Those who own a smartphone based on the Android operating system such as the Samsung Galaxy, Huawei or Xiaomi and also those who own an iPhone, are most likely using the photo backup function of the Google Photos app . As we know, this fabulous application allows you to automatically save all the photos taken from your phone so that you can keep them without limitations, free, forever. Thanks to this function, therefore, there is no longer any need to remember to download photos to your PC to free up space on your phone or to organize them into albums since Google Photos does everything automatically.
Given that the photos are stored securely online in the Google cloud and that they remain accessible from any PC or smartphone via app or website (by logging in with your Google account), you may still wonder how to download and retrieve all your personal photos saved in Google Photos . This especially if you have been using the app for several years and thousands of photographs are now online.
READ ALSO: Google Photos Cheats and special options for images and videos on smartphones and PCs
From the site you can also select photos by date by clicking the v next to the date or even download entire albums. To do this, open an album, then press the button with three dots to find the Download All option.
Keep in mind that to post one of the photos of Google Photos on Facebook or to send them via Whatsapp, simply use the Share button and the photo will be automatically downloaded before sending or sharing.
This tool can be used from a PC by opening the Google Takeout site, which allows you to download all personal data generated by Google apps and sites, including Gmail emails, address book, Blogger blogs, search histories and many others. what's this.
Once we are on the Google Takeout site, under the Products line, press on " Deselect all ", otherwise you will end up downloading not only the photos, but also all the Google data that can be really a lot. Then scroll down until you see " Google Photos " and select it with the check mark.
By clicking on " All photo albums included ", you can deselect the photo albums that you do not want to download. In this case the " albums " are intended by Google as the groupings of photos by date of acquisition and it is therefore possible, for example, to exclude from the download the older photos or those already downloaded in the past. After making the selection (or leaving everything selected to include all the photos in the download), press "OK".
After clicking "OK", scroll to the bottom of the page and press " Next step ". At this point, Google gives us the opportunity to choose some options including:
- the type of archive file that contains the data to be downloaded and can be left zip .
- the type of export, which can be a single archive or planned exports every two months for a year .
- the delivery method, which can be a download link to be received by email.
- Archive size, which allows you to choose how large the file to be downloaded should be. In this case, if you have many photos and the size of the file to be downloaded is greater than the size set here, then Google will divide the archive into two or more files that can be downloaded separately.
Once you have made your selections, click on " Create archive " and wait for the link to download all the Google Photos to be received. If the archive is divided into multiple files, you will receive multiple links to download them.
Keep in mind that the email may not arrive immediately, but also after several hours if the size of the archive to be downloaded is very large. Furthermore, the files created by Google Takeout must be downloaded within a week of receiving the email, after which the archive creation process must be repeated as seen above.
In my case, after many years of backing up your cell phone photos with thousands of photos saved in Google Photos, the size of the archive turned out to be around 25 GB. So I had to download 25 1 GB zip files, containing all the photos (having put 1 GB maximum as archive size).
The downloaded zip files must then be extracted to a folder on the computer in order to be able to browse the photos with the default program. All this download can also be done from a smartphone if you have enough memory (but it would not be a wise choice).
Once all photos have been downloaded, you can repeat this process every year by downloading only recent photos.
READ ALSO: How to create a shared and collaborative Google Photos album
Given that the photos are stored securely online in the Google cloud and that they remain accessible from any PC or smartphone via app or website (by logging in with your Google account), you may still wonder how to download and retrieve all your personal photos saved in Google Photos . This especially if you have been using the app for several years and thousands of photographs are now online.
READ ALSO: Google Photos Cheats and special options for images and videos on smartphones and PCs
Download individual photos or Google Photos albums
Download photos from the Google Photos site
First of all, you can download individual photos, albums or selected images from Google Photos using the photos.google.com website. To do this, simply select them with the mouse or by touching them and then press the button with three dots at the top right to find the Download button.From the site you can also select photos by date by clicking the v next to the date or even download entire albums. To do this, open an album, then press the button with three dots to find the Download All option.
Save the photos on your Android device or iPhone
From the Google Photos app on Android and iPhone you can only save individual photos: to do so, open one and then press the button with three dots to find the Save option on the device . This can of course only be done for photos that are no longer saved in the phone memory.Keep in mind that to post one of the photos of Google Photos on Facebook or to send them via Whatsapp, simply use the Share button and the photo will be automatically downloaded before sending or sharing.
Download all photos saved by Google Photos
If you have a lot of images in Google Photos, it is unthinkable to download all the photos with the methods seen above, instead you have to use another tool made available by Google, but not present on the site or even in the application.This tool can be used from a PC by opening the Google Takeout site, which allows you to download all personal data generated by Google apps and sites, including Gmail emails, address book, Blogger blogs, search histories and many others. what's this.
Once we are on the Google Takeout site, under the Products line, press on " Deselect all ", otherwise you will end up downloading not only the photos, but also all the Google data that can be really a lot. Then scroll down until you see " Google Photos " and select it with the check mark.
By clicking on " All photo albums included ", you can deselect the photo albums that you do not want to download. In this case the " albums " are intended by Google as the groupings of photos by date of acquisition and it is therefore possible, for example, to exclude from the download the older photos or those already downloaded in the past. After making the selection (or leaving everything selected to include all the photos in the download), press "OK".
After clicking "OK", scroll to the bottom of the page and press " Next step ". At this point, Google gives us the opportunity to choose some options including:
- the type of archive file that contains the data to be downloaded and can be left zip .
- the type of export, which can be a single archive or planned exports every two months for a year .
- the delivery method, which can be a download link to be received by email.
- Archive size, which allows you to choose how large the file to be downloaded should be. In this case, if you have many photos and the size of the file to be downloaded is greater than the size set here, then Google will divide the archive into two or more files that can be downloaded separately.
Once you have made your selections, click on " Create archive " and wait for the link to download all the Google Photos to be received. If the archive is divided into multiple files, you will receive multiple links to download them.
Keep in mind that the email may not arrive immediately, but also after several hours if the size of the archive to be downloaded is very large. Furthermore, the files created by Google Takeout must be downloaded within a week of receiving the email, after which the archive creation process must be repeated as seen above.
In my case, after many years of backing up your cell phone photos with thousands of photos saved in Google Photos, the size of the archive turned out to be around 25 GB. So I had to download 25 1 GB zip files, containing all the photos (having put 1 GB maximum as archive size).
The downloaded zip files must then be extracted to a folder on the computer in order to be able to browse the photos with the default program. All this download can also be done from a smartphone if you have enough memory (but it would not be a wise choice).
Once all photos have been downloaded, you can repeat this process every year by downloading only recent photos.
READ ALSO: How to create a shared and collaborative Google Photos album
