https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1g1rjib/urgent_help_needed_downloading_google_takeout/
created by Pretend_Compliant on 12/10/2024 at 03:36 UTC
15 upvotes, 13 top-level comments (showing 13)
I'm in a critical situation with a Google Takeout download and need advice:
Current challenges:
1. Dropbox sync failed due to size
2. Impossible to download everything at current speed
3. Clicking each link manually isn't feasible
I recall reading about someone rapidly syncing their Takeout to Azure. Has anyone successfully used a cloud-to-cloud transfer method recently? I'm very open to paid solutions and paid help (but will be wary and careful so don't get excited if you are a scammer).
Any suggestions for downloading this massive archive quickly and reliably would be greatly appreciated. Speed is key here.
Comment by ApricotPenguin at 12/10/2024 at 04:44 UTC
15 upvotes, 1 direct replies
From a purely theoretical perspective, couldn't you rent a VPS (virtual private server) or an Azure/AWS/GCP VM, install an OS with a graphical interface, log into your google account then download it from there?
Comment by maxi_gmv at 12/10/2024 at 07:44 UTC
11 upvotes, 1 direct replies
First of all. Talk to support chat in order to delay backup expiration, tell them that the download where cancelled multiple times not by you fault. With extra time you can evaluate how to download them. I used takeout to partially abandon Google photos, asked to create 50gb files and it went well, also I tried the upload to overdrive y went ok. In my case due to file size they were less than 20 files, so I did it manually and I can tell you that it failed a couple of time. Now I deleted all videos and have Google photos to continue to upload be photos but not videos. Setup onedrive photos and also syncthing to my PC.
Comment by erm_what_ at 12/10/2024 at 14:16 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Get a large Hetzner instance and download it there. Once it's on that then you'll have time to figure out the next step.
Comment by Pretend_Compliant at 12/10/2024 at 11:45 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Has anyone ever successfully gotten Google to extend a Takeout expiration? I will sit an do it manually for as long as it takes if they will give me enough time to pull it all down at the throttled speeds.
Comment by MyOtherSide1984 at 12/10/2024 at 06:41 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Have you looked into RClone? You wouldn't be reliant on Takeout to figure it's shit out (if it ever does) and can just export all the content. Granted, you may lose some quality and metadata and such, but if the data matters and you have no alternative, it's better than nothing. Note that it will leverage your local network speeds, I couldn't figure out how to get it to do server to server (such as Gdrive to Dropbox) over the cloud, even with the appropriate flags, it still used data
Comment by Pretend_Compliant at 12/10/2024 at 11:53 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I imagine there's no way to identify what's what in that archive, but if I knew which of the files were the ones that were removed, I could focus on those.
Comment by clump_of_atoms at 12/10/2024 at 14:15 UTC
1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
When you created the takeout, did you select the option to have it save to your Google drive?
Comment by dr100 at 12/10/2024 at 15:33 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Just get the photos from your originals and make a takeout for the other products, will be much smaller? Photos is just a dead-end, put stuff there but you never know what it ends up there, how it's recompressed, how metadata is messed up, etc.
Comment by Pretend_Compliant at 12/10/2024 at 18:34 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Does anyone know how to actually reach someone at Google... on a weekend? I can do it from a paid account, but I doubt they'd be willing to touch it. Extending the expiration seems like the only feasible option right now and a stay of execution to either just do it manually or connect with someone who could help me with it.
Comment by lolercoptercrash at 13/10/2024 at 03:11 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Can you share the photos with another google account? Or transfer ownership?
Comment by Puzzleheaded-Plum885 at 12/10/2024 at 05:07 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
If data is important then pay for a month to get some buffer time?
Download seems to be throttled at ~15MBps, regardless
Better ISP or via some VPS (see other comment)
Clicking each link manually isn't feasible
Can't have cake and eat it too?
Then learn to use rclone.
Comment by foodman5555 at 12/10/2024 at 05:52 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
use multiple computers
Comment by aamfk at 12/10/2024 at 09:39 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
get some disk space to download it locally
I recommend 'Free Download Manager' I haven't FULLY tested it, but it worked GREAT for one 447gb download last week. I couldn't get the TORRENT version to complete, and the version from Archive.org[1] wasn't reliable enough
So I just took my archive.org[2] link, put it into Free Download Manager and let it download
After about a day, I paused the download so that I could do some gaming, then it resumed just perfectly
best of luck!