111–120 of 139 posts
I have this run every few months and then download and backup the archive. I like to think it will be helpful in case of the dreaded 'locked out of google for no reason and no recourse' situation.
There's a product called "null" without an icon.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Then indeed, inside you have mess with some data in HTML, some in JSON, etc. But well, at least you can parse it..." how is some regular schmuck that wants to move his data out of google to another service supposed to determine what they actually have to parse? the user simply uploads pictures into the system but gets garbage out? the scarry part here is that google makes it extermely easy to suck in the data but fo…
They seem to use standardized formats where possible: vcard for contacts, mbox for email, image files for photos, etc. I'll grant you that they do some not-nice things (like separating photo metadata into json files), but I'm curious what format for search or timeline activity would be useful for a "regular schmuck"? If said person wants to view the data on their own time, HTML seems adequate. And JSON seems ideal if…
Like mbox is fine for opening in a desktop client, but if you move from Gmail to Fastmail or Outlook or whatever, mbox might as well be a ClarisWorks spreadsheet file.
It does not seem to include Gmail. Am I correct, or did I miss some kind of option?
i'm very curious about something -- people here rave about the takeout -- does anyone actually use the thing? i've tried the takeout option about a year ago when i wanted to switch from google photos to apple photos and it was an absolute mess, it exported random zipped folders, all broken up (i think there were 14 of thema ll together), multiple images were duplicates, somehow it managed to corrupt apple format of p…
The data is not uploaded and instead parsed in the browser.
For the Google takeout make sure not to include data from Photos, Gmail, Youtube and Drive as they make the export too big. Also select "JSON" for "My Activity".
Feel free to try it out yourself:
Google Takeout is a great solution to the problem of, how do we get Google programmers, without protest, to write functionality into their services to allow Big Brother to acquire a neat and tidy copy of all a user’s data?
Another fun one. Go into Facebook and download your data and look in the ads folder. There's a very helpful "advertisers_who_uploaded_a_contact_list_with_your_information.html" page that lists every advertiser who somehow obtained your contact data and ran targeted ads to you. There's a lot of sketchy companies out there who I never had any kind of relationship with who somehow managed to obtain email or other contac…
I am somewhat worried that their great algorithms will one day decide it's there is some violation of their ToS and close the account. I had that issue even with a paid (well, voucher that came with a PC, but still) Microsoft Drive account, I used in an atypical way (no sharing, all contents encrypted).
In the past I used IMAP for backing up my messages, but over time my scripts to do so have fallen into disrepair... Whether takeout would be a way to do somewhat regular backups? Or might that trigger their algorithms, that you are not a good customer? Has anybody read the ToS whether anything is mentioned about takeout?
