Use Google Takeout to Backfill your Photo Sync

Now you should have any new photos backed up to your NAS. But you’ll probably want all of your old photos too. There are several ways to do this (including a previous solution I used to use). However, if you just need to do a backfill, I think google takeout is the best solution.

Create a Takeout Archive

First, make sure that you’re logged into your browser with your google account and head to takeout.google.com. First deselect all (we only want photos)

Then scroll down to google photos and select that. The defaults for formats and albums should be good.

Scroll all the way down and hit Next Step

You’ll need to configure the export. We want 1 export and I opt for the larger size, but this will depend on your broadband limitations (how reliable it is, if you have a data cap, etc…). When you have the correct configuration hit create export.

This will start the export and a message will tell you its on the way:

Now wait for an email which has a link to the export which will allow you to download it from the google server.

Store Archived Images on Your NAS

In the meantime, go ahead and create a folder where you’ll store the archived photos. Again, I use a special cloud backup directory (because I backup to backblaze), so I create a new directory for my archived photos in there (/volume1/brian/b2-backup/google-photos).

When the takeout export is available, I pull that down on my PC and extract the .zip file to that location so that my individual photos, videos and albums are extracted. Then they’re automatically synced to my external USB drive and backed up into BackBlaze.