Google Takeout Transfer and VaultMe services do not back up or transfer Google Photos content.
Google Takeout is the recommended method for backing up your Google Photos. You can download your Google Photos content directly to your personal computer or external storage device using the Google Takeout Tool and following these step-by-step instructions from Google on how to export and download your data.
Note:
- If you are part of a Healthcare Component at the University, your account is likely included as a member of the Business Associate Agreement (BAA). As a result, you will not be able to transfer or download your photos using Google Takeout. Instead, you must manually transfer your photos using the process outlined below.
- If your account's deprovisioning date is approaching, there is no guarantee that the Google Takeout process will complete, and we recommend backing up your Google Photos using the process outlined below.
If you wish to migrate your Google Photos content to another Google account, you can do so either by sharing your entire library or by sharing individual albums.
Important: When sharing photos in this way, you must also back up the photos to your personal account, or you will lose access when your University email account closes.
Transferring Google Photos Via Album Sharing
- Sign in to your UMN Google Photos account.
- If you are unable to access your Google Photos account, please submit a Changes to University Email and Google Workspace Support request.
- Create an album and store all photos you wish to transfer.
- You can add up to 20,000 photos or videos to an album.
- The album name can be anything you'd like.
- You can share multiple albums in this way.
- Select all photos you wish to add to the album.
- Select Add photos at the center of your screen.
- Choose the most recent picture (top left).
- Scroll down to the bottom.
- Hold down the Shift key and hover your mouse over the oldest photo (bottom right) until all photos are highlighted.
- Select the hovered photo—this selects all images.
- The top left of the screen should show you how many photos are selected.
- Select the Done button in the upper right of the screen.
- Choose a migration method.
- Option 1: Share the album with your personal Google account.
- You must also save the album to your personal account to ensure the photos are backed up.
- Option 2: Download the album to your computer for local storage or later upload.
- Select More options (three dots in the top-right corner), then Download all.
- If downloading, you can later import the photos into your personal Google Photos account.
- Option 1: Share the album with your personal Google account.
- If you shared the album, sign into your personal Google account (Learn how to sign into multiple accounts at once).
- Open the shared album in your personal Google Photos account.
- Select Save at the top right (cloud icon).
- Optional: Stop sharing the album from your University account to your personal account.
- To confirm the transfer was successful, you can stop sharing the album from your University account.
- After removing the shared access, check your personal Google Photos account to ensure all images are still available.
Important Notes
- Only photos are added to your personal Google account—albums themselves are not transferred.
- We are unable to verify whether photos migrated successfully. You should review your new Google Photos account to ensure all important images were transferred correctly.
- If you have a large number of photos, the transfer process may take some time. Please start well in advance to ensure completion.