Google Footage Possible choices: A Photographer’s 2026 Information

In case you’re leaving Google Footage and need the nearest factor to a directly alternative, it’s Ente. It’s end-to-end encrypted, open supply, and it has a step by step import trail for Google Takeout archives. If what you’re transferring is an actual picture archive somewhat than a digicam roll, no unmarried app will do the activity. You need a device, with a neighborhood grasp reproduction, one cloud reproduction held offsite, and a separate layer for sharing if you want one.

I say this as any individual who has accomplished it. I’ve been taking pictures for 30 years, my operating archive is over 10TB, and it lives alone garage at house with Backblaze because the offsite reproduction. I’ve additionally pulled a whole picture library out of Google Footage, which used to be extra effort than I anticipated.

So this information solutions the leaving query prior to the coming query. Google Takeout offers you the entirety, however it splits your picture metadata in some way that catches nearly everybody out, its archives expire after about 7 days, and each and every one can best be downloaded 5 occasions. Get previous that and opting for the place to move is the straightforward section.

Why Other folks Are Leaving Google Footage in 2026

The 2026 causes come down to price and AI. Google now sells its garage tiers bundled with Gemini, so the 2TB plan is known as Google AI Plus and the 5TB plan is Google AI Professional, and quite a few folks paying for picture garage have spotted they’re now paying for an AI subscription whether or not they sought after one or no longer.

The present pricing, as of August 2026, looks as if this. The unfastened tier continues to be 15GB, shared throughout Gmail and Force, which a telephone fills temporarily. 100GB is $1.99 a month. The 2TB Google AI Plus plan is $9.99 a month, or $99.99 a 12 months in the event you pay every year. The 5TB Google AI Professional plan is $19.99 a month.

Those are all beautiful affordable costs for garage. What’s modified is what you’re purchasing, and for some folks, what Google may well be doing with a life-time in their pictures in an AI product cycle. If that sits badly with you, that is the instant to behave on it.

I’ve watched this deal alternate prior to, as a result of I’ve been a Google Footage person for a long time. I began again when Picasa used to be nonetheless a factor and there used to be a desktop uploader, and Google integrated unfastened limitless garage. After I purchased one of the most early Pixel telephones, that got here with unfastened limitless backup too. For a paranormal few years I had each picture I owned subsidized up for not anything!

In fact, the economics of giving photographers limitless unfastened garage stuck up with Google sooner or later, and that technology ended. To be truthful to them, they didn’t delete the rest, and the pictures I uploaded underneath the previous deal nonetheless don’t rely in opposition to my garage cap these days. That mentioned, the organisation and control equipment for moderately a big library depart one thing to be desired.

However that’s the lesson, and it’s the true reason why this text exists. The deal modified as soon as, in Google’s favour, and there’s not anything preventing Google from converting it additional. If the one entire reproduction of your pictures lives within any individual else’s subscription phrases, you don’t in reality personal your archive. You’re renting get right of entry to to it.

Find out how to Get Your Footage Out of Google Footage

Google Takeout will export the entirety, however it splits your picture metadata between the picture recordsdata and separate JSON recordsdata, so that you will have to import with a device that reads the JSON as an alternative of simply dragging naked symbol recordsdata into a brand new house.

Takeout is Google’s export carrier for your entire account, and pictures are the cumbersome section. You choose Google Footage, pick out an archive measurement (50GB is the biggest per-part choice, and I’d make a selection it, as a result of a large library will produce numerous portions), and Google emails you when the archive is able to obtain.

That is the path I took myself. I haven’t left Google Footage utterly (my telephone nonetheless backs up there as it’s handy and reasonably affordable), however I sought after a whole reproduction of 30 years of pictures on drives I personal, no longer sitting best within any individual else’s account. Run the export early, prior to you have got a reason why to be in a rush.

Now the section that issues. Google’s personal documentation explains that the unique metadata embedded to your recordsdata remains embedded. In case your digicam wrote a seize date and GPS place into the EXIF information, that survives export untouched.

However the entirety Google Footage itself is aware of a couple of picture lives somewhere else, in a small JSON document exported along each and every symbol. That comes with descriptions you added, folks tags, favourites, and, in step with the builders of the most important import equipment, the GPS place and any dates you corrected within Google Footage.

So in the event you ever fastened a mistaken date or added a location via hand, the corrected model exists best within the JSON. Import simply the picture recordsdata and all of that paintings is long gone.

Two commonplace scares are value defusing right here, as a result of each push folks into unhealthy selections. The primary is “Takeout stripped my EXIF”. It didn’t. The embedded metadata continues to be within the recordsdata.

The second one is “all my pictures are dated these days”. That’s your running device assigning a brand new document timestamp while you downloaded the archive, which Google’s documentation describes, and it doesn’t contact the real picture metadata in any respect. Neither of those is information loss. The true possibility is quieter, and it’s the JSON matching downside underneath.

A couple of sensible main points, all present as of August 2026:

• Archives expire in about 7 days, and each and every archive will also be downloaded a most of five occasions. A failed obtain partway via a 20-part export burns a kind of 5 makes an attempt, which is precisely while you’ll uncover how a lot you care about this rule. In case your connection is sluggish or flaky, plan the week round it.
• The rest above your selected section measurement will get break up into a couple of recordsdata, as much as that 50GB consistent with section. Google’s personal troubleshooting recommendation for failed exports is to request smaller archives with fewer merchandise in them, so be expecting an overly massive library to want persistence and perhaps a couple of try.
• Albums pop out as folders. Google doesn’t file the archive’s inside structure, however either one of the most important import equipment are constructed round a folder-per-album construction, with album club additionally recorded within the JSON recordsdata.
• Extract the entirety prior to you import. Ente’s migration information warns that if Google splits a picture and its JSON document throughout other ZIP archives, the metadata will not be matched appropriately. Their beneficial repair, which I’d practice, is to extract all of the ZIPs into one guardian folder, stay the subfolders as they’re, and level your import device at that.

The import equipment do the reassembly give you the results you want. Ente’s importer reads the Takeout JSON immediately and carries your albums and favourites throughout, and the self-hosted global has immich-go doing the similar activity for Immich. Whichever course you’re going, the check on the finish is inconspicuous. Spot-check pictures you recognize you edited within Google Footage, and ensure the corrected dates and places made it.

Assume in 3 Roles, Now not One Substitute

One of the best ways to interchange Google Footage is with 3 roles somewhat than one product. A neighborhood grasp reproduction you personal, one cloud reproduction that’s offsite, and, provided that you want it, a separate layer for sharing pictures with other folks.

Google Footage bundles all 3 of the ones jobs into one subscription, and that bundling is why it’s so laborious to go away. If you break up the roles aside, each and every one will get simple.

The Native Grasp Replica

That is your pictures on garage you bodily personal, organised on the other hand you prefer, preferably controlled via catalogue instrument. Mine is a Lightroom catalogue with the recordsdata on an Unraid server and a big exterior power at house. Yours might be so simple as a folder tree on a desktop exterior power. That is the reproduction you’re employed from, and the reproduction that makes each later resolution reversible.

The Offsite Cloud Replica

One reproduction elsewhere, whose best activity is surviving a space hearth or a housebreaking. It doesn’t want a beautiful interface, it must be entire and inexpensive at your archive’s measurement. I take advantage of Backblaze for this, at $99 a 12 months, and I’m going into why underneath.

The Sharing Layer

This one’s not obligatory, and it’s the activity Google Footage does so neatly that I by no means changed it. Jess and I each again our telephones as much as Google Footage and proportion circle of relatives pictures between us there, and for that activity it simply works.

In case your sharing is extra about appearing completed paintings to the arena, this deposit may well be SmugMug as an alternative. The purpose is that sharing is a separate resolution from archiving, and combining them up is how folks finally end up paying gallery costs for backup, or trusting backup jobs to a gallery.

After I moved my very own pictures out to construct the program, the check I used used to be easy. Did I finally end up with a whole set, and may I turn out it to myself? The whole thing else, together with which brand is at the cloud reproduction, issues not up to that.

My completed edits additionally sync via Dropbox, which is a comfort and no longer a backup, however it displays how unglamorous a operating device appears in observe. For the whole manner, together with how the 3-2-1 backup rule applies to pictures, see my entire information to backing up your pictures.

The Very best Google Footage Possible choices in 2026

Throughout the entirety I’ve examined and priced, Ente is the nearest like-for-like alternative, Backblaze is the most efficient offsite reproduction for a large library, and Amazon Footage is the most efficient worth in the event you already pay for High. The desk will give you the evaluate, and the sections underneath provide the reasoning, together with the caveats the gross sales pages pass over.

All costs had been checked immediately in opposition to each and every carrier’s personal pricing web page in August 2026, with the billing duration said, as a result of a per month fee and an annual fee for a similar tier can learn like two other costs.

Ente

Ente is the pick out I’d hand to most of the people leaving Google Footage, and it’s the one who shocked me maximum whilst researching this. It’s end-to-end encrypted, so Ente can’t learn your pictures, let on my own teach on them. It’s open supply and describes itself as audited. It’s cross-platform. And you’ll use their hosted carrier or run the server your self, which is an extraordinary mixture.

For a migration in particular, it’s the standout, as a result of Ente maintains a step by step Google Takeout import information and its importer reads the Takeout JSON recordsdata, wearing albums and favourites throughout as an alternative of leaving them in the back of within the export. The information may be strangely candid concerning the split-ZIP metadata danger I lined above, which tells you the builders have watched actual migrations fail and glued issues.

Pricing as of August 2026 runs from 10GB unfastened, via 50GB at $2.49 a month, to 1TB at $9.99 a month ($119.88 a 12 months) and 2TB at $19.99 a month ($239.88 a 12 months). That’s greater than Google fees for a similar terabytes, and the variation is what encryption and independence value. For transparency, we haven’t any industrial courting with Ente. I’m recommending it as it’s the appropriate device.

Amazon Footage

Amazon Footage is the solution hiding within a subscription chances are you’ll already pay for. High individuals get limitless full-resolution picture garage (Amazon has prolonged the similar get advantages to standalone Alexa+ subscribers, and notes it’s to be had in make a selection nations). For a High family with a large JPEG library, that makes it the most affordable critical choice in this web page, for the reason that marginal value is 0.

For photographers, two main points alternate the image, and I needed to dig into Amazon’s assist pages to pin each down. First, RAW recordsdata are supported, with Amazon record Nikon NEF, Canon CR2 and CR3, Sony ARW and others amongst supported picture varieties (DNG will get “restricted improve”, Amazon’s hedge, no longer mine). However Amazon Footage generates no previews for RAW recordsdata in any respect. Your RAW archive at Amazon is chilly garage. You’ll’t browse it visually, and you’ll’t print from it with out importing JPEGs along.

2d, movies don’t get the limitless remedy. Everybody, High integrated, will get 5GB for movies and different recordsdata, with extra video garage bought from $1.99 a month for 100GB.

Then there’s the high-quality print that issues maximum to the very individual studying this text, any individual parking an archive and strolling away. Amazon’s document retention coverage deletes all recordsdata in an account that’s long gone 2 years and not using a sign-in, add or obtain, with an electronic mail caution at 18 months.

And in the event you cancel High with a big library in position, an over-quota account begins shedding recordsdata after 180 days, latest first. So if Amazon Footage turns into your archive as an alternative of your day by day app, put a calendar reminder in for the log-in. I imply that actually.

Yet one more migration word. Amazon lists Google Movement Footage amongst its unsupported codecs, so the ones recordsdata from a Pixel can’t land at Amazon in any respect.

iCloud Footage

In case you shoot most commonly on an iPhone and are living within Apple’s ecosystem, iCloud Footage is the trail of least resistance, and there’s no disgrace in taking it. Pricing as of August 2026 is $0.99 a month for 50GB, $2.99 for 200GB, and $9.99 for 2TB, all billed per month.

As an archive resolution, I’d move. The economics are tuned for digicam rolls, the entire enjoy assumes you’re staying in Apple {hardware}, and at multi-terabyte scale the products and services additional down this record do the garage activity for much less. iCloud is a high-quality position in your telephone’s pictures to are living. It’s no longer the place I’d transfer a long time of labor.

SmugMug

SmugMug is the sharing layer accomplished proper, an actual gallery platform the place your pictures seem like pictures as an alternative of a grid of thumbnails, with consumer galleries and print gross sales if you wish to have them. I’ve lined it intensive in my SmugMug evaluation for photographers, so right here I’ll keep on with the garage query.

Learn the plans web page in moderation, for the reason that headline and the characteristic grid say various things. The headline get advantages is limitless full-resolution JPEG garage. RAW garage is a separate add-on, referred to as Supply, on each tier, at $10 a month for as much as 1TB and $6 a month for each and every further terabyte.

So the true access value for a RAW archive at SmugMug is the Direct plan at $20 a month plus $10 for Supply, which is $30 a month billed every year. The plans themselves run $20 (Direct), $23.50 (Portfolio) and $37 (Professional) monthly, all billed every year, as of August 2026.

For the appropriate photographer, any individual who needs their archive and their public-facing galleries in a single position, that package can nonetheless make sense. Simply cross in figuring out that “limitless” has a caveat with the phrase JPEG hooked up to it.

Backblaze

Backblaze isn’t a Google Footage alternative, and that’s precisely why it’s in this record. It’s a backup carrier that backs up the drives hooked up on your laptop, for $99 a 12 months consistent with laptop and not using a information cap (paying for 2 years directly saves an extra 8%). You browse your native pictures to your personal catalogue instrument, and Backblaze holds the reproduction that saves you when the worst occurs.

That is the offsite reproduction in my very own device and has been for years, sitting in the back of my 10TB+ operating archive. In case you construct the three-role setup from previous, that is the position I’d fill first. That hyperlink will get you a unfastened month, and readers of my picture backup information will recognise it as my best backup pick out there too. The decision hasn’t modified, simply the activity description.

pCloud

pCloud sells one thing nearly no one else does, lifetime garage for a one-time cost. As of August 2026 the lifetime costs are $199 for 500GB (record $299), $399 for 2TB (record $599) and $1,190 for 10TB (record $1,890).

About the ones strikethrough costs. I went and browse pCloud’s personal promotion phrases, and the “cut price” is a limited-time promotional marketing campaign via their very own definition, with as much as 37% off, and an finish date of one April 2031. So it’s a promotion in kind of the way in which a settee sale is a promotion.

Pay-once economics do swimsuit a photograph archive, despite the fact that. In opposition to Google’s 2TB plan at $99.99 a 12 months billed every year, the 2TB lifetime will pay for itself in about 4 years, and picture archives are the definition of long-horizon garage. The guess you’re making is on pCloud nonetheless being right here in a decade, which is an actual attention for a life-time acquire, and a just right reason why to stay pCloud as one reproduction in a device, by no means your just one.

iDrive

iDrive wins on value at scale, and a few of the products and services on this comparability it isn’t shut. On the once a year plans as of August 2026, 5TB is $6.99 a month for the 1st 12 months and $9.99 a month after that, billed every year, which goes out to $83.88 in 12 months one and $119.88 a 12 months from 12 months two. 10TB is $10.49 a month first 12 months, then $14.99, billed every year, or $125.88 after which $179.88 a 12 months. There’s additionally a unfastened 10GB tier to check with.

I quote each years intentionally, for the reason that first-year determine is the only iDrive advertises and the renewal determine is the only you’ll are living with. iDrive’s personal footnotes ascertain the development, with the bargain making use of to the 1st 12 months best, for brand new signups best. Funds at the renewal value and deal with 12 months one as an advantage. As a undeniable storage-and-backup bucket for a big archive, it’s the price pick out, and it’s the row in the fee desk underneath that makes a number of better-known names glance pricey.

One carrier does undercut it, and the catch issues. Jottacloud sells a limiteless private plan at $129.90 a 12 months, which is available in underneath iDrive at 10TB. Add pace is steadily lowered above 5TB, via Jottacloud’s personal footnote, and their particular person and circle of relatives accounts are for private use best, no longer for storing information commercially. Promote any of your pictures and also you’re on their industrial tier at $299 a 12 months, which is easily above iDrive. For a hobbyist archive Jottacloud is an actual choice. For any person incomes from their paintings, iDrive nonetheless wins.

Immich

Immich is what occurs when the self-hosting neighborhood makes a decision to rebuild Google Footage from scratch, and in 2026 it merits to be handled as an actual choice. The undertaking shipped its first strong unencumber, v2.0.0, on 1 October 2025, and it’s moved temporarily since, attaining v3.1.0 via the tip of July 2026. Any protection you’ve learn describing it as without end in beta is outdated.

You run it by yourself {hardware}, your pictures live to tell the tale your individual drives, and the telephone apps do automated backup the way in which Google’s do. The Takeout tale is cast too, with the immich-go device constructed in particular to ingest Google Takeout archives, JSON matching integrated. The total image, together with what self-hosting asks of you in observe, is a bit of additional down, as it merits its personal phase.

What About Dropbox, OneDrive and Flickr?

3 names folks arrive anticipating, and 3 fast verdicts.

Flickr Professional is $82 a 12 months billed every year as of August 2026, and it’s a photograph neighborhood, no longer an archive. Flickr doesn’t settle for RAW recordsdata at any tier (that’s a Flickr limitation, no longer a Professional one), pictures cap at 200MB each and every, and TIFF and BMP recordsdata are transformed to JPEG on add. In case you add a TIFF, you don’t get your TIFF again. It may be an attractive position to proportion paintings. As the house for the one just right reproduction of the rest, I’d rule it out.

Dropbox is a basic document retailer, and for that activity it’s high-quality. My completed edits sync via Dropbox as a part of my very own workflow. What it doesn’t have is a photograph library’s mind, so deal with it as a folder within the sky and not anything extra.

OneDrive performs the similar position in Microsoft’s global, and numerous folks paying for it don’t realise how a lot house they have already got. As of August 2026, Microsoft 365 Non-public is $99.99 a 12 months and springs with 1TB, and Circle of relatives is $129.99 a 12 months for as much as six folks with 1TB each and every. Test what your present subscription already comprises before you purchase garage any place else.

As an archive resolution it has Dropbox’s downside, quite a few house and no picture library to talk of, and 1TB consistent with individual doesn’t stretch to a long time of RAW recordsdata.

What Picture Garage In reality Prices at Archive Scale

At 10TB, the most affordable techniques to carry a photograph archive in this record are Backblaze at $99 a 12 months (as a backup of drives you personal) and iDrive at $179.88 a 12 months after the first-year cut price. The app-style products and services both don’t promote the ones sizes or value a number of occasions as a lot. That is the place the standard scores reorder themselves, as a result of products and services that glance similar at 200GB are wildly other at 10TB.

The mathematics underneath makes use of each and every carrier’s personal costs as of August 2026. The place a determine is a per month fee, I’ve multiplied it out to a 12 months and mentioned so. A touch way the carrier doesn’t promote that measurement, or I couldn’t examine a present value for it, so no guessing.

Client 2TB plans cluster round $100 to $240 a 12 months and inform you nearly not anything about which carrier fits an archive. The true separation occurs at 5TB and above, the place maximum photo-app products and services prevent enjoying and the sector narrows to backup-shaped merchandise.

SmugMug’s numbers glance steep right here, however bear in mind you’re purchasing a public gallery platform with garage hooked up, no longer uncooked terabytes. And Backblaze’s flat $99 is a bit of of a cheat on this corporate, as it calls for you to possess the drives it’s backing up. That’s additionally its merit. It assumes the grasp reproduction is yours.

The Reversibility Take a look at: How Do You Get Out Subsequent Time?

Prior to transferring your pictures any place, ask 3 questions. Can I export a folder tree with my unique recordsdata and their embedded metadata? Do I am getting my originals again, or one thing re-compressed? And does the tier I’m depending on rely on one thing that may be withdrawn?

You’re studying this text as a result of Google modified a deal. The most efficient use of that have is to make reversibility a check you follow prior to you dedicate, somewhat than a lesson you be informed two times.

The 3rd query is the only folks leave out, so listed here are the are living examples from this record. Amazon Footage’ limitless tier is a High get advantages, and Amazon’s retention coverage way an over-quota account (which is what yours turns into in the event you cancel High with a large library parked) begins shedding recordsdata after 180 days, latest first. iDrive’s marketed value lasts 12 months. pCloud’s lifetime cut price is, via its personal phrases, a promotion.

None of those are scandals, they’re phrases, and phrases are what burned Google Footage customers within the first position.

The second one query has a concrete instance too. Flickr converts TIFF and BMP uploads to JPEG, so what comes out isn’t what went in. That’s the development to test for any place you cross.

And the 1st query you’ll resolution for your self. No matter carrier you shortlist, add a small, recognized check set, a couple of hundred pictures together with some you’ve edited, then export it and check up on what you get again. Filenames, folder construction, embedded dates. It’s an hour of admin that tells you greater than any evaluation, together with this one.

Self-Web hosting Your Picture Library: What It In reality Takes

Immich is the self-hosted choice I’d level a technical reader at in 2026. And a self-hosted server is one reproduction of your pictures, no longer a backup. Either one of the ones sentences are true, and the second will get skipped in lots of the enthusiasm round self-hosting.

The attraction is actual. Your pictures keep for your {hardware}, there’s no subscription, and the phrases can’t alternate underneath you, as a result of there aren’t any phrases. With Immich now previous its first strong unencumber, the instrument is the true factor. PhotoPrism is the extra established selection, and Nextcloud can do pictures as a part of a broader self-hosted setup in the event you’re already working it.

Now the practitioner’s caveat. I run an Unraid server at house, a part of my archive lives on it, and I’ve a pc science stage and a previous lifestyles as a instrument developer.

Even so, self-hosting is a interest I’ve followed, with updates to use, drives to interchange, and coffee evenings misplaced to one thing that labored high-quality ultimate week. If that sounds a laugh, and for me it most commonly is, you’ll be in just right corporate. If it feels like a chore, the hosted products and services above exist for just right causes.

No matter you do, don’t let a self-hosted field turn out to be your best reproduction. One server in your home is one reproduction in your home, and the fireplace or flood that takes your computer systems takes it too. Pair it with an offsite reproduction, which is the position Backblaze performs in the back of my very own server. Self-hosting replaces the Google Footage interface. The backup self-discipline in my picture backup information nonetheless applies on best.

When To not Depart Google Footage

In case your library is a telephone digicam roll that matches within the unfastened 15GB or the $1.99-a-month 100GB plan, staying put is the appropriate name. If in case you have 60GB of telephone snapshots, leaving is a downgrade, and I’d inform you that on your face.

Google Footage’ seek is the most efficient I’ve used, the face grouping likewise, the app backs up mechanically with out ever desiring a concept, and at 100GB the fee is with regards to not anything. Each selection in this web page asks you to surrender a few of that polish in change for possession, value keep an eye on at scale, or privateness. For a large archive, that industry is value making. For a digicam roll, you’d be buying and selling down and paying for the privilege.

I’ll cross additional and inform you what I do, because it’s the placement this entire article has been construction to. My telephone nonetheless backs as much as Google Footage. Jess’s does too, and the circle of relatives sharing between our accounts is one thing no selection I’ve attempted suits for sheer loss of friction.

What I don’t do is let Google dangle the one reproduction of the rest. My archive, the 30 years of labor, lives alone drives with its personal offsite backup. Leaving Google Footage can simply imply demoting it, from where your archive lives to an app your telephone makes use of.

Regularly Requested Questions About Leaving Google Footage

A couple of questions that arise each time this matter does.

What’s the easiest selection to Google Footage?

For a directly alternative, Ente. It’s end-to-end encrypted, open supply, and has a documented Google Takeout import that assists in keeping your albums and favourites.

In case you’re transferring a big picture archive, no unmarried app is the solution. Use a neighborhood grasp reproduction by yourself drives, an offsite backup like Backblaze at $99 a 12 months, and upload a sharing layer provided that you want one.

Will have to I transfer from Google Footage to iCloud Footage?

Provided that you’re an iPhone person dedicated to Apple’s ecosystem, or even then it’s a sideways transfer, no longer an improve. You’d be swapping one giant corporate’s subscription for every other’s, at a an identical value ($9.99 a month for 2TB, billed per month, as of August 2026).

Transfer if Apple integration is what you wish to have. In case your causes for leaving Google are value at scale or proudly owning your archive, iCloud doesn’t clear up both.

Does Google Takeout stay my picture metadata?

The metadata that used to be embedded to your recordsdata, like digicam EXIF information, remains embedded. However the entirety Google Footage itself is aware of, together with edited dates, places, descriptions and folks tags, is exported to a separate JSON document along each and every picture.

So the protected resolution is sure, in the event you import with a device that reads the ones JSON recordsdata, comparable to Ente’s importer or immich-go. In case you reproduction simply the picture recordsdata, you’ll silently lose each correction you ever made within Google Footage.

Is Amazon Footage just right for photographers?

It’s just right worth, with actual barriers to find out about. High individuals get limitless full-resolution picture garage, and RAW codecs like NEF, CR2, CR3 and ARW are supported. However Amazon Footage doesn’t generate previews for RAW recordsdata, so you’ll’t browse a RAW archive visually. It’s chilly garage.

Additionally know the phrases. Movies best get 5GB, and an account that is going 2 years and not using a sign-in, or sits over quota for 180 days after a High cancellation, begins shedding recordsdata.

What’s the least expensive option to retailer a big picture library?

Stay the grasp reproduction by yourself drives and again it up with Backblaze, which is $99 a 12 months consistent with laptop and not using a information cap. That’s the most affordable critical setup I’ve discovered at 10TB and past, as of August 2026.

In case you’d somewhat have controlled cloud garage, iDrive’s 5TB plan renews at $119.88 a 12 months and its 10TB at $179.88 a 12 months, which undercuts each picture app on this information at the ones sizes.

Can I self-host a Google Footage selection?

Sure. Immich is the most powerful choice in 2026, previous its first strong unencumber and uploading Google Takeout archives by way of the immich-go device. PhotoPrism and Nextcloud are the opposite established routes.

Two eyes-open caveats. Self-hosting is an ongoing interest, no longer one thing you place up as soon as. And a server in your home is one reproduction of your pictures, so it nonetheless wishes its personal offsite backup.

Additional Studying

That covers getting out of Google Footage, however it’s one piece of a larger self-discipline. Those guides raise on from right here:

And if you wish to strengthen the pictures going into that newly organised archive, my on-line trip images route covers the entirety I’ve realized from 30 years of taking photos, together with the workflow and backup conduct from this information.

Takeout tales particularly will assist the following individual out of the door, so in the event you’ve run your individual export, inform me the way it went within the feedback.