Walking through the Google Data Takeout request process
This is an experience report and NOT a "how-to" guide.
I've finally made my first Google+ Data Takeout request since the G+ sunset was announced, and in fact my first since 2013.
I've written up the process at #PlexodusReddit, which is pretty much me going into the process cold, though with a few references to look at. Mostly I just stumbled through the prompts with some educated guesses. The archive is being created presently, I'll update the piece when it's done with information on how it turned out. I've captured screenshots of most of the process as well, I'll post the finalised article to Diaspora, which allows inline images (Reddit does not, a long-standing gripe of mine with the platform).
For those who've seen my repeated REQUEST JSON FORMAT posts, I've detailed just where and how that applies (I hope) as well.
For delivery option, I've selected delivery to Google Drive (specified as "Save to Drive", which is another bit of Wonderfully Ambiguous Google Language), so I don't have to actually download however many GB of data are represented. (I'm actually thinking the result should be fairly small.)
Keep in mind that this is more an experience report than a how-to guide for right now. Folks like Filip H.F. Slagter and Bernhard Suter who've been through the process a few times may spot errors I've made.
I'm dying to see how this turns out. Hoping the birds come home to roost.
Update
Takeout concluded, approx 4 hours.
Notification via Gmail.
Size: 15.36 GB.
Incomplete: Stream data partial
Insufficient Google Drive space.
I've until 5 December to work with this.
https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/a16rwk/walking_through_the_google_data_takeout_request/
https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/a16rwk/walking_through_the_google_data_takeout_request/
This is an experience report and NOT a "how-to" guide.
I've finally made my first Google+ Data Takeout request since the G+ sunset was announced, and in fact my first since 2013.
I've written up the process at #PlexodusReddit, which is pretty much me going into the process cold, though with a few references to look at. Mostly I just stumbled through the prompts with some educated guesses. The archive is being created presently, I'll update the piece when it's done with information on how it turned out. I've captured screenshots of most of the process as well, I'll post the finalised article to Diaspora, which allows inline images (Reddit does not, a long-standing gripe of mine with the platform).
For those who've seen my repeated REQUEST JSON FORMAT posts, I've detailed just where and how that applies (I hope) as well.
For delivery option, I've selected delivery to Google Drive (specified as "Save to Drive", which is another bit of Wonderfully Ambiguous Google Language), so I don't have to actually download however many GB of data are represented. (I'm actually thinking the result should be fairly small.)
Keep in mind that this is more an experience report than a how-to guide for right now. Folks like Filip H.F. Slagter and Bernhard Suter who've been through the process a few times may spot errors I've made.
I'm dying to see how this turns out. Hoping the birds come home to roost.
Update
Takeout concluded, approx 4 hours.
Notification via Gmail.
Size: 15.36 GB.
Incomplete: Stream data partial
Insufficient Google Drive space.
I've until 5 December to work with this.
https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/a16rwk/walking_through_the_google_data_takeout_request/
https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/a16rwk/walking_through_the_google_data_takeout_request/
BTW, your post archive will likely contain two copies of all the photos referenced from posts. Once in a "photos from posts" directory and once in the posts directory itself. If you want to save some time and space, you can go into sub selection for the G+ stream posts export and unselect "photos". The export still includes one copy then. It roughly cuts the size of my archive in half.
ReplyDeleteAlso I prefer the .tgz format as it allows for larger archives, up to 50G without sharding.
Thank you This helps with building my confidence to do it when the time comes since I started with 0
ReplyDeleteBernhard Suter .zip also allows up to 50GB; you just need a zip utility such as (P)7-Zip to be able to extract all of it once it goes over 2GB due to zip64 support being limited on some platforms (most notably macOS).
ReplyDeletePersonally I've had better results with .zip archives, as the extracted files had less issues with Unicode in filenames.
Edward Morbius
ReplyDeletein my earlier post at plus.google.com - DATA EXPORT WITH GOOGLE TAKEOUT You can already export most of your data thro... I included some more details as to what each of the relevant Takeout 'products' include, as well as a screenshot of the relevant 'products'.
'Profile' is worth taking out too, as it contains the same data as currently on https://aboutme.google.com/?referer=gplus (which the 'About' link on your own profile links to). This is similar to the information you can also get from the Google+ People API from every user, so it's a shame that info isn't included by default in the Google+ Circles Takeout archive.
I would also suggest taking a regular export of your Contacts data, even though it's not part of Google+. It might contain some extra data from contacts you've at some point imported from Google+.
As yes, the progress meter is mostly useless...
Mine just finished. 812MB. Took less than an hour. It will probably take several days to sync that zip file from my Google Drive to my computer at home.
ReplyDeleteFilip H.F. Slagter Someone needs to write a tool to go through a Circles JSON file, follow the profile link to the public profile for each person, and generate a JSON file with the profile data.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne I'm already working on a commandline tool. I actually already have a working proof of concept locally, I just need to finish it up and release it. Follow github.com - FiXato/Plexodus-Tools for updates.
ReplyDeleteFilip H.F. Slagter Excellent. Now I just have to figure out how to follow something in github. I know I had a login from a decade ago, but no idea what email address I used...
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne once you're logged in, you can Star or Watch a project:)
ReplyDeleteTakeout concluded, approx 4 hours.
ReplyDeleteSize: 15.36 GB.
Incomplete: Stream data partial
Insufficient Google Drive space.
I've until 5 December to work with this.
Edward Morbius Ouch! You must have posted far more photos than I.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius I'd suggest running it again and just use the download link option rather than gDrive. Perhaps not as easy to sync to your PC, but at least it doesn't count towards your quota.
ReplyDeleteFwiw, my archive, without the Google+ Stream Photos option is about 38GB, from the top of my head. I can double check tomorrow. Biggest export I've had was about 52GB I think, but that also included some other stuff.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne I'm curious about why it's so large. Possibly YouTube shares?
ReplyDeleteI still need to clean up space on my Drive as well, which is leftover from uploading to GPhotos in Original Quality while I still had 1TB free storage for 2 years from reaching level 4 in Local Guides. (A perk that was first downgraded to 100GB for 1 year and then completely discontinued as well: https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/03/03/new-level-4-local-guides-google-maps-will-no-longer-receive-free-100gb-drive-storage/)
ReplyDeleteI'm currently paying monthly for the 100GB plan so I don't go over my quota, but fortunately the surveys I do for the Opinion Rewards programme cover those fees and come straight from my Google Play credit.
androidpolice.com - New Level 4 Local Guides for Google Maps will no longer receive free 100GB of Drive storage
Edward Morbius Those should just be links.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius look at your search results for posts that include images (from:me has:image), as you'll likely see you've included quite some images/photos with your posts over times. Those are all included in the archive, even if you deselect the Photos subitem from Google+ Stream Posts. There's no way to get just your posts metadata afaik. Something I'm quite sure I've reported through Feedback once or twice too.
ReplyDelete(The Photos option is more useful if you want a separate archive with just the photos uploaded to Google+, specifically if you used the Photo sharing features before it was extracted into the Google Photos service. See Bernhard Suter 's earlier comments re. duplicates of photos.)