Leave Google Photos Without Losing 20 Years
Still paying Google to keep twenty years of photos? Three open source apps can take over. But leaving Google has one trap that most guides skip: export your library with Takeout, import only the images, and your whole timeline can end up dated the day you exported it. This video covers the clean way out of Google Photos, then three apps for three kinds of people. Immich if you want Google Photos without Google. PhotoPrism if you have a big archive to organize. Nextcloud if you want your photos on the same server as everything else. For each one: what changed this autumn, how to import a Google Takeout without losing your dates, and the honest limits. We sell managed hosting for all three, so we have a bias. Every price was checked on our public pages on 21 October 2026, and every source is below. Picked one of the three, or found something we got wrong? Tell us in the comments. We read them all and pin corrections. CHAPTERS 0:00 The trap of leaving Google Photos 0:14 Two problems, three apps 0:48 Getting out of Google with Takeout 1:39 Immich, the replacement 3:23 PhotoPrism, the archive 5:23 Nextcloud, one server for everything 7:30 Five checks before you delete anything 7:50 The money 8:53 Which one is yours ELESTIO Website: https://elest.io Catalog: https://elest.io/fully-managed-services Blog: https://blog.elest.io X: https://x.com/elest_io LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elestio GitHub: https://github.com/elestio SOURCES Immich v3.2, 10 September 2026: cluster groups, redesigned search, new Memories page https://immich.app/blog/v3.2.0-release v3.3, 7 October 2026: share a person with your group, birthday memories https://immich.app/blog/v3.3.0-release immich-go, community tool to import a Google Takeout (reads the JSON files) https://github.com/simulot/immich-go Partner sharing https://docs.immich.app/features/partner-sharing PhotoPrism Release notes 260919 (360-degree media, new face models, faces migrate) and 261007 (better labels, 5 GB video limit) https://docs.photoprism.app/release-notes/ Importing a Google Takeout: dates, captions and locations are read, albums are not https://docs.photoprism.app/user-guide/use-cases/google/ Mobile sync: no official backup app, PhotoSync or WebDAV recommended https://docs.photoprism.app/user-guide/sync/mobile-devices/ Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer, 16 September 2026: Photos redesigned https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-hub26-summer/ Google integration app: photos picked by hand, 2,000 items per session (maxItemCount) https://github.com/nextcloud/integration_google/blob/main/lib/Service/GooglePhotosAPIService.php Recognize, face recognition for Nextcloud https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/recognize Google Photos Takeout Helper (GPTH Neo), writes dates and locations back into each file. Run it on a copy: it moves your files https://github.com/Xentraxx/GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper_Neo ExifTool, needed for videos and HEIC files https://exiftool.org Pricing on Elestio, checked 21 October 2026 Immich from $11/mo. Immich, PhotoPrism or Nextcloud on Netcup, Nuremberg, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB disk: $16/mo. Extra storage: volumes at $0.15 per GB per month. Billed by the hour from prepaid credits, no commitment, no per-user fee. https://elest.io/open-source/immich/resources/plans-and-pricing https://elest.io/pricing https://docs.elest.io/platform/volumes #GooglePhotos #Immich #SelfHosted #OpenSource #Nextcloud