How to download multiple photos from Google Photos

How to download multiple photos from Google Photos

How to download multiple photos from Google Photos? Google Photos may not be the most practical photo storage application, but it offers virtually unlimited space for all your photos, and at the end of the day it’s part of Google so every one of us is going to use it anyway.

If you’re getting increasingly frustrated at having to download one photo at a time from Google Photos, then trust us when we say you are not alone.

There’s good news for you though! Not only is it possible to download multiple files, but it’s also not even as complicated as you may be thinking!

Throughout this article, we’ll be exploring the methods you can go through to download multiple images at once from Google Photos. These methods work for both Android and iOS phones, and also smoothly on your PC.

So whether you want to make a backup of your files, have them with you on the go, or just want to download them for your personal use, this article will show you how it can be done.

Table of Contents

  1. How to download multiple photos from Google Photos
    1. Download an entire album
    2. Download multiple albums
    3. Share an album or a picture with someone
  2. Wrap Up

How to download multiple photos from Google Photos

If you like to keep organized, and want to download multiple pictures from albums, your work is already made easy. The methods we’re going to be explaining are specifically for albums, but the process for downloading individual pictures is almost identical.

Download an entire album

Downloading the entire album itself is pretty easy. Here’s how to do it:

  • Click on “Albums” after opening Google Photos;
  • Choose the album you want to download;
  • On the top right of your screen, you should see a “three dots symbol” (also known as a “hamburger menu” or “hamburger icon”) – it represents additional options. Click on this icon;
  • Select “Download all” from the pop-up menu on your screen.

After you follow these steps, Google Photos is going to download a compressed file in a “.zip” format. It will contain all the photos in the selected album.

Download multiple albums

Still, sometimes you may want to download multiple albums together in a quick way. To get this job done smoothly, Google has a free service known as Google Takeout.

This is an application that lets you export data from any part of your Google account. It has a very friendly interface and automated functionality, so you have nothing to worry about.

Follow these steps to download multiple albums from Google Photos using Takeout:

  • Log into your Google account and visit the Google Takeout website. You can access it at this link;
  • By default, all of your data is going to be selected across all your Google applications. Click on “Deselect All” on the right side as you just want to download photo albums;
  • Scroll and check on Google Photos;
  • The option for “All photo albums included” will be shown. By clicking it you will see that all of your albums have been selected and are ready to be exported to your PC. You can choose to deselect and select albums according to your preferences;
  • When you are finished with your selection, scroll to the bottom and Google Takeout will create a copy of your pictures and save them at your local destination. The time taken would depend on the size of the files selected.

If you’re using the mobile app, whether on Android or iOS, you will be disappointed to know that you cannot directly download multiple photos or albums.

While we hope that Google introduces these features in the future, designing around data charges, you can use Google Takeout on your phone as well. The process would be almost similar to the one we just described when using your PC.

If you want an alternative method for downloading to your phone, you can try two things:

  • Export multiple images to Google Drive, and download them from there;
  • Export multiple images to your email, and download them from there.

It’s worth noting that in both these circumstances you will need to manually tap and drag to select the entire album you want to export. The process could be time-consuming if you have a large volume of files or folders.

Share an album or a picture with someone

If all you want to do is to share an album with somebody through the Internet, you don’t need to download it. Simply follow these steps:

  • Access Google Photos;
  • Click on “Albums” from the menu on the left;
  • Choose the album you want to share;
  • Click on the “Three dot menu” icon at the top right of the album cover, and there you have a bunch of sharing options to choose from.

On the other hand, if you just want to share one or more pictures, go through the following steps:

  • Go to Google Photos;
  • Click on “Photos” from the menu on the left;
  • Choose the photos you’re willing to share;
  • Click on the “Share” icon at the top right of your screen, and have your pictures virtually shared instantly.

Wrap Up

Currently, there are no full third-party apps that would let you download multiple files from Google Photos. Although there are some speculations regarding Google wanting you to shift more towards cloud storage and using Google Drive.

Now that you know how to download multiple photos from Google Photos, if the above methods work for you, then we think it’s safe to say goodbye to the process of selecting pictures one at a time, and say hello to an easier life!

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