HACKER Q&A
📣 strix_varius

What's the best way to de-Google photos?


After a little over a year of having a kid, I've run out of google storage (photos/drive/mail). I have a pixel phone and like the automatic backup to photos... however, for years I've considered using that as a short-term backup, since I don't trust google not to nuke my account or lock me out. There have been so many instances of that (many posted here), that I don't trust Google with irreplaceable data. Google's storage limits forcing me to figure something out have finally given me the kick I needed to detach myself from their services.

My ideal scenario is:

1. Automatic (periodic is fine)

2. Includes a local backup to physical media

3. Includes a cloud backup to some kind of cheap cold storage

4. Allows the pixel -> photos pipeline to keep running, since it's a convenient way to share albums with family. So I need to be able to automatically delete old google photos (to clear space) while also being able to mark albums as un-deleteable.

I started going down the rabbit hole of designing something myself using google takeout, or photos APIs, etc, and thought that maybe someone on HN has already put together an elegant solution.

  👤 jerezzprime Accepted Answer ✓
I have a server in my garage, and I periodically run RClone to clone my Google photos and Google drive to a local RAID cluster. I also periodically run duplicati to sync a copy of those files to Backblaze. It provides me protection against losing my Google account, and also protection against a local disaster (like a fire or something). Enough redundancy to keep me happy and those two programs are pretty easy to set up and run on a cron schedule.
👤 Saris
I really like https://immich.app/

Has auto backup on the mobile apps, great webUI, multi user, face recognition and search all done locally.

Then for local and cloud backup you can use your preferred software like Restic or whatever you like.

👤 solardev
FOSS: https://github.com/rclone/rclone

Paid: https://www.multcloud.com/

👤 CountGeek
Similar situation whereas instead of swapping cloud for cloud I purchased a QNAP which can run containers and have setup immich & caddy on that.

WAF is good and even grandparents are able to use the immich app to view photos.

👤 leros
I really wish there was an easy way to backup Google Photos. I like it but I don't relying on them for backup.