Google adds incremental backup option to Takeout for Photos

Google has introduced a new feature to its data export tool, Google Takeout, designed to streamline the process of backing up photos and videos stored in Google Photos. The "Incremental Takeout for Photos" option allows users to schedule recurring exports that include only newly added or edited content, rather than duplicating their entire library each time.

The feature is aimed at users who maintain independent backups of their photo collections on external drives, network-attached storage (NAS) devices, or other cloud services. Until now, using Takeout for Google Photos required downloading a complete archive of all selected content for every export, a process that could be time-consuming and require significant storage capacity, especially for large libraries.

Under the new system, the first scheduled export remains a comprehensive backup of a user's chosen albums or full library. Subsequent exports, which can be scheduled to run automatically every two months for up to one year, will then include only photos and videos that have been uploaded, created, or edited since the last successful export. This incremental approach is intended to make repeated backups faster and more...