How to Move Google Photos to Ente

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated November 11, 2026

The way to move Google Photos to Ente is to export a Takeout with only Google Photos, unzip every part into one folder, then use the Ente desktop app: click Upload and choose Google takeout. Ente reads the .json sidecar files and takes the dates, locations and descriptions from them, and it detects album copies so one original is stored. This is Ente's own documented route, so for Ente alone you do not need to fix anything first. A fixed copy on disk is still worth having as a backup that does not depend on any app.

Ente's recommended steps

1. Export. At takeout.google.com click Deselect all, select only Google Photos, and choose Export once, the .zip type and the largest file size you can handle. Google emails you when it is ready, which Ente says can take hours or days.
2. Download every part. Ente warns that importing only some of the parts can give those photos the wrong date. A .crdownload file is an unfinished download, not a finished zip.
3. Unzip into one parent folder. Extract all zips into a single folder and keep Takeout's subfolders intact: Ente uses that layout to match photos with metadata.
4. Import in the desktop app. Open Ente, click Upload and select Google takeout.

For help with the export itself, see how to download Google Photos with Takeout.

Folder or zip files

The split between zips is not a bug: see why a Takeout has several zip parts.

Import options and caveats from Ente

• Favorites is on by default and puts Google Photos favorites into Ente's Favorites album.
• Partner shared photos is on by default. Ente says to turn it off if the owner is also importing, to avoid duplicates.
• Storage saver. If you used it in Google Photos, Takeout holds compressed copies: Ente notes photos over 16 MP and videos over 1080p were resized.
• Live and motion photos vary, so spot-check a few. Old photos, scans and screenshots are the likeliest to have wrong dates.
• Resuming. If an import is interrupted, select the same source again: already-uploaded files are skipped, and their existing dates are not rewritten.
• Keep your Google library and Takeout files until you have verified the import. Ente also says to enable machine learning before importing if you want face recognition and advanced search.

When to fix the files first

Ente's help says metadata goes missing mainly when a .json is separated from its photo, and an import never rewrites dates it has already set. If you want a clean copy that works anywhere, run the Takeout through PhotoFixer before importing. It reads all the zip parts in your browser without uploading anything, writes the date, location and description into JPEGs that lack them, sets the creation date on MP4 and MOV videos, gives every file its capture time as the file date and removes duplicate album copies. HEIC is copied unchanged. You can then import the unzipped result into Ente, or keep it as an independent backup.

One caution: Ente's help describes importing the Takeout layout (photos beside their .json files) and does not describe importing a folder of already fixed photos, so try a small subset first and check the dates in the app.

Compared with other routes

Ente's own article on exporting Google Photos covers the Takeout side. If you are weighing self-hosting instead, see Google Photos to Immich.