Google is shutting down its Album Archive feature on July 19, taking with it any images you may have stored there.
Google Photos users need not panic—your Google Photos libraries are quite safe— but if you ho have owned a Google account long enough to remember using the Google Hangouts messaging service, you should definitely check your Album Archive right away to see if it contains any images you would rather not lose permanently.
To do so, head to to view any photos and videos that may be stored there. These will most likely all come from old Google Hangouts conversations, but you never know, there may be some memories in there you’d rather not lose.
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According to Google, Album Archive may contain:
- Rare cases like small thumbnail photos and album comments or likes
- Some Google Hangouts data from Album Archive
- Background images uploaded in the Gmail theme picker prior to 2018
Once again, your Album Archive and your Google Photos archive are not the same thing. Your Google Photos archive will remain unaffected by this cancelation.
The easiest way to save all content from your Album Archive is to use Google Takeout to export your data. Click here to jump to a page already set up to download your Album Archive using the Takeout service. Just follow the instructions to have a download link sent to your email, or to have your data sent directly to a cloud storage service (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box.)
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While you’re using Google Takeout, it can be a good idea to review any other data you may want to save from your Google Account. To do this, click the ‘Show more products’ button on the first page after following the link above. However, I would recommend grabbing your Album Archive separately first as downloads from Google Takeout are potentially huge and you’ll want to make sure you get your Album Archive first before time runs out.
Google notes that the Takeout process can take hours or even days, my own download (containing only Album Archive) was ready in under a minute.
You can read more details on the shuttering of the Album Archive service in this Google support document.
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