About a month ago, Google sent out an email letting users know that it was shutting down its Album Archive service. Now, there were some Google services that were attached to this platform but some of the more important ones would be Blogger and Hangouts. While most have probably moved on from both services, either by choice or force, there still could potentially be a lot of data that was left behind if you ever used these services in the past. Google is recommending users back up this data since it will no longer be available after July 19.
Per the email, Google requests users to check out their Album Archive, and if you’re navigating to that website for the first time and are seeing photos or videos, chances are, you’re going to want to back everything that you see. Once on this page, there should be a banner at the top of the page, directing users to make use of Google Takeout to download all the information. When you head to Takeout, you should see something similar to the image above, with data selected for Album Archive.
The next step will request how you want the data, in ZIP or TGZ format, and the size of the file. Users will have the option to archive the data in data chunks in sizes of 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 10GB, and 50GB. For example, if you have 4GB of data total, and choose to accept it in 1GB parts, you’ll receive four archived files totaling 4GB. Of course, you can always change this setting, with 50GB being the highest setting. After selecting the file type and size, Google will begin creating an archive, which will be available for download at a later time.
Google will send a follow-up email when the files are ready for download. Personally, as a previous Hangouts user, this was a great opportunity to back up images sent through chat that would have otherwise been lost. Also, you never know, so be sure to check all your Google accounts if you’re someone that has changed accounts over the past several years. Just be sure to get things backed up before today, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.