How to Back Up Google Photos to a Hard Drive, Dates Intact

How to back up Google Photos to a hard drive: export with Google Takeout, fix the dates from the .json files, then copy. Steps for Windows and Mac.

30 September 2026

To back up Google Photos to a hard drive, export the library with Google Takeout (takeout.google.com, Google Photos only), download the zip files, unpack them, write the dates and locations from the .json files into the photos, and copy the result to the external drive. Google Photos has no "sync to drive" button, so Takeout is the only way to get the whole library at once.

The step people skip is the dates. An unfixed export copied to a drive is a backup in which thousands of photos show the download date and no location.

What you need

An external drive with free space of at least the size of your library. Google Photos shows the size in the Google storage page. Plan for twice that during the work, on the drive or on the computer.
The right format. A drive formatted as FAT32 cannot hold files larger than 4 GB, which breaks large Takeout parts and long videos. Use exFAT to work with both Windows and Mac, NTFS for Windows only, or APFS for Mac only.
Time. Google needs hours to days to prepare the export. How long Google Takeout takes has the numbers.

Step 1: request the export

Go to takeout.google.com and sign in.
Click Deselect all, then tick Google Photos.
Click Next step. Choose Send download link via email, Export once, file type .zip, and a file size. 10 GB or 50 GB means fewer files; 2 GB is safer on a weak connection.
Click Create export and wait for the email.

Takeout returns the files as Google stored them, with no extra compression. Does Google Takeout reduce photo quality? explains the Storage saver exception.

Step 2: download the zip files to the drive

When the email arrives, download every part. You can save them straight onto the external drive to keep space free on the computer.

Windows: in your browser's download settings, choose "Ask where to save each file", and pick a folder on the external drive, for example E:\Takeout-zips.
Mac: in Safari, choose Settings, General, File download location, Other, and pick the drive. In Chrome, the setting is under Downloads.

Download links are valid for 7 days. Check that the numbered parts have no gaps: -001, -002, -003 and so on.

Step 3: unpack every part into one folder

Windows: select all parts, right-click, choose 7-Zip, then Extract Here. The built-in extractor works too, but slowly with many small files.
Mac: select all parts and double-click. Merge Takeout 2, Takeout 3 into the first Takeout folder.

Each photo now has a .json file next to it, such as IMG_1234.jpg.supplemental-metadata.json. That file holds the real date and location. Google Takeout file size explains the parts and the unpacking in detail.

Step 4: write the dates into the photos

Open a few photos and look at the dates. Screenshots, WhatsApp images, scans and any photo you re-dated in Google Photos show the day you unzipped them. File Explorer, Finder, Apple Photos and every other app ignore the .json files.

You have two ways to fix that:

Free, command line: exiftool or GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper Neo read the .json files and write the dates into EXIF. See the exiftool guide.
Desktop app: Takeout JSON Metadata Fixer does it on Windows and Mac with no command line, and can sort the photos into year and month folders in the same run.

Do this before the copy. In five years, when you plug the drive in, you will not want to run a merge first. An archive is only useful if each photo carries its own date and place.

Step 5: copy the fixed folder to the drive

Windows: drag the finished folder to the drive in File Explorer.
Mac: drag it in Finder.

The dates are inside the photos now, so the copy keeps them, whatever happens to the file dates. Then open ten photos from different years on the drive and check their dates. How to check that photo dates are fixed lists quick checks.

After the check, you can delete the .json files and the zips, or keep the zips on a second drive as a raw copy.

Keep the backup up to date

Takeout can repeat the export every 2 months for a year (the Frequency option in Step 1). Each export is a full copy, not only the new photos. For a simple routine, request a new export once or twice a year, fix it, and copy only the new year folders.

A single drive is one copy. For photos you cannot replace, keep a second copy in another place: a second drive at someone else's home, or a cloud service other than Google.

Other ways, and why they fall short

Download from photos.google.com: select photos, then Download. You get a zip without the .json files. Fine for an album, slow for a library.
Copy from the phone over USB: gives you only the photos still stored on the phone, not the ones in the cloud only.
Google Drive for desktop: does not sync Google Photos. Photos and Drive are separate since 2019.

Frequently asked questions

How do I export Google Photos to an external hard drive directly?

Download the Takeout zips straight to a folder on the drive (Step 2). Google cannot send the export to a local drive itself.

How do I transfer Google Photos to an external hard drive from a phone?

The Takeout steps work in a phone browser, but a computer is much easier for the download and the unpacking. On Android, a USB-C drive can receive the zips.

Does backing up to a hard drive delete my photos from Google?

No. Takeout makes a copy. Your library stays in Google Photos until you delete it. Is it safe to delete Google Photos after export? covers that decision.

How much space do I need?

About the size shown for Google Photos in your Google storage, plus the album copies in the export. How much disk space a Google Takeout export needs has the details.

For drives, NAS and PCs compared, folder layouts and how to keep the copy current, see the full guide to Google Photos backup.