Ente is our default pick for leaving Google Photos. It’s end-to-end encrypted, it has apps for every platform, and its desktop app imports a Google Takeout export along with the dates and places Google keeps in separate files.
This guide goes deep on the Ente side. For the JSON problem itself and other destinations, see our general Google Photos guide. If you’d rather run your own server, follow our Immich guide instead.
The Plan at a Glance
| Step | Where | Hands-on time |
|---|---|---|
| Pick a plan | Ente’s website | 10 minutes |
| Export Google Photos | takeout.google.com | 5 minutes, then hours to days |
| Download and unzip | Your computer | 15 minutes, then hours |
| Set up and import | Ente desktop app | 20 minutes, then hours to days |
| Check the result | Ente desktop app | 30–60 minutes |
| Switch phone backup | Ente phone app | 10 minutes |
| Delete from Google Photos | photos.google.com | 15 minutes or more |
Nothing leaves Google until the last row, so you can stop at any point.
Pick an Ente Plan Before You Export
Check how much space Google Photos uses at photos.google.com/storage, then choose a plan with room to grow.
| Storage | Price on Ente’s website (Oct 2026) | Copies Ente keeps | Family sharing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 GB | Free | 1 | No |
| 50 GB | about $2.49/month | 3 | Up to 5 members |
| 200 GB | about $4.99/month | 3 | Up to 5 members |
| 1 TB | about $9.99/month | 3 | Up to 5 members |
| 2 TB | about $19.99/month | 3 | Up to 5 members |
A few details help you choose.
- Paid plans keep 3 copies with 3 different providers in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. The free plan keeps 1.
- Prices through Apple’s App Store are higher, so subscribe on Ente’s website if you can.
- A photo in several albums counts once. Ente stores one copy and links it into each album.
- For more than 2 TB, Ente asks you to contact it.
Export Google Photos With Takeout
The export is the same for every destination, so here are only the settings that matter for Ente. Our Google Takeout guide covers every screen.
- On takeout.google.com, click Deselect all, then tick Google Photos.
- Leave All photo albums included as it is, or click it to pick albums.
- Click Next step, choose .zip and 50GB, then click Create export.
- Download every part when Google’s email arrives. The links last about 7 days.
- Unzip every part into one parent folder, keeping the subfolders as they are.
Ente’s own guide adds three tips.
- A file ending in
.crdownloadis a Chrome download that didn’t finish. Resume it or download that part again. Renaming it doesn’t help. - Short on disk space? Download and unzip to an external drive, and keep it connected for the whole import.
- Keep the zips and the unzipped folder until you’ve checked the import and made another backup.
Set up the Desktop App First
Install Ente’s desktop app for Windows, macOS or Linux and create your account. Ente gives you a recovery key when you sign up. Save it in your password manager before you upload anything. Ente can’t read your data, so if you lose both your password and the recovery key, nobody can get it back.
Then turn on machine learning. Ente runs face recognition and search on your own devices, and a computer indexes faster than a phone. Turned on before the import, it indexes photos as they upload, and the index then syncs to your phone.
- In the desktop app, open Settings, then Preferences, then Machine learning.
- Turn on Machine learning.
Last, set the computer so it doesn’t go to sleep, and plug in a laptop.
Import the Takeout Folder
- Click Upload, then Google takeout.
- Choose Unzipped folder, which Ente recommends, and select the parent folder you unzipped into.
- Choose where the photos go. Pick Create new album(s), then Create albums, then Separate albums for one album per folder or Single album for everything in one. To add to an album you already have, pick Import to existing album instead.
- Wait while the Calculating Files screen counts your photos, videos and albums.
A Takeout has a folder for each album plus a “Photos from” folder for each year, and Separate albums turns every folder into an album. Look at the album count on the summary before you start.
- Check the totals of photos, videos and albums on the summary screen.
- Leave Favorites on to copy your Google favorites into Ente’s Favorites album.
- Turn Partner shared photos off if the person who shared them with you is also moving to Ente. Otherwise you both import the same photos.
- Click Start import.
A progress card appears in the bottom-right corner. Expand it to see In progress, Completed, Skipped and Failed.
How Long the Upload Takes
Your upload speed decides it, and it’s usually far lower than your download speed. As a rough guide, 100 GB over a 20 Mbps upload takes at least 11 hours, and 500 GB takes more than 2 days. A cable beats Wi-Fi.
If the Import Stops
Select the same folder again. Ente skips files already in the target album and uploads the rest. Stop any running import before you tidy albums or delete items in Ente, or files still in the source folder may upload again.
Check the Import Before You Trust It
Ente reads each JSON file before it uploads the matching photo, then encrypts that metadata with it. Items it can’t match may land on the wrong date. These checks find them.
- Compare totals. Compare the summary count with your Ente library, allowing for duplicates and skipped partner photos.
- Read the Skipped and Failed lists on the progress card.
- Scroll year by year. A big pile of photos on the day you imported means some dates weren’t matched.
- Spot-check 20 photos from different years for the right date and place, and open the map.
- If you see doubles, open Settings, then Free up space, then Deduplicate files on the desktop. Ente keeps one copy and links it into every album that had the others.
Importing again doesn’t fix a wrong date, because Ente skips files that are already there and keeps their metadata. Correct those dates in Ente, following the date-repair steps in its help pages.
Keep a Second Copy
One cloud service is one copy. Keep the Takeout zips on an external drive, and let the desktop app keep a local copy of your Ente library up to date.
- In the desktop app, open Settings, then Export data.
- Pick a destination folder, such as an external drive or a NAS.
- Turn on Continuous export. New photos are exported whenever the desktop app is running.
The export holds your original files in one folder per album, with JSON metadata files in the same layout as Google Takeout. A photo in three albums is saved three times, so the export can be bigger than your Ente storage. Don’t export into a folder that Ente also watches for uploads, or you’ll get duplicates.
Share With Family and Friends
Set up the Family Plan
Any paid plan can be shared with up to 5 family members at no extra cost. Each person gets a private library, and nobody sees anyone else’s photos unless they share them.
- Ask each person to create their own Ente account.
- On the web or desktop, open Account settings, then Manage subscription, then Manage family.
- Invite each person. Once they accept, you can set a storage limit for any member with the edit icon in the members list.
Duplicate savings don’t work across family accounts. If you and your partner both import the same photos, they count twice.
Re-Create Shared Albums and Links
Your Google shared albums and links don’t come across, and they stop working once you delete the photos from Google. Rebuild the ones you still use.
- With other Ente users, share an album by their email address. A Viewer can look, and a Collaborator can also add photos.
- With anyone else, create a public link from the album’s Share icon. Recipients don’t need an account. Anyone who has the link can open it and pass it on, so add a password and an expiry date to anything personal.
- To collect photos from guests, tick Allow uploads on a public link. It suits weddings and trips.
Public links on the free plan are limited to 10 devices.
Switch Your Phone to Ente
Install Ente Photos from the App Store, Google Play or F-Droid and sign in.
- Open Settings, then Backup, then Backed up folders, and tick your camera roll and any other albums to back up.
- If your phone’s photos are already in the Takeout, you can turn on Backup only new photos under Settings, then Backup, then Backup settings. Leave it off if some phone photos never reached Google. Ente skips exact duplicates anyway.
- On iPhone, run the first big backup in Backup mode, under Backup settings. Plug in, join Wi-Fi, tap Start backup mode and keep Ente open on screen.
- On Android, turn off Optimize battery usage for Ente in the system settings so it can back up in the background.
- When Ente has caught up, turn off backup in the Google Photos app under Settings, then Backup.
Ente uploads over Wi-Fi by default. On iPhone, don’t swipe Ente away in the app switcher, because iOS then can’t wake it for background backups. There’s no two-way sync with your gallery, so deleting a photo on the phone doesn’t delete it from Ente.
To clear space on the phone later, use Settings, then Free up space, then Free up device space. It removes only photos that are already backed up. On Android they’re deleted for good, not moved to a trash folder.
Delete From Google Photos Last
Wait until the checks pass and your phone has backed up to Ente for a week or two. Then mind Google’s warning. Deleting in Google Photos also deletes the photos from any phone or tablet that has Google Photos installed with backup on, and from shared albums and conversations. Turn off Google Photos backup on every device first, or remove the app.
- On a computer, go to photos.google.com and select the photos to delete.
- Click Move to trash, then Move to trash again to confirm.
- When you’re done, open Trash, click Empty trash, then Empty Trash to confirm.
Google’s help describes deleting the photos you select, with no single button for the whole library, so a large library takes several passes. Anything left in the trash is deleted after 30 days. Copies you saved in Drive, Gmail or YouTube aren’t touched. If you paid for Google storage only because of photos, downgrade or cancel it.
Keeping the old Google library as a spare copy is fine too. To close the whole account, see how to delete your Google account.
Troubleshooting
Photos show the import date. Their JSON files weren’t matched. Check that you imported the unzipped folder, not the zips, then correct the remaining dates in Ente.
The import stopped halfway. Select the same folder again. Ente skips what’s already uploaded.
A Takeout part won’t open. If its name ends in .crdownload, the download never finished. Download that part again within the 7-day window.
Backups stopped. You’re probably out of storage. Empty Ente’s Trash or upgrade your plan.
Lots of duplicates. Run Deduplicate files on the desktop, and check you didn’t import partner-shared photos twice.
Indexing is slow on the phone. On phones with 4–6 GB of memory, turn off local indexing there and let the desktop app do it.
When your photos are settled, the scan tool shows which other Google services you still use and what to move next.