Google Photos Sync (gphotos-sync)

Google Photos Sync is a backup tool for your Google Photos cloud storage.

PyPI	pip install gphotos-sync
Source code	https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync
Documentation	https://gilesknap.github.io/gphotos-sync
Releases	https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync/releases

Intro

Google Photos Sync downloads all photos and videos the user has uploaded to Google Photos. It also organizes the media in the local file system using album information. Additional Google Photos ‘Creations’ such as animations, panoramas, movies, effects and collages are also backed up.

This software is read only and never modifies your cloud library in any way, so there is no risk of damaging your data.

WARNING: Index DB Schema Change

3.2.4 introduces a change to the index database schema in order to distinguish between private albums and shared albums. You will be required to rebuild your index database when upgrading to this version or later.

Please use the command line option --flush-index to rebuild the index database.

This need only be done for the first invocation of the new version.

If you have not done so you will see the error message:

sqlite3.OperationalError: no such column: IsSharedAlbum

Warning: Google API Issues

There are a number of long standing issues with the Google Photos API that mean it is not possible to make a true backup of your media. In particular:

• Videos are transcoded to lower quality

• Raw or Original photos are converted to ‘High Quality’

• GPS info is removed from photos metadata

For details of the Bugs reported to Google see https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync/issues/119.

To join in a discussion on this issue see https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync/discussions/347.

Quick Start

To get started see Tutorial

How the documentation is structured

Documentation is split into four categories, also accessible from links in the side-bar.

Tutorials

Tutorials for installation, library and commandline usage. New users start here.

Tutorials

• Initial Setup
• Execute in a container
  • Headless gphotos-sync Servers
• Local Installation
  • Check your version of python
  • Create a virtual environment
  • Install gphotos-sync
• Running gphotos-sync
• Creating an OAuth Client ID
  • Overview
  • Create a Google Cloud Project
  • Enable the Photos API
  • Configure OAuth Consent
  • Create the OAuth Credentials
  • Publish the App
  • Move client_secret.json
• User Login OAuth Flow

How-to Guides

Practical step-by-step guides for the more experienced user.

How-to Guides

• Additional Setup for Windows Machines
  • Python
  • Virtual Environment
  • Symlinks
  • Alternative approach
• Initial Setup on Windows for Docker desktop
• Scheduling a Regular Backup
• Comparing The Google Photos Library With Local files

Explanations

Explanation of how the library works and why it works that way.

Explanations

• Folder Layout
  • Media Files
  • Other Files
• Why is Google Photos Sync Read Only
• Google OAuth Tokens for gphotos-sync
  • Introduction
  • Why Do We Need Client ID ?
• Known Issues
  • Known Issues with Google API
    • Pending API Issues
    • Fixed API Issues
  • Other Issues
  • GPS workaround

Reference

Detailed information including autogenerated code documentation.

Reference

• Contributing
  • Running the tests
    • To run in a container
    • To run locally
  • Code Styling
  • Documentation
  • Release Process
  • Updating the tools
• API
  • gphotos_sync
  • gphotos_sync.__version__
  • gphotos_sync.__main__
  • gphotos_sync.BaseMedia
    • BaseMedia
  • gphotos_sync.DatabaseMedia
    • DatabaseMedia
      • DatabaseMedia._id
      • DatabaseMedia._url
      • DatabaseMedia._relative_folder
      • DatabaseMedia._filename
      • DatabaseMedia._orig_name
      • DatabaseMedia._duplicate_number
      • DatabaseMedia._size
      • DatabaseMedia._mime_type
      • DatabaseMedia._date
      • DatabaseMedia._create_date
      • DatabaseMedia._description
      • DatabaseMedia._downloaded
      • DatabaseMedia.location
      • DatabaseMedia.description
      • DatabaseMedia.orig_name
      • DatabaseMedia.filename
      • DatabaseMedia.create_date
      • DatabaseMedia.modify_date
      • DatabaseMedia.url
  • gphotos_sync.GooglePhotosMedia
  • gphotos_sync.LocalFilesMedia
  • gphotos_sync.GooglePhotosDownload
    • GooglePhotosDownload
      • GooglePhotosDownload.download_photo_media()
      • GooglePhotosDownload.download_batch()
      • GooglePhotosDownload.download_file()
      • GooglePhotosDownload.do_download_file()
      • GooglePhotosDownload.do_download_complete()
      • GooglePhotosDownload.find_bad_items()
  • gphotos_sync.GooglePhotosIndex
• Releases

About the documentation

Why is the documentation structured this way?