Where to store your local library

The right drive choice depends on your library size and access patterns.

💿

Mac Internal SSD

Fastest access. Limited space. Best for active libraries under 500 GB.

🔌

External USB SSD

Fast, portable, affordable. 2 TB under €100. Great for most personal libraries.

💾

External HDD

Cheapest per GB. 8 TB under €150. Perfect for large archives. Slower, not portable.

🖥️

NAS Drive

Network-accessible from all devices at home. FolioSort can also write directly to a SMB NAS share.

☁️

iCloud Drive

Syncs across Mac, iPhone and iPad. FolioSort with Pro can organize directly into iCloud Drive.

📦

RAID Array

Redundant storage for large professional libraries. FolioSort works with any locally-mounted volume.

The step-by-step process

1

Request Takeout

Go to takeout.google.com. Deselect all services. Select only Google Photos. Choose .zip format, max 50 GB per file. Download when Google notifies you (can take 1–3 days).

2

Extract archives

Create a folder on your chosen drive: Google-Takeout-Raw/. Double-click each .zip to extract into that folder. For many parts, use unzip takeout-*.zip -d Google-Takeout-Raw/ in Terminal.

3

Fix metadata with FolioSort

Open FolioSort, select Mover → Takeout Import. Set source to Google-Takeout-Raw/. FolioSort reads every .json sidecar file and writes the real date and GPS back into EXIF. Duplicates removed.

4

Choose your template

Set your destination folder (e.g. ~/Pictures/Library/ or a folder on your external drive). Pick a template: {YYYY}/{MM} {Month}/ is popular. Preview the structure.

5

Run & verify

Press Start. FolioSort moves (or copies) every file to the right year/month folder with a checksum verified. A summary shows total files, errors (if any), and duplicates skipped.

6

Delete Takeout source (optional)

Once you've verified the organized library looks correct, you can delete the raw Takeout folder. The organized library is your master copy — ready to view in Finder, Lightroom, or any app.

What you end up with

A Finder-browsable, EXIF-sorted, GPS-tagged photo library that no app or service controls.

Clean Folder Structure

2024/01 January/, 2024/02 February/ — every photo in the right month. Browsable in Finder without any app, viewable on any OS, importable into any photo manager.

Correct Dates — Always

EXIF DateTimeOriginal is set correctly in every file. Import into Lightroom, Apple Photos, or Capture One and the timeline is perfect — because the data lives in the file, not in Google's servers.

GPS in Every Tagged Photo

Every photo that had a location in Google Photos gets its GPS coordinates restored in EXIF. Works with Apple Photos Places, Lightroom's Map view, and any GPS-aware app.

Checksum Verified

Every file FolioSort creates in the destination is verified by checksum against the source. Any corruption is caught immediately — you never trust a photo archive you haven't verified.

What next? Keep going with your local library.

🏠 Add Immich on top

Run Immich on a home server or NAS and point it at your FolioSort-organized folder. Get a Google Photos-like UI over your perfectly organized local library.

🖥️ Move it to Synology

Use FolioSort's direct SMB transfer to move your Mac-organized library straight to a Synology NAS — network accessible from all your devices.

🌐 Back it up to S3

Archive your local library to Amazon S3 for €1–2/month. A local library + cloud backup = the safest photo storage setup possible.

Uploading Takeout to Mac Will Break Your Timeline