Google Photos video download not working.

Thanks for posting this. I just came across the same issue and wish I came across this post earlier. Ive been on the phone with both Google (Google one subscription) and Apple. I had no problems preview/QuickTime player videos I downloaded before from Google photos before. Then sometime in the past couple of months, the videos that I download are converted to a MP4 with codex vp09. Apple says they don't read this format and we can use handbrake to change videos to a format they can read. This is disappointing as final cut pro, adobe premiere, media encoder, preview, QuickTime etc all won't recognize the video. It is possible to download the video from the phone directly and not upload to Google photos and then redownload and that way the originally mp4 with codex hevc will still work. So the comments that if we change video quality to original is true but the downside is then you are having to spend more money buying more data for Google one storage in order to be able to view your files on a Mac. Hopefully Google can change back to another codec format vs Apple adds vp09 as a recognizable format of video.

The short end of it is that apple doesn't support the codec that is used. The way I've worked around this is to download Handbrake (free) and can convert videos to a format that I can use for making my own video. Unfortunately, it means I can't preview videos on my mac if I were to just watch them (e.g. not for making other videos etc). After using handbrake, I can view them and use FCP as well.

This is google's official response.

Key Points:

• Both the original file stored in the cloud and the downloaded file share the same format - MP4/MPEG4.
• However, they differ in coding format: the original uses vp08, while the downloaded version uses the newer vp09.
• vp08 is an older and less widely supported format compared to vp09.

Root Cause:

It's likely that Apple's media player no longer supports the vp08 coding format, leading to the playback issue you're experiencing. This isn't necessarily due to a file type incompatibility, but rather a specific codec incompatibility within the MP4 container.

Resolution:

Unfortunately, resolving this issue completely lies with Apple. We recommend contacting Apple Support directly:

• They can definitively confirm compatibility details for their media player.
• They might offer possible workarounds or future updates to address vp08 playback.

Alternative Options:

While contacting Apple is your best bet for a permanent solution, here are some temporary options:

• Try Third-Party Players: Explore media players with wider format and codec support, as they might be able to play the downloaded file.
• Re-encode (if possible): If you have access to video editing software, consider re-encoding the file to a more universally supported format, such as H.264. However, this may not be viable depending on your setup.

Well, I think I found a solution. I have a Google Pixel 5 that uploads photos and video to Google Photos, and every video I downloaded from Google Photos to my Mac would not play properly, same as described in this thread. I was going to attempt the bluetooth option, but I had a rather long video and it was going to take forever. Then, I uploaded a video directly from my phone to another online video platform I use to share screencast tutorials, and it exhibited the same type of behavior. Deciding that this has to be an issue with the Pixel phones, I googled and found this video on YouTube. https://watch.seejaneb.com/recordings/B6XSaEvXE7CMnXnCBPSU I changed the setting for how videos are stored within the camera settings to turn off the efficient storage option, as shown in the video, and then recorded a test video, uploaded to google photos, and downloaded on my Mac and lo and behold, it worked. It stinks that we can't utilize the storage saving option for our phone space, but at least I think I have found a way to make my videos compatible with my other devices and online platforms.

As a note for others stating that it has something to do with the storage saver setting within Google Photos, I still have the storage saver on for uploading to Google Photos, and it worked. It was the setting within the Google Pixel camera itself for how the videos are stored in the first place before being uploaded to the cloud.

Thanks for the sample movies. They have video codec VP9 which is incompatible with macOS QuickTime Player. Also many uploaded Youtube videos are converted to that codec no matter what.

Didn't either Google or Apple support tell you that??

You can check the codecs with Invisor or MediaInfo.

On the Mac you can play them with IINA (or VLC) or convert to some QuickTime compatible codec (H.264/H.265) with Handbrake.

https://iina.io/

I recently encountered the same problem when I decided to edit a New Year's video for my family and got upset. But I found a workaround. It's not very simple, but it's okay overall.

1. Open Google Photos on your tablet or phone.

2. Select the necessary videos.

3. Click the "share" button.

3.1. On Android, click once; on iOS, you need to select “share” a second time.

4. Choose Google Drive.

5. Select a folder on Google Drive (I created a special one for this purpose).

6. Click "Save."

7. Download the videos from Google Drive.

7.1. My drive on Mac and Google Drive are automatically synchronized.

7.2. But if this is not the case for you, you can open Google Drive in your browser and download the video to the drive on your Mac.

8. You can use it - the downloaded video codec will be MPEG-4 AAC, H.264.

If you have any non-apple device, try downloading the file there and then emailing it to yourself. For some reason this worked for us. My husband downloaded my video from the shared Google Photos album onto his phone (pixel). Then he emailed it to me. Then I opened my email on my Macbook Pro and downloaded the video from the email. It has the exact same file name as the file that didn't work, but something about not downloading it directly from Google Photos onto my Macbook seemed to "fix" it.

Hey everyone,

I just came across this and found this problem to be an interesting one , BUT I found a solution that also worked, but it a little tedious.

• You'd have to upload the video to Facebook (unfortunately). I set the audience for the video as "only me" so that only I can see it.
• From there the video shows (privately) on your feed.
• Then open the video up like to maximize it a bit, this is important to get the download options
• and then download the video. It will download in the correct codec.

If you have a large group of videos then I'm sorry lol, but if it's one or two that you really need this is potentially a quick solution if you are running low on options.

Best wishes!

This exact same thing happened to me, but I was able to fix it using the free app from the App Store, "Focus Video". Highly recommend. It converts them quickly without needing to have to upload them to the internet like some other apps and can run in the background. This was a lifesaver for me as I needed to convert over 400 videos I downloaded from Google Photos.

I tested those VP8 .webm and VP9 .mp4 movies encoded with ffmpeg. In macOS Mojave, Big Sur or Sonoma QuickTime Player or Safari can not play such movies. On the other hand, in Big Sur and Sonoma Firefox can.

I had the same problem of videos not playing back on mac after downloading. I was able to download videos from google photos app to my iphone. Then I plugged my iphone into my mac and used image transfer. The videos seems to play back ok after this process for some reason. Hope this helps!

SOLUTION!!!

Hey folks, just use Handbrake, and it changes to a codec that you can use with FCPX.

I hope it works for all just as it worked for me.:)

> What has changed?

As explained in earlier messages the change seems to be that:

Google Photos has "Original quality" and "Storage saver" settings. The latter option was recently "updated" to convert downloaded movies to Google's VP9 codec which is incompatible with Mac apps.