gphotos-sync has been archived

[gilesknap]

gphotos-sync: 19th Sept 2015 - 4th Oct 2024

Introduction

Sadly, I have taken the decision to archive the gphotos-sync project today.

Google will be changing the authorization scopes for Google Photos on March 15th 2025 as described here. There is no way that a backup tool like gphotos-sync can operate under the new scopes.

For a discussion on the impact see this issue.

You can still use the current version of the software until March but after that it will cease to operate. Over the last 9 years with the help of many contributors we have ironed out most of the bugs in this tool. Those few remaining issues outstanding, I'm afraid I don't have motivation to spend time on them when there are only a few months of operation left.

Therefore, I'm giving notice early so that people may have a chance to make their last backup.

Hope for the future

This issue on Google Tracker has a response from the developers saying that they may look into an incremental backup solution in the future. This may mean that Google would provide their own solution or perhaps they would consider some way of opening the API up - if so, I would bring gphotos-sync back or perhaps write something new.

Alternatives to Google Photos?

I for one will still be using Google Photos. It is the best photo management tool available that I have found so far. Occasional, non-incremental backup is available using Takeout.

I originally wrote gphotos-sync because there was no read-only viewer and I was concerned about accidentally deleting loads of photos and not noticing until it was too late to recover. These days I don't really bother curating my photos because the search and auto album features are good enough. In a way that seems like a loss, I used to be really invested in my photo collection but not so much now. But the truth is I have less need for incremental backup than I did when I first relinquished control of my collection to Google.

Thanks Everyone!

This has been the most successful open-source project I ever made, and it has been great fun. Thanks so much to all those of you who contributed code fixes, features and bug reports over the last 9 years.

I've made gphotos-sync-discussion just in case people still want to make any comments. You won't be able to create issues on the archived project, but feel free to:

• add a comment below
• open an issue here
• add a discussion item here

[wriswith]

So sad to see this end. It was a real piece of mind to know that I had an up to date backup even if my account got hacked. I'm crossing my fingers there will be a new API in the future.
Thank you for sharing this great tool all these years!

[jokob-sk]

Amazing work for almost a decade @gilesknap 🙏 kudos

Anyone reading - go and +1 the issue: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/368779600?pli=1

[gilesknap]

Amazing work for almost a decade @gilesknap 🙏 kudos

Anyone reading - go and +1 the issue: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/368779600?pli=1

done!

[Ham3D]

Nice work @gilesknap
I didn't trust Google that much with my photos to keep them safe, but your library changed that years ago.
In my setup, I had a script to back up my pictures in two different storage systems, but now, it's time to change.

You know, a decade is a lifetime!

Thanks! <3

[gilesknap]

no worries, it was fun while it lasted!