Leaving a cloud photo service? How to move your library home

To move photos off a cloud service, download your whole library with the service's own export tool, unpack it into one folder tree on your PC, and point firelet.media Gallery at it. The gallery indexes the files where they are, finds the duplicates that exports tend to create, helps you fix missing dates, and gives you search by description, all offline.

Before you move photos off a cloud service: space and time#

A little planning saves a second download.

• Space. Check how much your library uses in the service. You need at least that much free space for the photos, and roughly twice as much while the archive is still zipped. Plan for a backup drive of the same size too.
• Time. Large exports can take a while for the service to prepare, and a long time to download. Start on a day when the PC can stay on.
• One home. Decide where the library will live, for example D:\Photos, with the export in its own subfolder such as D:\Photos\From the cloud while you tidy it.

Download your archive#

Most cloud photo services offer a way to download your whole library. The details change from time to time, so check the service's own help pages, but in general:

• Google Photos is exported through Google Takeout, which prepares your library as a set of zip files to download. Takeout often puts extra .json files beside the pictures with information from the service.
• iCloud Photos can be downloaded to a Windows PC with Apple's iCloud for Windows app, which keeps a copy in a folder on the PC. Make sure the files are fully downloaded, not just shown as online.
• OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive already hold ordinary files. Tell the sync app on your PC to keep the photo folders on this device.
• Other services usually have a "download all" or "export your data" option in their settings.

If your photos already sync to a folder on this PC, Add a cloud folder in the Library panel finds the OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud folders for you, with no sign-in. Pictures that are still online-only show a cloud badge and no preview until they are on the PC; see how to add OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud folders.

Unpack into one folder tree#

1. Create the home folder you planned, such as D:\Photos\From the cloud.
2. Extract every zip file into it. In File Explorer, right-click a zip and choose Extract All….
3. Keep the folder names the export used. They are searchable: the search box matches folder names.
4. Leave any .json or .html files where they are. The gallery simply skips files it does not index.

Attach it and let it scan#

1. Open Library (Alt+1) and press Attach a folder.
2. Choose the home folder. The scan starts by itself.

3. Watch the status line: "Scanning… {n} files found", then "Reading metadata…", then "Saving…".
4. Open AI (Alt+3), press Download model (438 MB, once), then Index library, so you can search by description.

Attach the unpacked folder where it is rather than importing it. Imaging → Import files pictures into date folders by each file's modified time, and for a downloaded export that is often the day you downloaded it.

A few formats need attention. iPhone HEIC photos need the free HEIF Image Extension and the HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store on Windows; see HEIC photos don't show on Windows. Camera RAW files are counted and reported, but not supported yet; the JPEGs your camera wrote alongside them are.

Duplicates and dates#

Exports are rarely tidy. A picture that sat in two albums can arrive twice, and pictures you already had on the PC arrive again.

Duplicates. Clear exact copies first:

1. In AI, expand Identical copies and press Find identical copies.
2. Press Keep one of each, reject the rest. The copy kept takes the others' stars, keywords and albums; the rest are only flagged.
3. Then expand Duplicates and press Scan for duplicates to catch resized and re-saved copies that a byte-for-byte check misses, such as smaller versions saved from chats.
4. Review with Filters → Rating & labels → Rejected, then delete what you are sure of. It goes to the Recycle Bin.

Too many duplicate photos? goes into more detail.

Dates. Open Calendar (Alt+6) and look for a big spike on one day. That is usually pictures with no capture date inside them, which fall back to the file's date. In Advanced query (Alt+9), has!=date lists them. Select a batch you can date, press Ctrl+Shift+D, use Set the first to or Move them all by, and press Apply. The correction is kept in the library, and the files are not changed. Photos in the wrong order? walks through it.

Keep phone photos coming home by Wi-Fi#

Leaving the cloud also means a new way to get phone pictures to the PC.

• Android. The free firelet.media Gallery companion for Android is coming soon. Paired over your home Wi-Fi, it can send pictures to the PC, and the PC can copy new photos automatically every few minutes while the phone is visible, with no cloud in between. See the free Android companion.
• Until then, or for cameras: Imaging (Ctrl+2) → Import copies from SD cards and removable drives, and a phone connected over USB should appear there too. Duplicates are skipped and every copy is checked.
• iPhone. There is no iPhone app. Copy iPhone pictures into a library folder with the tools you already use, then press Scan in the toolbar to pick them up.

With the archive home, deduplicated, dated and backed up, your library is searchable offline, and it costs nothing more each month.