Meta data lost when unzipping download/export from Google Photos

HenryLLL wrote:

How do I access the "old" Google takeout?

The old takeout:

https://takeout.google.com/

The new takeout:

https://takeout.google.com/takeout/transfer/custom/photos

A few months ago I briefly tested the new Google Photos takeout to Apple iCloud Photos and then also the download from iCloud Photos with Safari browser to macOS Sequoia 15.0 as .zip. Long story short: it was slow and it transferred images and movies from Google Photos quite fine to Apple iCloud Photos. The times might be off because Google Photos seems to use UTC instead local time. None of the metadata edits done in Google Photos or Apple iCloud Photos could be downloaded with Safari browser to the Mac desktop. Things might have changed since that, though.

Also the old takeout is a moving target: for example a few months ago the old Google Takeout again changed the naming of the .json sidecar files which again broke old exiftool and GraphicConverter workflows to copy metadata from .json. The latest GC should have updated for this and also old exiftool scripts are quite easy to update.

So I still prefer to use the old takeout with .json sidecars. But beware that even then you might need workarounds for UTC vs local time, location-less images (incorrect GPS 0.0 in the Atlantic...) and incorrect matching names in .json sidecars vs .jpg and other images and movies with filenames over 24 characters (including extension).

But just ignore .json if you have not done any edits in Google Photos because the images should have all original metadata anyway. Movies might be another story if Google Photos "Storage saver" setting is used because it re-encodes movies to VP9 codec which is incompatible with Sequoia and I have not tested how it handles metadata.

HenryLLL wrote:

Thanks. I am aware the legal rights and also the hassle you describe. But the Google Takeout procedure was actually quick. The only problem was that the received archive was a big mess, and meta data of all files set to the takeout date.

I'm not sure what you mean by "takeout data", or "takeout" at all for that matter.

For any file like a photo that has its own metadata, the dates on the files are always meaningless. There should be dates inside the metadata. Those are the real dates.

Forgot to mention earlier that they did include separate files with the meta data, like "5040.jpg.supplemental-metadata.json". Maybe these could be joined with the image file somehow, but I am not skilled to do the kind of scripting that would likely be required unfortunately.. But if that is feasible it could maybe be worthwhile hiring somebody to do that!

That's not surprising. Google doesn't actually store any of your original files. They immediately strip out the metadata and save it elsewhere. Then the files themselves are reformatted to webp or jpeg xl to save Google money. Your photos are then mixed in with all the files of everyone else in the world.

You can check again with Google's interface to see if there is a way to do a bulk export with metadata included. There might some 3rd party products that could do it via some developer API.

This is an inherent problem with any "cloud service". They want your data so they can charge you per byte for your data. That's the entire purpose. If you demand all of your data back, they will give it to you like an annoyed landlord, by dumping it in one messy pie on the curb with a bunch of other trash. This is by design, not by accident.

HenryLLL wrote:

Does anyone know if this is an unzipping problem on Mac

It is not.

if it is related to Google packaging of downloads/exports?

It's a Google problem.

I have posted in a Google Photos forum too.

I'm sure they will tell you the exact opposite.

Maybe you should go the legal route. Most online services give you an ability to download all of your data. You'll probably have to find some obscure e-mail address to make the request. Then it will take six weeks or so. But eventually you'll get most of your data is some cryptic archive.

Companies are required to do this by laws of the European Union. But since it's such a hassle, they typically allow anyone to make the request too. They never actually follow the law. It'll take forever and there's no way you'll get 100% of your data. And you'll probably have to e-mail pictures of your ID card or something and those will likely get stolen in a data breach because they use 3rd party services with poor security.

Enjoy.

Google Photos preserves metadata that is present in images you upload there. Downloading the images (zipped or not) preserves that metadata.

If you have updated or added metadata inside Google Photos, then that metadata goes to Google Photos database (not to the image metadata), and can be downloaded via (the old) Google Takeout via the .json sidecar files with the images in a .zip. file.

macOS preserves all that metadata when unzipping. Google Photos .json sidecars have some old and new flaws which are Google's responsibility to fix.

Google Photos has also a new takeout but I prefer the old despite its flaws.