Google Photos

Google Takeout Split Into Many Zip Files: Download, Merge and Check Nothing Is Missing

A big Google Photos export arrives as a stack of numbered zip files. Here is which size and format to pick, how to get every part downloaded before the links expire, how to merge them into one folder, and how to check nothing went missing.

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If your Google Photos library is more than a few gigabytes, Takeout does not give you one file. It gives you a numbered set of archives, and you have about a week to download all of them. Miss one and the photos in it are simply absent from your copy, with no error anywhere to tell you.

Here is how to set up the export, get every part down, merge them and prove the result is complete.

Step 1: choose the settings before you create the export

Go to takeout.google.com, deselect everything, then tick Google Photos. On the next screen you choose three things that matter.

"Add to Drive" puts the archives in your Google Drive, and Google states they count toward your storage. If you are leaving because your storage is full, that option will not work. Choose the email download link.

Frequency: export once

The other option repeats the export every two months for a year. You want a single archive.

File type: .zip or .tgz

Both work. Zip opens on any computer without extra software. A .tgz opens natively on Mac and Linux and may need a tool such as 7-Zip on Windows. The commands below cover both, but zip is the simpler choice.

Size: 1, 2, 4, 10 or 50 GB per file

This sets the maximum size of each archive. It does not change what you get, only how many pieces it comes in. Some points to weigh:

  • Zip files over 2 GB use the Zip64 format. Any current Mac, Windows or Linux system handles that. Very old tools may not.
  • Bigger parts mean fewer downloads to manage, but a failed download costs you more time to repeat.
  • The GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper Neo project recommends zip at 50 GB, and warns that with 2 GB parts, videos larger than 2 GB are exported in a way it cannot handle.

On a stable connection, pick 50 GB. On a flaky connection, 10 GB is a reasonable middle ground.

Then press Create export. Google says it can take from a few minutes to a few days. Most people get the email the same day.

Step 2: understand what you will receive

The parts share one name and are numbered, ending -001.zip, -002.zip and so on.

Two facts shape everything after this:

  • Each part is a complete archive on its own. It is not a split volume that needs all the others to open. You can test and extract them one at a time.
  • Related files can land in different parts. A photo can be in part 3 while its JSON sidecar is in part 7. Do not process any part on its own. Merge everything first.

Google's limits, from its own help page: the archive expires in about 7 days, and each archive can be downloaded 5 times. After that you have to request a new export, and a new export means downloading every part again, not just the one you missed.

What helps:

  • Download from the Manage exports page on takeout.google.com rather than hunting for the email each time. Each part has its own Download button.
  • Use a desktop browser on a wired connection, and download two or three parts at a time rather than all of them at once.
  • Download straight to the drive where you will keep the files. A 50 GB part will not fit in many laptops' free space.
  • Google may ask you to sign in again before a download starts.
  • Keep a simple list of part numbers and tick each one off when it finishes and passes the test in Step 4.

An interrupted download counts against your five, so check each part as soon as it finishes.

Step 4: test each archive

A truncated download can look normal in Finder. Test it. On a Mac, in Terminal, from the folder with the downloads:

for f in takeout-*.zip; do unzip -tq "$f"; done

Every line should say "No errors detected". For .tgz parts:

for f in takeout-*.tgz; do tar -tzf "$f" > /dev/null && echo "OK $f"; done

On Windows, with 7-Zip installed, select the parts in File Explorer and use 7-Zip's Test archive option, or from a command prompt in the downloads folder:

"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" t "takeout-*.zip"

If a part fails, download it again while you still have attempts left.

Step 5: merge all parts into one folder

Extract every part into the same destination folder. Each part contains a Takeout folder, and they merge into one tree. On a Mac:

mkdir -p ~/TakeoutMerged
for f in takeout-*.zip; do unzip -nq "$f" -d ~/TakeoutMerged; done

-n never overwrites a file that already exists, so running it twice is harmless. If Archive Utility gives you an error on a large part, this Terminal method is the one to use. For .tgz parts, use tar -xzf "$f" -C ~/TakeoutMerged in the loop instead.

On Windows, with 7-Zip:

"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" x "takeout-*.zip" -o"D:\TakeoutMerged" -aos

-aos skips files that already exist. Use a short destination path such as D:\TakeoutMerged. Takeout album and file names can be long, and deep paths on Windows cause extraction errors.

Step 6: check that nothing is missing

Count the files in the archives and compare that with the files on disk. On a Mac:

for f in takeout-*.zip; do unzip -Z1 "$f"; done | grep -v '/$' | wc -l
find ~/TakeoutMerged -type f | wc -l

The two numbers should match. On Windows, in PowerShell from the downloads folder:

(Get-ChildItem takeout-*.zip | ForEach-Object { tar -tf $_.FullName } |
  Where-Object { $_ -notmatch '/$' }).Count
(Get-ChildItem D:\TakeoutMerged -Recurse -File).Count

If the archive count is higher, an extraction failed part way. Run the merge again; existing files are skipped and the rest are filled in.

Two more checks:

  • Open archive_browser.html in the Takeout folder. It is Google's index of what the export contains, and it confirms Google Photos is included.
  • Do not expect the count to equal the number shown in Google Photos. The export includes a JSON file for most photos, and a photo that is in an album can appear both in its year folder and in the album folder. Compare like with like: archive count against disk count.

Step 7: keep the zips until the job is done

Do not delete the parts after merging. Keep them until you have fixed the dates, imported the photos wherever they are going, and made a second copy on another drive. If something goes wrong later, re-extracting from the zips is quick. Requesting a new export means waiting for Google and downloading everything again.

Once the merge checks out, the next problem is usually that every photo shows the wrong date. That is the JSON sidecars, and it is fixable.

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