This is a copy of the Github readme.
Find the original on https://github.com/bestia-dev/google_backup

google_backup

Export data from all Google services and backup to local disk (2023-08)
date: 2023-08-11 author: bestia.dev repository: GitHub

maintained ready_for_use License google_backup

My digital identity is created around Gmail. Just like most of the people I know.
So if Google goes out of business or suddenly disables my account I am really in a bad place.
It is wise to make a backup of my data that Google has. Not only Gmail but also other Google services.

Create a backup scheduler

It is not hard. Go to
https://takeout.google.com/
and click on Create new Export
You want to select all of the data services except:

  1. Access Log Activity - this is absolutely too large and has no value at all
  2. Google Photos - if you use it, it can be huge. Probably you already have this photo synched somewhere.
  3. My Activity - this is absolutely too large and has no value at all
  4. Youtube - this can be huge if you uploaded videos. Probably you already have a backup copy of that somewhere.

Click on Next step and choose
Notify me by email when the download is ready
Export every 2 months for 1 year
File Type: .zip
File size: 50GB
The file size option is not really what you would expect. It does not make a zip with multiple files. If makes separate files for separate services and a single file (not ziped) can still be bigger than this limit. It is a completely pointless option.

Download the backup

The preparation of the backup can take hours or days.
You will receive an email that the backup is ready to download. Go to
https://takeout.google.com/

Click on Download and wait. You have to wait quite some time for the download to finish for big files.
When downloaded, check in Totalcmd if it can read the zip file.
I have more than one Google account and email address for different purposes. So I want to distinguish between them.
Rename the file to something meaningful like this:
LF2023-08-10 luciano.bestia@gmail.com_backup.zip

Because of Dropbox API, we must limit the file size to less than 1 GB.
If the file is bigger than 800MB then:
Use TotalCmd to unzip the files, then zip them using the option Multiple disk archive and size 800000000 (800MB) using TotalCommander.
Finally, move the zip files to a folder that will be synched to DropBox.

My Activity

It is intrusive to have the history of all your activity on Google services for ever.
It can be disabled or limited to only 3 months.

Go to:
https://myactivity.google.com

and turn Off or limit history of your activity of Google services to 3 months for

  1. Web & App Activity
  2. Location History
  3. Youtube History

Open-source and free as a beer

My open-source projects are free as a beer (MIT license).
I just love programming.
But I need also to drink. If you find my projects and tutorials helpful, please buy me a beer by donating to my PayPal.
You know the price of a beer in your local bar ;-)
So I can drink a free beer for your health :-)
Na zdravje! Alla salute! Prost! Nazdravlje! 🍻

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