Google Album Archive is going away on July 19: How to save your images before they vanish

Not sure what Google Album Archive is? You are probably not alone. Google Album Archive is a cloud-based photo gallery that lets users view and manage photo and video content from a host of Google products and services such as Google Hangouts, now Google Chats, and Picasa Web Albums. Simply put, Google Album Archive is online image-storing space that houses all the images that users share on Google’s apps that are not stored on Google Photos.

Last month, Google started informing all its Google Album Archive users that it is going to shut down the service on July 19, 2023. The company had also reflected the changes on its support page. “Starting July 19, 2023, the Google Album Archive will not be available and content that’s only available in Album Archive will be deleted. Until then, if you have content that you want to save, download a copy with Google Takeout,” the company wrote in an update on its support page.

When Google pulls the plug, all the images on the platform will vanish and user will no longer be able to access the old photos that they don’t have a copy of or haven’t saved in other apps, such as Google Photos, yet. The company says that once the change comes into effect, rare cases like small thumbnail photos and album comments or likes, some Google Hangouts data from Album Archive, and background images uploaded in the Gmail theme picker prior to 2018, will vanish.

However, images from Google Blogger, Google Account profile photos, Google Photos content, and Google Photos Archive will remain unaffected by the change. Users who still have images in Google Album Archive can use Google Takeout to download a copy of their data.

So, if you have images in Google Album Archive and you want to save a copy, here is what you need to do:

How to save a copy of your Google Album Archive images

Step 1: Open Google Takeout in the web-browser on your PC. Alternatively, you can click here.

Step 2: Select Google Album Archive and deselect everything else.

Step 3: Click on Next Step option at the bottom.

Step 4: In the drop-down menu, select the destination where you want the images to be saved.
You can pick from Send download link via email, Add to Drive, Add to Dropbox, Add to OneDrive and Add to Box option.

Step 5: Select the frequency. You can pick between Export once and Export every two months for one year options.

Step 6: Select the file type and size.

Step 7: Click on Create Export option.

After that you will get a message that says that Google is creating a copy of the files from Archive Album and that it will inform you when everything is ready.