Guide
Move from Google Photos to your own computer or NAS
Google Photos has no button to move everything. What it has is Google's own export, Takeout. AdMindra is built to receive it: one part at a time, without unpacking, with albums and dates intact.
Before you start
- A computer with AdMindra (free).
- A home for the library: the computer's drive, an external drive or a NAS.
- Free space for one export part. AdMindra suggests the size from what you have.
How to do it
- Open AdMindra and choose Import from Google Photos. AdMindra suggests a part size (1, 2, 4, 10 or 50 GB) that fits your drive.
- Go to takeout.google.com. Deselect everything and choose only Google Photos. Pick .zip and the part size AdMindra suggested.
- Download the first parts to your Downloads folder. AdMindra finds them by itself.
- Look at the preview: the number of photos, favourites, albums, captions and places. Photos in Google's trash are left out.
- Start the import. AdMindra reads straight from the zip file and verifies each photo once it has landed. Nothing is overwritten.
- Delete a finished part and download the next. AdMindra remembers which parts are done.
- Once everything is home: let Cleanup deal with the duplicates, then decide for yourself whether to keep your Google storage.
What comes with it
- The original files, in full quality.
- Dates and places from Google's JSON files.
- Albums. A photo in several albums is stored once.
- Favourites and captions.
Good to know
AdMindra never changes the export parts and never deletes anything at Google. You decide when you are done there.
Photos are stored once even when Google put the same photo both in a year folder and in an album.