Google Photos may not be the most practical photo storage app. Still, it provides virtually unlimited space for all your photos, and in the end, its part of Google, so all of us are going to use it anyway.
If you are getting increasingly frustrated at having to download one photo at a time from Google Photos, then trust me, you’re not alone. There is good news for you, though! Not only is it possible to download multiple files, but it is also not even as complicated as you probably be thinking!
Throughout this post, we will be exploring the methods you can go through to download multiple photos at once from Google Photos. These methods work for both Android & iOS phones, and also smoothly on your computer.
So whether you want to make a backup of your files, have them with you on the go, or need to download them to your personal use, this post will show you how it can be done.
How to download multiple photos from Google Photos
If you want to keep organized and need to download multiple photos from albums, your work is already made easy. The methods we will be explaining are specifically for albums, but the process for downloading individual photos is almost identical.
Download an entire album
Downloading the whole album itself is pretty straightforward. Here is how to do it:
1. Tap on “Albums” after opening Google Photos;
2. Choose the album you wish to download;
3. On the upper right of your screen, you should see a “three dots symbol” (also known as a “hamburger menu” or “hamburger icon”) – it represents additional options. Tap on this icon;
4. Select “Download all” form the pop-up menu on your screen.
After you follow these instructions, Google Photos will download a compressed file in a “.zip” format. It’ll contain all the photos in the selected album.
Download multiple albums
Still, sometimes you want to download multiple albums together in a quick way. To get this job done seamlessly, Google has a free service known as Google Takeout. It enables you to export data from any part of your Google account. It has a friendly UI and automated functionality, so you have nothing to anxious about.
Follow these simple steps to download multiple albums from Google Photos using Takeout:
1. Log into your Google account & visit the Google Takeout website. You can access it at this link;
2. By default, all of your data is going to be selected across all your Google apps. Tap on “Deselect All” on the right side as you want to download photo albums;
3. Now scroll and check on Google Photos;
4. The option for “All photo albums included” will be shown. By clicking it, you’ll see that all of your albums have been selected & are ready to be exported to your computer. You can choose to deselect & select albums as per your preferences;
5. When you’re finished with your selection, please scroll to the bottom, and Google Takeout will create a copy of your photos and save them at your local destination. The time taken would depend on the size of the files selected.
If you are using the mobile app, whether on iOS or Android, you’ll be disappointed to know that you can’t directly download multiple photos or albums.
While we hope that Google introduces these features in the future, designing around data charges, you can also use Google Takeout on your phone. The process would be almost similar to the one we just described when using your computer.
If you need an alternative method for downloading to your mobile, you can try two things:
Export multiple images to Google Drive, & download them from there;
Export multiple images to your email, & download them from there.
It is worth noting that you’ll need to manually tap and drag to select the entire album you want to export in both these circumstances. The process could be time-consuming if you have a large volume of files or folders.
If all you want to do is share an album with somebody via the Internet, you do not need to download it. Follow these simple steps:
1. Access Google Photos;
2. Tap on “Albums” from the menu on the left;
3. Choose the album you wish to share;
4. Tap on the “Three dot menu” icon at the upper right of the album cover, and there you have a bunch of sharing options to choose from.
On the other hand, if you wish to share one or more photos, go through the following easy steps:
1. Go to Google Photos;
2. Tap on “Photos” from the menu on the left;
3. Choose the photos you are willing to share;
4. Tap on the “Share” icon at the upper right of your screen, and have your photos virtually shared instantly.
Wrap Up
There are no full 3rd party apps that would enable you to download multiple files from Google Photos. There are some speculations regarding Google wanting you to shift more towards cloud storage & using Google Drive.
Now that you well know how to download multiple photos from Google Photos, if the above methods work for you, then we think it is safe to say goodbye to the process of selecting photos one at a time & say hello to a more comfortable life!