Google Takeout
Data export tool in Privacy & security
People use it to download a local backup of their Google data, and it generally works. Caveat: exports come as many zip files that are awkward to download.
People use it to download a local backup of their Google data, and it generally works. Caveat: exports come as many zip files that are awkward to download.
68 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 32
- criticize it
- 36
- approval share
- 47%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 32 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Backs up all your Google data
“I urge anyone reading this to do a Google Takeout request and make a local backup of all the data they hold.”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Google Antigravity TOS: 3rd party usage can get Google account suspended” “Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data” “I also love Google Takeout so that I can backup it all up periodically.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)” - Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Google restricting Google AI Pro/Ultra subscribers for using OpenClaw”
- Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?”
- Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Google Antigravity TOS: 3rd party usage can get Google account suspended”
Export works reliably for people
“I've never had a problem with Google Takeout the multiple times I've used it”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Google restricting Google AI Pro/Ultra subscribers for using OpenClaw” “Takeout actually works. You can just download your photos and leave.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “How Microsoft Abuses Its Users” “Google takeout is pretty good with exporting photos.”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Saving money on Google Photos with Immich: Your own personal photo storage” - Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?”
- Comment from 24 Jan 2026 in “Bye Bye Gmail”
Exports photos for moving libraries
“you can request a Google Takeout of your photos and then point immich-go at it”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Noodle Gallery – Self-hosted photo and video manager forked from Immich” “I exported something like 450GB photos in chunks of 50GB iirc.”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Saving money on Google Photos with Immich: Your own personal photo storage” “Google takeout is pretty good with exporting photos.”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Saving money on Google Photos with Immich: Your own personal photo storage” Provides data portability from Google
“I'm just grateful they at least have takeout.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Google restricting Google AI Pro/Ultra subscribers for using OpenClaw” “it's the only way to protect your Google data”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Ask HN: Is a hands-off, family-friendly, de-Googled "home lab" feasible?” “they do actually provide data portability”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “Google News is just Forrest Gump's shrimp boat now”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Splits into many separate zip files
“the format isn't that great (it's a ton of separate zip files), but it does eventually work”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads” “Takeout is a single zip file. Once you have a photo repository of a certain size, that approach becomes difficult”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Saving money on Google Photos with Immich: Your own personal photo storage” “The problem with google takeout is that it generates hundred of files to download as ZIP.”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Noodle Gallery – Self-hosted photo and video manager forked from Immich” - Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads”
Manual, slow exports for regular backups
“initiate a 'Takeout' request to export their account data into an archive, wait until the request was done”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it” “Takeout is a horrible way to do regular backups. You have to manualy request it, it takes a long time to generate”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Stranger Things Creator Says Turn Off "Garbage" Settings” “It's actually somewhat annoying to export in bulk, you pretty much have to use takeout.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Self-hosting my photos with Immich” - Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Self-hosting my photos with Immich”
Metadata or content altered or missing
“Depending on the device that uploaded the media and your country, they may have stripped GPS metadata from your media.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads” “they revert all their processing and deduping, leaving you with 20 copies of the same file scattered in random places”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Want your images back? Sure... That'll be $5!” “When you export your personal data Google hides all model responses leaving just user messages.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Claude Code's "extended thinking" is a summary- not authentic thinking” Hard to download in bulk
“Downloading the takeout files is miserable through, the download link is only valid when being downloaded via human interaction in a web browser.”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “My Ridiculously Robust Photo Management System (Immich Edition)” “I tried Google Takeout but with 900GB of photos is almost impossible to download.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads” “google would force 2fa re-auth if you waited literally 30 seconds between files”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't”
What people said
40 of the 76 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Depending on the device that uploaded the media and your country, they may have stripped GPS metadata from your media.”
“it generated about 200 or more ZIP files that you have to download one by one”
“I tried Google Takeout but with 900GB of photos is almost impossible to download.”
“the format isn't that great (it's a ton of separate zip files), but it does eventually work”
“The problem with google takeout is that it generates hundred of files to download as ZIP.”
“you can request a Google Takeout of your photos and then point immich-go at it”
“Google takeout should be a last option even for banned accounts”
“I urge anyone reading this to do a Google Takeout request and make a local backup of all the data they hold.”
“use Google Takeout to download a copy of your data”
“I exported something like 450GB photos in chunks of 50GB iirc.”
“They do also split up to 2GB archives. So they are very manageable”
“Takeout is a single zip file. Once you have a photo repository of a certain size, that approach becomes difficult”
“Google takeout is pretty good with exporting photos.”
“the links had some # of retries you can do before they become invalid”
“takeout worked pretty great actually”
“they do actually provide data portability”
“google would force 2fa re-auth if you waited literally 30 seconds between files”
“Deselect everything, select "Mail", create export, wait until it's done, and then download the zip.”
“When you export your personal data Google hides all model responses leaving just user messages.”
“they revert all their processing and deduping, leaving you with 20 copies of the same file scattered in random places”
“initiate a 'Takeout' request to export their account data into an archive, wait until the request was done”
“You can export entire gmail history with takeout and import the history locally to thunderbird”
“it's the only way to protect your Google data”
“Luckliy I had a google takeout from not too long ago”
“Google Takeout is a very useful way to quickly create a backup of everything Google.”
“Takeout actually works. You can just download your photos and leave.”
“Google Takeout seems to have basically everything selected by default”
“As a hedge, you can google.com/takeout on a monthly cadence.”
“I'm just grateful they at least have takeout.”
“I've never had a problem with Google Takeout the multiple times I've used it”
“I researched and found Takeout and used it to back up all my data”
“Make Google Takeouts a part of your backup routine.”
“Downloading the takeout files is miserable through, the download link is only valid when being downloaded via human interaction in a web browser.”
“This has worked okay for me”
“I tried using takeout to have a more accurate listing”
“Google Takeout on a schedule (annoying but works)”
“Takeout is a horrible way to do regular backups. You have to manualy request it, it takes a long time to generate”
“I also love Google Takeout so that I can backup it all up periodically.”
“my awful, awful, awful workflow is to use the Google Takeout functionality”
“It's actually somewhat annoying to export in bulk, you pretty much have to use takeout.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.