---
title: "Google Photos"
description: "Rclone docs for Google Photos"
date: "2019-06-25"
---

 Google Photos
-------------------------------------------------

The rclone backend for [Google Photos](https://www.google.com/photos/about/) is
a specialized backend for transferring photos and videos to and from
Google Photos.

**NB** The Google Photos API which rclone uses has quite a few
limitations, so please read the [limitations section](#limitations)
carefully to make sure it is suitable for your use.

## Configuring Google Photos

The initial setup for google cloud storage involves getting a token from Google Photos
which you need to do in your browser.  `rclone config` walks you
through it.

Here is an example of how to make a remote called `remote`.  First run:

     rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

```
No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
[snip]
13 / Google Photos
   \ "google photos"
[snip]
Storage> google photos
** See help for google photos backend at: https://rclone.org/googlephotos/ **

Google Application Client Id
Leave blank normally.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
client_id> 
Google Application Client Secret
Leave blank normally.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
client_secret> 
Set to make the Google Photos backend read only.

If you choose read only then rclone will only request read only access
to your photos, otherwise rclone will request full access.
Enter a boolean value (true or false). Press Enter for the default ("false").
read_only> 
Edit advanced config? (y/n)
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> n
Remote config
Use auto config?
 * Say Y if not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y
If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth
Log in and authorize rclone for access
Waiting for code...
Got code

*** IMPORTANT: All media items uploaded to Google Photos with rclone
*** are stored in full resolution at original quality.  These uploads
*** will count towards storage in your Google Account.

--------------------
[remote]
type = google photos
token = {"access_token":"XXX","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"XXX","expiry":"2019-06-28T17:38:04.644930156+01:00"}
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y
```

Note that rclone runs a webserver on your local machine to collect the
token as returned from Google if you use auto config mode. This only
runs from the moment it opens your browser to the moment you get back
the verification code.  This is on `http://127.0.0.1:53682/` and this
may require you to unblock it temporarily if you are running a host
firewall, or use manual mode.

This remote is called `remote` and can now be used like this

See all the albums in your photos

    rclone lsd remote:album

Make a new album

    rclone mkdir remote:album/newAlbum

List the contents of an album

    rclone ls remote:album/newAlbum

Sync `/home/local/images` to the Google Photos, removing any excess
files in the album.

    rclone sync /home/local/image remote:album/newAlbum

## Layout

As Google Photos is not a general purpose cloud storage system the
backend is laid out to help you navigate it.

The directories under `media` show different ways of categorizing the
media.  Each file will appear multiple times.  So if you want to make
a backup of your google photos you might choose to backup
`remote:media/by-month`.  (**NB** `remote:media/by-day` is rather slow
at the moment so avoid for syncing.)

Note that all your photos and videos will appear somewhere under
`media`, but they may not appear under `album` unless you've put them
into albums.

```
/
- upload
    - file1.jpg
    - file2.jpg
    - ...
- media
    - all
        - file1.jpg
        - file2.jpg
        - ...
    - by-year
        - 2000
            - file1.jpg
            - ...
        - 2001
            - file2.jpg
            - ...
        - ...
    - by-month
        - 2000
            - 2000-01
                - file1.jpg
                - ...
            - 2000-02
                - file2.jpg
                - ...
        - ...
    - by-day
        - 2000
            - 2000-01-01
                - file1.jpg
                - ...
            - 2000-01-02
                - file2.jpg
                - ...
        - ...
- album
    - album name
    - album name/sub
- shared-album
    - album name
    - album name/sub
```

There are two writable parts of the tree, the `upload` directory and
sub directories of the the `album` directory.

The `upload` directory is for uploading files you don't want to put
into albums. This will be empty to start with and will contain the
files you've uploaded for one rclone session only, becoming empty
again when you restart rclone. The use case for this would be if you
have a load of files you just want to once off dump into Google
Photos. For repeated syncing, uploading to `album` will work better.

Directories within the `album` directory are also writeable and you
may create new directories (albums) under `album`.  If you copy files
with a directory hierarchy in there then rclone will create albums
with the `/` character in them.  For example if you do

    rclone copy /path/to/images remote:album/images

and the images directory contains

```
images
    - file1.jpg
    dir
        file2.jpg
    dir2
        dir3
            file3.jpg
```

Then rclone will create the following albums with the following files in

- images
    - file1.jpg
- images/dir
    - file2.jpg
- images/dir2/dir3
    - file3.jpg

This means that you can use the `album` path pretty much like a normal
filesystem and it is a good target for repeated syncing.

The `shared-album` directory shows albums shared with you or by you.
This is similar to the Sharing tab in the Google Photos web interface.

## Limitations

Only images and videos can be uploaded.  If you attempt to upload non
videos or images or formats that Google Photos doesn't understand,
rclone will upload the file, then Google Photos will give an error
when it is put turned into a media item.

Note that all media items uploaded to Google Photos through the API
are stored in full resolution at "original quality" and **will** count
towards your storage quota in your Google Account.  The API does
**not** offer a way to upload in "high quality" mode..

### Downloading Images

When Images are downloaded this strips EXIF location (according to the
docs and my tests).  This is a limitation of the Google Photos API and
is covered by [bug #112096115](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/112096115).

### Downloading Videos

When videos are downloaded they are downloaded in a really compressed
version of the video compared to downloading it via the Google Photos
web interface. This is covered by [bug #113672044](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/113672044).

### Duplicates

If a file name is duplicated in a directory then rclone will add the
file ID into its name.  So two files called `file.jpg` would then
appear as `file {123456}.jpg` and `file {ABCDEF}.jpg` (the actual IDs
are a lot longer alas!).

If you upload the same image (with the same binary data) twice then
Google Photos will deduplicate it.  However it will retain the
filename from the first upload which may confuse rclone.  For example
if you uploaded an image to `upload` then uploaded the same image to
`album/my_album` the filename of the image in `album/my_album` will be
what it was uploaded with initially, not what you uploaded it with to
`album`.  In practise this shouldn't cause too many problems.

### Modified time

The date shown of media in Google Photos is the creation date as
determined by the EXIF information, or the upload date if that is not
known.

This is not changeable by rclone and is not the modification date of
the media on local disk.  This means that rclone cannot use the dates
from Google Photos for syncing purposes.

### Size

The Google Photos API does not return the size of media.  This means
that when syncing to Google Photos, rclone can only do a file
existence check.

It is possible to read the size of the media, but this needs an extra
HTTP HEAD request per media item so is very slow and uses up a lot of
transactions.  This can be enabled with the `--gphotos-read-size`
option or the `read_size = true` config parameter.

If you want to use the backend with `rclone mount` you will need to
enable this flag otherwise you will not be able to read media off the
mount.

### Albums

Rclone can only upload files to albums it created. This is a
[limitation of the Google Photos API](https://developers.google.com/photos/library/guides/manage-albums).

Rclone can remove files it uploaded from albums it created only.

### Deleting files

Rclone can remove files from albums it created, but note that the
Google Photos API does not allow media to be deleted permanently so
this media will still remain. See [bug #109759781](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/109759781).

Rclone cannot delete files anywhere except under `album`.

### Deleting albums

The Google Photos API does not support deleting albums - see [bug #135714733](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/135714733).


### Standard Options

Here are the standard options specific to google photos (Google Photos).

#### --gphotos-client-id

Google Application Client Id
Leave blank normally.

- Config:      client_id
- Env Var:     RCLONE_GPHOTOS_CLIENT_ID
- Type:        string
- Default:     ""

#### --gphotos-client-secret

Google Application Client Secret
Leave blank normally.

- Config:      client_secret
- Env Var:     RCLONE_GPHOTOS_CLIENT_SECRET
- Type:        string
- Default:     ""

#### --gphotos-read-only

Set to make the Google Photos backend read only.

If you choose read only then rclone will only request read only access
to your photos, otherwise rclone will request full access.

- Config:      read_only
- Env Var:     RCLONE_GPHOTOS_READ_ONLY
- Type:        bool
- Default:     false

### Advanced Options

Here are the advanced options specific to google photos (Google Photos).

#### --gphotos-read-size

Set to read the size of media items.

Normally rclone does not read the size of media items since this takes
another transaction.  This isn't necessary for syncing.  However
rclone mount needs to know the size of files in advance of reading
them, so setting this flag when using rclone mount is recommended if
you want to read the media.

- Config:      read_size
- Env Var:     RCLONE_GPHOTOS_READ_SIZE
- Type:        bool
- Default:     false


