanks for the kind question - sadly it downloads the metadata separately as json files which is useless. The only way I've found to keep the metatdata is to manually put all photos into one album and download the album, or download manually day by day. I think this is why I backup my phone to my hard drive each year! Plus I have not heard of live photos, I need to check those out! Forgive me for not being more helpful and thanks again
Hi Neil, quick question, I did all this and now trying to open photos and videos on my computer, some files are JSON and Windows media player files that I can't open.... What can I do to open them?
@@himi8788 hi thanks for the kind question-- the .Json files are the metadata for the photos - if you need the metadata to stay with the picture file, mass download them as folders - put the pictures into one big folder and download that folder. For the videos - sorry about this, it seems that Google has given the videos a dumb format now- I convert them by uploading to TH-cam then downloading from TH-cam Studio, but there are easier walkthroughs online for converting them Hope this helps!
HOW TO FIX YOUR GOOGLE PHOTOS STORAGE PROBLEM:
th-cam.com/video/R_f1em_7mjU/w-d-xo.html
HOW TO FIX GOOGLE PHOTOS STORAGE PROBLEM FOREVER with these tips:
th-cam.com/video/P61Su8sa_2c/w-d-xo.html
HOW TO OPEN GOOGLE PHOTOS:
photos.google.com
HOW TO OPEN GOOGLE TAKEOUT:
takeout.google.com
If this video helps, LEAVE A COMMENT below to say hi - I'd love to hear from you.
You can also help me by clicking THUMBS UP or get to 10,000 subscribers
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL thanks!
youtube.com/@neilmossey?sub_confirmation=1
Hi I may have lost some film and photos.. in the download. Using a Chromebook and a notification comes up unconfirmed download not supported, Have I lost all the ones that state this?
Hi Neil, I only get json files
WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I WISH YOU TO BE BLESSED FOR THIS TIMELY HELP
How did this help you? I did what he said and I can't move my photos.
Files are all over the place? one folder might have only2 or 3 pictures I dnt like this method at all😭😭
Thank you! I wasted hours trying to download 500 pics at a time from Google! This method was so quick and easy. I downloaded 1 year at a time onto my external hard-drive. You saved my mental sanity!
Well maybe I spoke too hastily! How do I open the images I downloaded?
I searched for an hour before your video explained it in 3 minutes. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind comment, I appreciate it
Ni jilione mbithi
Why won't they include a "select all" option within Google Photos? Guess that would make things too easy.
Very true thanks.
Because they want you to pay for more storage 🤔
I have a feeling its not wanting to deal with the massive amount of bandwidth necessary to handle many people downloading all files at the the same time.
they removed that feature
This is frustrating. I have over 1k photos in Google photos. I have to manually click on each pic. It's ridiculous
Brilliant video. I went to copy photos from my Pixel 7 to my computer and found they weren't there. I had been looking at them and didn't realise they were uploaded and not physically on my phone. Downloaded straight away....thanks for a great video.
I was downloading photos the dumb way by selecting individually 🤣. Thank you, you have saved me so much time and effort!
Thanks for the kind comment Sarah.
The Google Takeout does strip the photos of metadata (like time and date) though
Another way to do it is to put the photos you want into an album and download that album - it's a bit longer but all the information is downloaded.
Good luck with your Google Photos!
This was a sanity saver as I was staring at 15GB of photos needing to be moved. Very easy to follow, thank you!
Thank you for the informative video! I used to work in the tech industry, and it's literally beside me how simple tasks such as downloading your photos can be so difficult. Great video and thank you for the help.
Good one Neil !!! So many TH-camrs try to explain TakeOut & they drone-on for so long BUT your TH-cam is clear and specific on how to do it in one short video.
Thanks for the kind comment Ray, I really appreciate it. Good luck with your storage!
This is just what I didn't know I needed!! I was downloading all of my photos and videos the first way you showed and it took so long. Can't wait to try this more efficient way of downloading everything to an external hard drive. Thank you!
Mate! A thousand thanks! This has been popping up recently, and frankly I didn't even know google was backing up ALL my photos and videos! Of course, Google websites are completely USELESS in solving this issue- and you did in only a couple of minutes! I owe you a serious pint! 💪😅🍻
That's really great to hear David, thanks for taking the time to leave this kind comment.
It does strip the metadata from the photo files, so the other way to do it is to put everything you want into an album and download the album, but that takes ages. Good luck with your Google Storage and thanks again!
I don't know why they can't explain this or have a link in Google photos?! Well I do... so they can make more money.
Thanks for this!
Thanks for the kind comment Sam, good luck with your storage!
Thanks-you so much. I was stressing clicking each individual photo, just for it to unselect and having to start over again. This video has definitely been absolutely amazing. Very grateful, thank-you very much.
Thanks for taking the time to leave such a kind comment, I appreciate it. Good luck with your downloading!
Thanks for the video. Quick question though are the downloads ordered from earliest picture to latest, vice verse, or just randomly?
Hi thanks I don't know - for me they're ordered by file name.. Sorry I can't help more and thanks again for the kind question
The problem you mentioned at the begin of the video with the 15 gb was exactly the problem I had. Thanks for this tutorial it helped a lot!
Thanks for the kind comment @funnyattacks2748 - really appreciate it.
And good luck with your Google Storage!
Heyy amazing video!! Really needed this it helped alot tho i have a question suppose the storage is full and we arent recieveibg mails we ll still get thir right???
Hi thanks for the kind question - yes the download still works if you are maxed out on storage, and it's what I used before I started deleting stuff on my Google Drive.
Hope this helps and good luck.
Thanks Neil, you are a diamond! How come Google kept this little gem so quiet? Sure as hell saves a lot of time. Good job.
Wow. WOW. WOW. WOW. The things we don't know until explain. Thanks a million. So easy!! Liked and subscribed. Wow.
THANK YOU! Can you show us how to piece together photos/albums when multiple 2G archives have been created?
Sir, you are a savior I didn't I needed. God bless you and all your silly train photos🙏🏾🙏🏾
Great tutorial thanks! Especially nice that you took the time to have visuals to correspond with your instructions. So many people get to: "What hamburger icon??" 👍
I like how concise your instruction was, however, I believe you skipped a step at the end. When you click on the download from your email it will be sent in a zip file. You need to tell them they need to right click on that file and EXTRACT ALL for each one!
Thanks for the kind comment Cheri, appreciate it!
@@neilmosseyShe said right click. I'm using my android cell phone. Not possible
@user-px7dl6zf4t.----You are correct! They saved to my phone as a Zip File. I clicked on it and had the option to extract them. Thank you!
Firstly, you're the BEST. secondly, how long is this going to take ? strated and still waiting...........
Hi @ortaly992 Thanks for the kind message -- hopefully it wasn't too long before it was ready
Hey Neil I really enjoy your You tube lessons - so very helpful. Enjoy the way you present - you are a very funny guy. Thanks for all the hot tips. Kind regards from Al Down Under.
Thanks for the very kind comment Al, I really appreciate it - helps me keep going with these videos
I downloaded to my macbook backup LACIE but on the top right of my Macbook it states in red, "Permissions required" so it didn't download to Lacie. In chrome download history "failed - insufficient permissions" . How do I proceed? I am so happy to have found your TH-cam Neil . Thank You!
Hi Neil. Where were u 3 weeks ago . 😢 I sadly came to a conclusion i wasnt going to win and subscibed. This is after i tried downloading pictures to a picture keeper but idk were to find majority of photo s. I lost several phones 1 thing google did was stored them in the cloud anyway. I didnt know thought they were lost but now i see them all. Im not sure how this will work out now that my pics are held hostage. Lol but im going to try and i will let u know. Also my concerns are after i do so will i be able to cancel???. I guess time will tell. Im super impressed thou and glad that i did accidently find you. I am subscibed to you with 2 thumbs up.
Great tip! Will this download only or will the photos get deleted automatically from Google photos?
Hi Monica
Thanks for the kind comment and great question:
This downloads only and leaves everything in place. So it's great as a safety backup for photos and videos.
It's safe to use!
Hope this helps.
Good luck with your storage and thanks again.
This video is by far the most needed ones and awesome explanation!!!
Thanks man, been at it for days trying to get all my pics! Now a couple of clicks and i will have them all!
Thanks for this. Please explain the .json files it creates and what do do with them once I download my photos to my computer's hard drive.
Hi Cleo - thanks for the kind question.
Google Drive strips out all of the metadata - all the extra information attached to a photo file - and puts it into the .json file of the same name. I don't use these, but some people use them.
Hope this helps!
Very well paced video. Straight to the point. Humour actually made me chuckle out loud. Tell the little one she can have her dinner now because I have liked, subscribed and commented. :) God Bless You and your Family. Peace be with you.
Wowww such a helpful video!! I'm trying to get this!! But I don't get the email right away.. How long do I have to wait?
Thanks for the kind question Noa - not long - certainly not more than a few hours.
But I found that the download was ready before the email is sent.
Try going back to the Google Takeout page and it will tell you if it is ready - right at the top it shows the Exports being prepared.
Hope this helps!
Nice i automatically follow this channel.
If i deleted the photos from GP. Is it deleting my photos on phone?
Can i specify which photo , based on date to backup to GP?
Hi thanks for the kind question.
Yes, if you delete photos from Google Photos, the app is set up to remove them from your phone. So please make sure they are backed up to somewhere else, like a hard drive, external drive, or memory stick.
And unfortunately no, we do not seem to be allowed to set the date that the backup starts from: Google Photos seems to only backup everything on our phones.
So, I backed up my pictures and deleted them from my phone when starting a new Google Photos account.
Hope this helps - good luck with your storage!
Thanks a lot! Spent a few hours to find it out and then found this video. 😊
URGENT PLEASE. I've just read all your other comments, and now I see that I will loose the meta date, this is important that I keep it, so please let me know if it's ok to cancel these zip files/packages, that I won't loose the google photos. thanks in anticipation. great vids too. thanks
Hi Adrienne, thanks for the kind question. Ordering a download won't harm your original files in the Google cloud, they're just prepared for download and when downloaded the files remain on google's servers.
The only way I can see to download the photos with metadata attached is to put all your photos into one very big album, or big albums and click download on the album. Hope this helps
Thanks a bunch. I am 28 years young and I take a TON of photographs. I am that guy when I ask someone to take a photo or I am taking the photo - I take a TON to make sure there's at least 1 good one. I never really delete the extras though lol. Besides that point, am I the only one who is scared to start to try and delete duplicates / delete junk or organize photos taken? My actual; question is what is the best way to deal with this type of situation?
Thanks! That was so helpful! I won't accept being forever dependent on Google storage
Good tips, Neil! Surprising (frustrating?) this isn't part of the app.
Oh and your videos are cool, but maybe you could tone down the glass breaking and bell ringing sound effects! 😛
Thanks for the kind comment @Matdob7677, I appreciate it
So thanks for this video. I could not find a way to do this all at once. Its easy and simple. Once again thanks you so much😊
Thanks for the kind comment -- good luck with your storage!
How did you manage to fix my life in less then 5 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much. You speak very clear, simple and informative. Thank you again
Thanks for the kind comment - I appreciate it
If this works as you've shown ... THANK-YOU. it's currently creating the export and we shall see. It was driving me crazy. Cheers and again ... Thank-you!!!😊
Thanks for the kind comment Lisa, really appreciate it.
Let me know if you hit any problems.
It does strip out the metadata from the photos into separate files.
If you'd prefer them combined, go into Google Photos and put all the photos/videos you want into massive albums and download the album.
Good luck!
This is an AMAZINGLY helpful and easy to follow video! This looks the most promising of everything I have researched. Quick question - can this be used to simply make a copy of all Google Photos or will they automatically be removed/deleted from Google Folders after the export? In other words, I don't necessarily want them gone from Google Photos quite yet, I just want a copy for backup. Asking BEFORE I try! :)
Disregard! Right at the top of "Takeout" it said use the export to make a copy. Worked like a charm! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
youre an absolute lifesaver!!!!! thank you for making this!!! saved me HOOOOUUUURRRSSSS of potential clicking
Thank you, this was a big help. You saved me hours of downloading.
Hey Neil! How bloody marvellous to find you! Fiona Jennison x
Hahahaha! HI FIONA! What a brilliant comment! Get in touch if you need any help!! ! ! !
Just started the export process it says it could take hours to days to complete. I hope it takes under 1 hour. Thank you for the fun to the point video.
Under 10 minutes for just under 5gn of data. Not bad.
That's great it took 10 minutes, thanks for the kind comment
Me watching this nearing the end of my 2TB storage 😬
Thanks for the kind comment - fingers crossed...
Good luck with your Google storage!
Hello, have you already tried it? I am considering to upgrade my Google One Sub from 200GB to 2TB but don ´t know if I will still be able to save all of the pictures after upgrading it. Sorry for my English and greetings from Europe!
I tried it, but I have downloaded photos along with copy of each photo. Now I cant delete that copy. How can that be sorted out?
nice video. what about gmail storage or storage full alert message? it is automatically moved? or we try to deleted after backup?
Thanks for the kind question.
With Gmail, make sure you empty your trash/bin folder to make sure the memory is freed.
Good luck with your Gmail!
Does this work for videos too?
What about photos that have not been classified into albums? Are they exported as well?
Thanks for the kind question - for me, it exports everything, all photos and videos. Hope this helps!
Hey Neil, Do you know if it is possible to download the photos directly to an external hard drive? Or must one download them to your computer first? My computer storage is full also, so that is why i'm asking. Thanks!
We followed your instructions and they were great! We downloaded the first 10gb but now we cannot figure out how to get the last 5gb.can you help?
Hi Neil,
thanks so much for your video with clear instructions and for sharing the website.
Just wondering if you can shed some light on my circumstance, I received the email up to 35 minutes after requesting the photos and vids via the 10GB option then it said mine is 31.02GB but, my storage is 15GB on my Google account, I went through this process on my laptop so I'm unsure why it has so much over, I have over 30GBs of photos and vids on my phone that backs up to Google but, I'm unsure if it was trying to transfer excess but, my Google account isn't over 15GB so I'm puzzled. Can you clarify what's going on here?
I thought I'd try download them all at once and it crashed and failed to download, so I'll try download it by having it at the default 2GB as recommended then try download them 1 at a time to be more manageable for the system.
Also, just a question, when you download the content, it has the download date, but, does it still have the original date photos and videos were taken in the properties of the image? I hope so...
Hi Hautai
Thanks for the kind comment and questions.
The total download might be over 15GB if the photos and videos are stored at Storage Saver quality - happily the download gives us the photos and videos at Original quality - so this might explain the difference?
Downloading 15x 2GB doesn't sound like fun though - hope you're able to download in larger chunks.
Also - I should have mentioned this in the video, but the downloads separate the metadata in the properties into separate files. I don't know why because it's really unhelpful.
If you want to download and keep the properties in the file, we have to download them directly from the Google Photos site.
One way to do this a bit more quickly is to put the photos into albums and download the album one album at a time. I hear this keeps the properties intact.
Hope this helps and good luck with your downloads!
Thank you very much Neil for the clarity re: my circumstance & for the further tip re: downloading to keep the property data.
Thank you so much neil :). Words can't describe how grateful I am of this video. Thanks again.
amazing! are they still on the photos app as well until you delete them? cos this is just a copy right?
Hi Edythe
Thanks for the kind comment and question - yes, if you download, it's just a download of a copy and doesn't affect any pictures or videos in the app or in Google Drive... They all stay in place.
Hope this helps!
Hey neil please help me...... So will i receive that email of exported file in the same gmail account whose storage is full?
Hi Neil, thanks for the video. Is it possible to also extract the date and time of the photos? Unfortunately this information got lost during the download. Thanks for your support!
The only problem with this method is I have like 5 million folders all fragmented, when all I wanted was a flat single folder with all my photos, any ideas?
Tysm! But question, when doing this, does it restore the date/time the picture had when it was in google photos? For example, i have a picture from 2019 in Google photos. I want to download that to my gallery while also keeping that time and date.
Hi thanks for the kind question - forgive me, I think Google strips out the data using this method. If you want to keep the data with the picture file, it's best to download the picture individually from Google Photos. Hope this helps.
Followed all the steps with you,export is in process......
How long doesnt take usually?
Brilliant, succinct and educational. Thank you a bunch Neil.
Hi, thanks for your video, I have deleted my Google photos accidentally which is more than 10 GB but I couldn't find them in the trash, so could you please guide me how to restore and recover the photos and videos.
Your help is highly appreciated.
Regards
Hi thanks for the kind question and forgive me I've only seen this message.
Have you tried going to takeout.google.com and downloading everything they store under the 'photos' section. They might still be in there, I hope this helps.
That was so helpful thank you su much
Thanks for the kind message Ali, really appreciate it!
you are a Genius!! you have save my day thankyou!
Thanks for the kind comment Donna - really pleased something here might help!
Thanks for this great explanation and very helpful
Maybe it's the best and most deserved like and subscribe I've ever done
Is it possible to do this on my iPhone ? I don’t want the pics on my laptop!
Actually very good explanation. Thumbs up for sure!
Many thanks!
OMGOSH!!!!! You are absolutely amazing!!!! Thank you again!!! I had no idea!!!!
Thanks for the kind comment
i am definetly subscribing and liking your video, even if I do not like your british accent :)
Thanks for the kind comment
It's the accent of evil villains in movies
This is a nice way to download all the photos. But it frustrates me that you don't get back the date of the time you took the photo. Behind every photo you download is the time and date of the download. ...today at 8:45 for example.
do you know a solution for this.
Hi thanks for the kind question - I'm so sorry to hear this.
My photos are originally named by the phone with the date and time so I didn't notice this but can see that on mine it has all the metadata - phone, dimensions and even focal length - but not the date and time data.
All of this information seems to be in the .json file which has the same file name and the .json suffix. I don't know how to reunify the json data with the photo or video file I'm afraid, so the data is there but frustratingly not in the original picture file. I really hope you find a workaround for this and sorry I can't be of more help.
Thanks again.
Thanks, I haven't done this in a while and this helped a lot. Subscribed :)
Thank you for this input. I haven't tried it yet, but will shortly. Like you, I am out of space with Google, and refuse to pay for more. I want to download about half of my photos which go back many years. I would like to put them on a portable hard drive and run slide shows of them all. Is this possible? Can they go directly to the hard drive instead of a computer? Would they have to be extracted from zip form before a slide show would run? Also, I don't need all of the meta data, is there a way to avoid it?
Hi Sharon
Thanks for your kind message and question.
It is possible to do this, but I think it's only possible to download everything first and then choose what you need for the slide shows.
My download of everything was quite manageable, and yes you can choose to download directly to the hard drive or memory stick.
Once it is downloaded, just right click on the download to select 'unzip' which creates the new unzipped folder and you can then delete the original downloaded zipped folder.
The metadata will be in separate folders - the file size of those is tiny and can just be deleted - just delete everything except your folder of photos & videos.
Hope I've understood the question correctly and not suggesting things you already know.
Thanks again and good luck!
@@neilmossey Oh my Gosh!! Thank you so much. I really didn't expect a reply, but one can always hope!! I'm printing out your reply, so I can have a quick and easy record of your advice. You've been a tremendous help. Thank you again!
@@SharonWoosley Thanks and good luck Sharon.
And nothing bad will happen by trying to download the Google Photos file from Google Takeaway, I promise!
hi thanks for video, i followed the steps if i open the file from emails on my phone will the pictures download to gallery?
many thanks
sir !!! nice , pls guide what to do further , i have down load all photo so what next step ? as after down load still space not arranged , do i need to delete from gmail ? after down load to lap top ?
This is a really well composed video tutorial! kudos to you 🥳
Thanks for taking the time to leave this kind comment, I appreciate it.
Hi @Neilmossey Thanks for making this video. This may be a silly question, and I don't see that anyone else in the comments has asked it, but when I followed your method, Google seems to have separated all my photos and saved them in a bunch of separate takeout folders, so I have multiple folders with the same name, but each folder contains different files, some .jpg and some .json. Is there an easy way to determine that all my photos have been exported, without me manually having to go through every single folder?
Thanks. Very helpful
Thanks Galadriel - good luck with your downloads!
I've successfully downloaded some. Will be doing more. thanks again.@@neilmossey
Amazing, perfectly explained, made so easy to understand, thank you 😀
Fantastic video! I wish more of TH-cam was as helpful and informative! Thank you! :)
Thanks for the kind comment Jessica, I really appreciate it.
Thank you. Just found your video and now waiting for photos to download. Have selected 10gb as suggested but what happens if photos are more than 10gb. Do I get a notification of what is left and not downloaded?
Hi Sheila thanks for the kind message - You've probably seen this already but the 10GB only refers to the size of the download chunks - so you should be able to download everything. Hope this helps and good luck with your storage!
Thank you. Yes I realised that and it was a great tip. I'm still left with the photos on the drive though even though I've downloaded so now have to try and delete them which is proving an issue
Well done, Neil. You have our gratitude.
Cheers much Neil! Very handy video
Thanks for the kind message Iñigo I appreciate it!
Does this also work if you can't receive emails cause google photos are full
Hi @darkoak-varnish6404 really appreciate the kind question.
Yes! It's what I used to backup before removing things to bring it back down under 15GB
Hope this helps!
You can download by album as well, so you could put everything into a single album and download that.
Hope this helps and good luck with your storage!
This video is just that I need! Thank you!
Thanks for the kind message Martin, I really appreciate it! Good luck with your Google Photos storage!
If you chose 10gb and have thirty gb, will you get 3 emails of 10 gb download links?
Thanks for asking Kim - yes that's exactly right.
Hope this helps and good luck with your storage!
What is the implications of downloading a smaller size zip opposed to the larger option?
Hi thanks for the kind question - the smaller size zip means that you'll get the same files downloaded, but in more folders - the zip is the size of the chunks to download the same data. Hope this makes sense. Good luck with your download!
@@neilmossey thanks 💕
thanks for the information. I have downloaded the zipped files, but after unzipping, many files are in .json format and not viewable. Is there any way to open them?
Hi @CarrotAuntie - thanks for the kind question - I believe the .json files contain the metadata for each photo and video.
If you right click on the file name, and choose the "Open with" option, then open using your web browser, so something like Chrome or Safari.
Hope this helps!
HI Neil ,great videos i have a problem hoping you can help ..on my google photo there is a red tear drop symbol how do i get rid of it ,thanks john Perth
Hi John
Thanks for the kind question - I'm so sorry I've not seen or heard of this before.
Might it be the 'edit red eye' feature. I don't have this feature, but if you google: google photos help red tear drop
there seems to be some help articles about it. Good luck with your storage and thanks again
This was so useful, thank you! Of course Google doesn't suggest that when your Google Photos gets full...Just "Get more storage". Ugh.
Heyy , due to full storage I am not receiving any mail...so what can I do ?
Hi Harshada - I've got you covered!
Follow the steps in this playlist - if it's Google Photos try the photos video, if it's Gmail follow the Gmail video. th-cam.com/video/5G_N4AnLMiM/w-d-xo.html
Good luck with your storage and thanks for your kind question.
@@neilmossey Thankyou so much buddy 😊🤩
This was super helpful but most of my images downloaded as either .json or .jpg.json files and none of them can be opened. Does anyone know why this is? Im afraid to delete everything from google photos before I know I have all my pics.
Thanks a lot! exactly what i was searching for! - let's see, if i get out everything correctly (including EXIM/Location Data :))
do you know if doing this it saves the meta data from google photos to the hdd/sdd you transfer it to? also, does this method allow for the LIVE photos to be saved as live phots to the hdd/sdd its being transferred to?
Hi Krystal
Thanks for the kind question - sadly it downloads the metadata separately as json files which is useless.
The only way I've found to keep the metatdata is to manually put all photos into one album and download the album, or download manually day by day. I think this is why I backup my phone to my hard drive each year!
Plus I have not heard of live photos, I need to check those out!
Forgive me for not being more helpful and thanks again
This was soooo helpful. Thank you so much!
Thank you for fixing storages problems.
Thanks for the kind message Kedir, I appreciate it and pleased that this might help.
Hi Neil, quick question, I did all this and now trying to open photos and videos on my computer, some files are JSON and Windows media player files that I can't open.... What can I do to open them?
@@himi8788 hi thanks for the kind question-- the .Json files are the metadata for the photos - if you need the metadata to stay with the picture file, mass download them as folders - put the pictures into one big folder and download that folder.
For the videos - sorry about this, it seems that Google has given the videos a dumb format now- I convert them by uploading to TH-cam then downloading from TH-cam Studio, but there are easier walkthroughs online for converting them
Hope this helps!