If you ever sent images via Google Hangout or posted photos on Blogger or on the discontinued Picasa service, chances are you have copies of those images stored in a not-very-well-known service called Google Album Archive. Google is getting rid of that service, so if you want to review or keep any of the images stored there, you have to download them before July 19. The company recently sent out an email to users of the service, and you can read about it on this Google support page.
But don't worry too much. The photos in, say Blogger, will still be available in your Blogger account, just not in the Album Archive. The only pictures stored uniquely in Archive are the following, according to an email sent by Google to anyone who’s used the service:
Those are the only photos that will disappear. Images stored in Google Photos and Google Drive are safe.
Before the July 19 deadline, you should check what’s in your Album Archive and download anything you want to keep. Here’s how.
How to Check Your Google Album Archive and Download Your Data
1. Check What You Have Stored in Google Album Archive
Go to get.google.com/albumarchive before July 19. The image at the very top of this article shows an example of what an archive looks like.
2. Go to the Google Takeout Page
If you want to save the pictures in your Album Archive, you need to use Google Takeout, the company’s service that lets you download your cloud-stored Google data. Note that for Workplace Google accounts, you may need your IT staff to enable the ability to export data for it to work. When I tried to access Takeout on such an account, I got this page:
But on a personal account, the Takeout options were available:
3. Check the AlbumArchive Box
In the image above, you can see the AlbumArchive choice. Make sure the box next to it is checked. You can select Show More Products to see a list of all kinds of Google data you can download, such as content from Google Classrooms, Google Play Books, and much more. Uncheck any other services from which you don’t want the cloud data downloaded—you'll see a lot, since the choices include every service Google offers. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Next step" button.
4. Choose the File Format and Where to Download
Now you choose the destination, frequency, and file type for your download. Destination choices include sending a download link to your email, sending the files to your Google Drive, or adding the files to another cloud storage service, namely Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box. For frequency, choose "Export once." Since Album Archive is going away, it doesn’t make sense to schedule later exports.
For file type, the default ZIP file is a perfectly good and universally supported choice, but you can also use TGZ if you prefer. The maximum file size is 2GB, so if you have more data than that, your files will be split into multiple archives. You can go down to 1GB or up to a whopping 50GB, but downloading files that size can be challenging for home setups.
5. Create the Archive and Wait
The final step is to press the "Create export" button. Then you wait for an email that tells you when the progress is complete. If you only have a few files in the archive, as I did, the email arrives in a matter of minutes.
6. Download Your Images
From the email, simply download the ZIP file using the link in the email.
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