SCScaevolus·Dec 16, 2022
There's also this, which uses Chrome DevTools to automatically scrape it all: https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp
In Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account bannedperkeep
gphotos-cdp
Go2019–2022
perkeep / gphotos-cdp
gphotos-cdp
This program uses the Chrome DevTools Protocol to drive a Chrome session that downloads your photos stored in Google Photos.
8Distinct people
8Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
689GitHub stars
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What it is
This program uses the Chrome DevTools Protocol to drive a Chrome session that downloads your photos stored in Google Photos.
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
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HN mentions by year8 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2019-12-22 11:56:20 UTC to 2022-12-16 17:15:09 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
8 sourcesPerkeep/Gphotos-Cdp – Automated Google Photos Downloader
2 points · Open discussionAs others have said Google Photos backup via RClone has some caveats, mainly not downloading at original quality. Google Takeout does solve this but but in weird hierarchies.
I stumbled on a new project which simulates a browser download using a headless Chrome Developer tools session[0]. Looks interesting, supports continuation and can be ran on a cron job. Worth a look.
[0] https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp
In What I Use Instead of GooglePerkeep devs built a tool to grab the originals: https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp#gphotos-cdp
In What I Use Instead of GoogleCheck out this google photos export tool by the perkeep team: https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp
> This program uses the Chrome DevTools Protocol to drive a Chrome session that downloads your photos stored in Google Photos. By default, it starts at the most ancient item in the library, and progresses towards the most recent. It can be run incrementally, as it keeps track of the last item that was downloaded. It only works with the main library for now, i.e. it does not support the photos moved to Archive, or albums. For each downloaded photo, an external program can be run on it (with the -run flag) right after it is downloaded to e.g. upload it somewhere else.
In LibrePhotos: A Self-Hosted Google Photos AlternativeAnother alternative is Perkeep (formerly known as Camlistore) https://perkeep.org/ and there's even a tool to extract your pics from Google Photos https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp and move them to Perkeep.
In Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021See:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/perkeep/Kqvh2dJVmoo/9N4YXAuX...
I no longer pay Mathieu to work on it full time, and my time is tempered by 2.5 and 0.5 year old kids.
I still use it, but don't have time to add to it much. Others work on it a bit. Mathieu and I did work on https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp just recently, to fix the Google Photos importer. So it's still moving a bit. Others still work on it too.
I'll pick up my involvement again as kids get a bit older. (One is almost potty trained and starting preschool soon! :))
We have no plans to abandon it.
In An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving GoogleI think that Perkeep https://perkeep.org/ is also worth mentioning here. One of their latest tools is the one for exporting Google Photos: https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp
In The sad state of personal data and infrastructure