Google Photos API updates are coming

[siburny]

I just received an email from Google saying that they will remove photoslibrary scope from the API (March 2025). Essentially, it will not allow us to download a full photo library using this API, which will kill this app. Did anyone else get that? What are our options?

Source: https://developers.google.com/photos/support/updates#affected-scopes-methods

[aleon1220]

I did read the api docs announcement. I guess running batches per year could work out but requires some refactoring?
any thoughts on the lifecycle of your open-source project?

[mtalcott]

I also received the update. It is unfortunate and yes, the tool will need some changes to keep working past March 2025. Here's my latest thinking on approaches:

• Option 1: Use the new Google Photos Picker API.
  • Option 1a: I am hoping it provides a way for users to easily select all photos in their library. If so, switch to using its OAuth scope, create a session, and pull the selected media items for processing. Relaunch a new session as necessary if it expires.
  • Option 1b: If there's no easy way to select all, hey, I already have a Chrome extension to utilize to automate the task to select all. Then proceed same as 1a.
• Option 2: Use Google Photos' undocumented (batchexecute) Web API, perhaps via xob0t/Google-Photos-Toolkit's GPTK API, which I just learned about through a Reddit post.
  • This would likely require shifting most of the media item listing & thumbnail downloading logic into the browser from Python.
  • Come to think of it, the MediaPipe (now Google AI Edge) tool I'm already using has a web JS client that can also be used for image embedding & image similarity calculation... This means the entire tool could potentially be bundled into Chrome extension, which would greatly simplify setup and reach a wider audience.
  • Utilizing the unofficial API also doesn't feel any more risky given that Google clearly makes major breaking changes to its official APIs as well, and the fact that the Chrome Extension is already dependent an unstable interface (the Google Photos UI) to automate deletion. In fact, the unofficial API is probably more stable than the UI the tool is currently based on.

Leaning toward Option 2.

[siburny]

Option 1 will work only for a small library/batch. I installed an example Picker API app, tried to select 5000 images, and it failed with an error (it worked with about 500 images selected though).

[mtalcott]

Good to know - thanks for trying it out and reporting back