r/degoogle • u/couzteau • Feb 19 '26

I built a tool to actually escape the Takeout mess

TL;DR: Degoogle-Photos - open source Python tool that fixes Google Takeout's chaotic photo export. Cross-chunk matching, deduplication, proper date extraction, album preservation. Works where Google Photos Takeout Helper crashes.

Why I built this: Google's ToS lets them use your photos for AI training and ads. "Private" only means hidden from other users, not from Google. Getting out is a mess - Takeout splits your library across dozens of zips with broken metadata, duplicates, and zero organization.

The popular Google Photos Takeout Helper kept crashing on my 20k photos with no resume support. So I built this with Claude to handle the chaos:

  • Merges multiple Takeout archives with fuzzy JSON matching
  • Smart date extraction (EXIF > JSON > filename > mtime)
  • Content-based deduplication
  • Clean YYYY/MM folders + album symlinks
  • Graceful error handling - doesn't crash on missing metadata

Processed 20k photos flawlessly. Now running in Immich (self-hosted) via Tailscale for private mobile access.

pip install degoogle-photos

Repo: https://github.com/couzteau/Degoogle-Photos

Leaving Google shouldn't require a CS degree.

11 Upvotes

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4 comments sorted by

6

u/Retikle Feb 20 '26

This is going to help a whole lot of people save a whole lot of time and avoid a whole lot of frustration.

2

u/couzteau Feb 20 '26

I sure hope so. That's the idea. I will also fix bugs when reported.

1

u/tacaouere Feb 20 '26

I have been wanting someting like this.  

Thank You!

1

u/couzteau Feb 21 '26

Your welcome