google-photos-takeout-helper 1.0.0

Script that helps you export your photos from Google Photos to one, nice folder

Google Photos Takeout Helper

Python script that helps you export your photos from Google Photos to one, nice folder with correct last-modified dates

How to use:

1. pip3 install -U google-photos-takeout-helper
2. Extract all contents from your Google Takeout to one folder
3. Cut out/remove all "album folders" that aren't named "2016-06-16" or something like that
4. Run google-photos-takeout-helper -i [INPUT TAKEOUT FOLDER] -o [OUTPUT FOLDER]

Alternatively, if you don't have PATH set right, you can call it python3 -m google_photos_takeout_helper

^{If you previously used this script in form where you download and run it - don't worry! Downloading it with pip is even simpler, and everything will work as previously :)}

If, instead of one big folder, you want your photos to be divided by year and month, run it with --divide-to-dates flag.

Why do you need to cut out albums?

They mostly contain duplicates of same photos that are in corresponding "date folder" This script tries to get all "photo taken time" stuff right. If it finds json - it sets everything from that json (it contains data of edited timestamp that you might've corrected in Google Photos). If it can't - it tries to get Exif data form photo. IF it can't find anything like that, it sets date from folder name.

All of this is so that you can then safely store ALL of your photos in one folder, and they will all be in right order.

Unless you move them around your Android phone.

Beware, that (99% of the times), if you move some files in Android, their creation and modification time is reseted to current.

"Simple Gallery" app usually keeps original file creation time when moving and coping (but I don't guarantee it). It's also pretty cool and you can check it out:

https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Gallery

What to do when you got rid of Google Photos? What are the alternatives?

• I really recommend you using Syncthing for syncing your photos and files across devices. It does so through your local WiFi, so you're not dependend on any service or internet connection. It will also keep original file creation date and metadata, so it resolves Android issue that I mentioned before.

• If you want something more centralized but also self-hosted, Nextcloud is a nice choice, but it's approach to photos is still not perfect. (And you need to set up your own server)

• Guys at Photoprims are working on full Google Photos alternative, with search and AI tagging etc, but it's stil work in progress. (I will edit this when they are done, but can't promise :P )

Other Takeout projects

I used this tool to export my notes to markdown - you can then edit them with any markdown editor you like :)

https://github.com/vHanda/google-keep-exporter

This one saves them in format ready for Evernote/ClintaNotes:

https://github.com/HardFork/KeepToText

TODO (Pull Requests welcome):

• Videos' Exif data
• Gps data: from JSON to Exif
• Some way to handle albums