Getting your photos out of a cloud service is simpler than you think. Here is exactly what to do.
Every major cloud service is legally required to give you a copy of your own data. This is your right under GDPR, CCPA and other data protection laws. The process is called a data export or data takeout, and it produces a downloadable archive of all your photos and videos.
Go to takeout.google.com, deselect everything, then re-select only Google Photos. Choose your preferred file size and delivery method.
Once your PC and devices have been configured, your photos will be downloaded automatically. Please be aware your devices need to have some free storage space to do this.
Go to account.microsoft.com/privacy, sign in,
and choose Download your data. Select OneDrive to
export your photos and files as a .zip archive.
Open the Amazon Photos app or web, select photos, and use the Download option. For bulk exports, use the desktop app.
Once your export is ready, you will receive a link to download one or more
.zip files. These contain your original photos and
videos at full resolution, exactly as you uploaded them — not compressed
web previews. Make sure you download every part if the archive is split.
You now have your photos back. The final step is making sure they are safe, findable, and not dependent on any single company's continued goodwill. The gold standard is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different media types, with one stored off-site.
Your main hard drive or NAS at home
An external hard drive stored separately
A cloud backup you control — Backblaze B2, Wasabi, or similar
Everything you need to know about what is really happening behind the scenes.
Cloud photo services make it effortless to store and browse your photos — but that convenience comes at a cost. Your photos are held in proprietary formats, databases, and infrastructure that you cannot directly access. If the company raises prices, changes terms, or shuts down, your memories go with them.
Google has a history of sunsetting products with little warning (Google+, Picasa, Google Stadia). Apple ties photo access tightly to active iCloud subscriptions. A lapsed payment or a hacked account can lock you out instantly.
The photos you upload are also often re-encoded. Google Photos compresses images unless you pay for the “original quality” tier. You may not even have the originals anymore — just compressed copies.
You will get your photos in their original file format — typically
JPEG, HEIC,
PNG, or MP4 for
videos. RAW files (.DNG,
.CR2, etc.) are preserved if you uploaded them.
Metadata (EXIF data — date taken, GPS coordinates, camera model) is usually
preserved inside the image file itself. However, Google Takeout is a known
exception: it stores metadata in separate .json
sidecar files rather than embedded in the image. You will need a tool such as
ExifTool or Google Photos Takeout Helper to
merge the metadata back into the image files.
This depends entirely on how many photos and videos you have. As a rough guide:
| Library size | Estimated storage | Suggested drive |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5,000 photos | ~10–20 GB | USB stick or free cloud tier |
| 5,000–20,000 photos | 20–80 GB | 1 TB external drive |
| 20,000–100,000 photos | 80–400 GB | 2–4 TB external drive |
| 100,000+ or lots of video | 400 GB+ | Large external drive |
External hard drives are cheap — a 2 TB drive costs roughly £50–£70. That is likely less than a year of your current cloud subscription, and the drive is yours forever.
Do not delete anything from the cloud until you have verified your downloaded copies. Before removing anything, go through this checklist:
We will not delete any of your files. You must do this yourself.
There is no single right answer, but here are the most popular options for people who want to own their photos without sacrificing convenience:
Open-source, self-hosted, and almost identical to Google Photos in look and feel. Runs on a home server, NAS, or a cheap VPS. Free forever.
If you own a Synology NAS, this is the best built-in solution. Automatic mobile backup, face recognition, and sharing — all on hardware you own.
Simple and reliable. Organise photos into
YYYY/MM/DD folders,
back them up with Duplicati or Rclone to Backblaze B2 (~$6/TB/month).
No lock-in whatsoever.