Goal
Use /e/ Cloud to store pictures and videos instead of Google Photos.
Disclaimer
- I’ll give you some script to transfer your data easily from Google Photos to /e/ Cloud. There is an option to delete data as well, in order to avoid filling up your computer storage. Using it may result in data loss. Do it at your own risk.
- Also, this isn’t some out-of-the-box script that does everything for you, yet. It only works on unix systems (but you can try executing it from Windows Subsystem for Linux, it should work), as I only began working on it this afternoon.
- To developers: you are free to copy, modify, and redistribute it as you wish (as long as you never sell it… Well, actually, there is nothing to sell, so…)!
Pre-requisites
- Go to Google Takeout and download your data from Google Photos (actually, you should download all of your data, as the script can find any picture in any folder recursively). It will take some time. Like days, or weeks. It took about a week for my more or less 70 Go of data.
- Since Google doesn’t like you getting back your data, it will give you a lot of ZIPs to download with your data scattered in them. Unzip them all in a clean folder. ZIP tools usually know how to get back original folder structure, even from multiple ZIPs.
- Download and install NodeJS
- Download my send-medias-to-nextcloud.js script and put it in the Google Photos folder (or any folder of which you want to transfer the pictures and videos to your Nextcloud folder)
- Optional: if you want to convert your video files as described in the step 1 of the guide, install
ffmpeg(it should be installed if you have VLC on your computer)
Guide
-
Convert your videos: the
mp4format is known by almost every video player so it was my choice when I did it. But if you don’t want to, modify my script to make it accept all the video format you want (fileExtensionListvariable). You can get all the file extensions existing under your Google Photos folder by executing the following command:
find . -type f -name '*.*' | sed 's|.*\.||' | sort -u
For example, to convert yourmovtomp4, execute the following command:
find . -wholename "**/*".mov -exec ffmpeg -i {} {}.mp4 \;
If you want to erase the original file after converting it, add a space then-exec rm {} \;at the end of this previous line.
Repeat this process by replacingmovin the previous command line for every video file extension you want to convert tomp4. - If you have pictures that haven’t a
jpg,jpegorpngfile extension (case insensitive), open the script, add the missing extensions in thefileExtensionListvariable, save the script and close it. -
Execute the script with
node send-medias-to-nextcloud.js <path to your Nextcloud folder>. If you want to remove each file that you have transfered after having copied it (because you don’t have enough space on your computer, for example), add a space and then--remove=trueat the end of the previous command line - Enjoy your photos and videos on Nextcloud!
Troubleshooting
- There is a lot of parameters applicable to
ffmpegto have the best result possible after converting videos. I don’t know them, but if you care, you should take a look at a better way to convert your files! - Feel free to tell me what issue you are facing by replying to this post, and I will try to help you!
Thanks,
Fluf