If you have years of memories trapped in Google Photos, you can move them entirely to your LocalNode. Because Google purposely makes exporting messy, we highly recommend using a community tool called Immich-Go to handle the transfer cleanly.
Overview
When you export your data from Google, they do not give you your original files back neatly. They strip the date/time metadata from the photo and put it in a separate JSON file. If you just drag and drop the photos into Immich, they will all show up as being taken "today".
To fix this, we use a command-line tool called Immich-Go, which reads the Google ZIP files, recombines the metadata with the photos, and uploads them to your LocalNode directly.
Scroll down and check the box next to Google Photos.
Scroll to the bottom and click "Next step".
Under "Destination", select "Send download link via email".
Under "File type & size", choose .zip and 50 GB (this results in fewer files to download).
Click Create export.
Depending on the size of your library, Google might take a few days to email you the links. Once they do, download all the .zip files to your computer. Do NOT extract them.
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Google Takeout selections change frequently—export Photos archives directly from your signed-in Google Account.
Start at takeout.google.com and follow Google's latest Photos export guidance for large ZIP downloads.
Step 2: Using Immich-Go to upload
You will run this tool from your PC or Mac, not from the LocalNode itself.
Download the Immich-Go utility for your OS (Windows/Mac) from its GitHub releases page.
Extract the `immich-go.exe` (or binary) to the same folder where you downloaded your Google Takeout .zip files.
Open your computer's terminal or command prompt in that folder.
You need to generate an API key in Immich. Open your Immich web dashboard, go to Account Settings > API Keys, and generate a new key.
Run the following command in your terminal, replacing the URL, API key, and ZIP filename with your actual details:
If you have multiple zip files, you can use a wildcard (e.g., takeout-*.zip). Immich-Go will read the ZIP file, match the JSON files to the JPEGs, correct the timestamps, and upload them directly to your server.
Step 3: Background processing
Once Immich-Go finishes uploading, Immich on the LocalNode will begin processing the files. It has to generate thumbnails, run machine learning models for facial recognition, and extract location data.
For a library of 50,000 photos, this processing could take up to 48 hours. The LocalNode fans might spin up during this time as the CPU works hard. Just leave it alone until the "Jobs" dashboard in Immich shows everything is complete.
💡 Tip: Do not start backing up your phone camera roll via the mobile app until the Google Takeout migration is 100% finished, otherwise the server will be overwhelmed trying to process both at once.