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BradSopkow
BradSopkow
Known Participant
October 27, 2017
Answered

Google Photos to Lightroom CC

I currently have all my photos in Google Photos, on their cloud. I want to import all my photos into this new Lightroom CC. How do I do this?

    mc901
    mc901Correct answer
    Participant
    January 4, 2018

    You could download Google Drive's companion app so the whole of Google Drive synchronises with your desktop; including Google Photos. Then set the Google Photos folder up to sync with Lightroom.

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    16 replies

    the_gomez
    Participant
    January 30, 2022

    I do it this way - I sync my gogle drive to my computer then use those files to upload

    https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313#zippy=%2Cwhat-you-need-to-back-up-photos-videos

     

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    the_gomez
    Participant
    January 31, 2022

    So yeah I'm an idiot.  I forgot I used Google takeaway and put the folder on my Google drive.

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    Per Thege
    Per Thege
    Known Participant
    February 1, 2022

    Thank you for your respons. Will try your suggestion. 

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    Per Thege
    Per Thege
    Known Participant
    June 12, 2021

    Hi, GPS data is lost if you try to export from Google Photos to LR as far as I have noticed. Even with take out.

    Per

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      wwwrico
      wwwrico
      Participant
      March 27, 2022

      If you export from Google Photos onto you PC, import the file into Light Room, and then export the image (perhaps with a watermark) GPS data is preserved. For example, here is my San Francisco Man.

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      mc901
      mc901Correct answer
      Participant
      January 4, 2018

      You could download Google Drive's companion app so the whole of Google Drive synchronises with your desktop; including Google Photos. Then set the Google Photos folder up to sync with Lightroom.

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        bbchops
        bbchops
        Participant
        January 15, 2018

        I can confirm this works pretty flawlessly with Lightroom Classic CC, but I'm still not completely sure how to sync to Lightroom CC. I have Google Drive on my Mac and have set it to sync the contents of my Google Photos account (~150 GB) down to my Mac. In Lightroom Classic CC I imported the Google Photos folder, leaving the photos in their current location. I'm not sure where to go from here.

        It appears that my photos I have in Lightroom Classic CC have to be added to a "Collection" before they can be sync'd to Lightroom CC. I tried using a smart collection to do it-- all photos dated 2015, for example--but the sync option is not available for smart collections. It is only available for regular collections (and slide shows?). Adding all of my photos to one collection seems clunky and organizing 30K+ photos into regular collections seems too time-consuming. Am I missing something?

        Ultimately, my goal is to migrate all of my photos from Google Photos to Adobe Lightroom CC and eliminate the Google storage charge I am paying each month. I realize I'm scope-creeping this thread a little, but I think anyone who asks the initial question will want to know these details too.

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          Scott2257
          Scott2257
          Known Participant
          April 19, 2019

          Please ignore my post

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            xzkatmyer
            Participant
            December 10, 2017

            Anyone can think of any other way for this?

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              Community Expert
              Bill SpragueCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              October 27, 2017

              Interesting question!!

              In photos.google.com, select your images.  In the upper right there is a menu (three vertical dots) where you can select download.  A shift+d does it too.  That will put your google photos on your computer as JPEGS.  On my computer they were put in a "photos.ZIP" file and I had to "extract" them. 

              With them now on your computer, you can then import them into Lightroom CC using the add photos button. 

              For my little test, I limited it to a few image files and it worked well and quickly.

              Good luck and have fun moving your photos. 

              Bill

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                slaading
                Participant
                November 23, 2017

                I suggest an alternative to Bill's option.

                While this option is okay for a small amount of photos (Google Photos won't let you download more than 500 files at a time), you should instead use Google Takeout service: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

                Click "Select none" then select "Google Photo", choose your export destination (Cloud services or links in an email). Wait. Done !

                Now, import to LR.

                The dream would be to have a plug-in that just let you browse/organise/edit your Google Photos directly from LR, but I haven't found it yet. Help!

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                  Community Expert
                  Bill SpragueCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  November 23, 2017

                  Thanks for posting an alternative.  I didn't know Google had that.

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