A Linux workflow for Google Photos

#1

I’m moving away from a MacBook, and the Mac in general to Linux and am trying to create a workflow where Google Photos is my primary photo manager, but with originals kept on my computer, and using InSync…

  • First, buy 1TB of storage from Google, and setup Google Photos to upload originals.
  • Second, expose Google Photos in my Google Drive.
  • Setup Shotwell to use ~/Google Drive/Google Photos as its library
  • Let InSync do its thing.

I’ll let Shotwell import off SDCards into this library, InSync will upload them. Photos from my iPhone will use the App to upload, and InSync will download them.

I realize I’m losing all my albums and what not from Apple Photos. Its either something like the above or buying a 12" MacBook to go with my Linux laptop just for photo management heh.

Anyone have a similar workflow that works for them?
Thanks.

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#2

I was looking into doing something similar (but without the mac to linux transition). Unfortunately, Google Photos doesn’t organize it’s photos in Drive by album, just by date. I was trying to access a specific album containing all my wallpaper/background-worthy photos and had to jump through many hoops to accomplish it, ultimately using RSS and a guide which no longer works for new users. Have a look at this thread for more

#3

Hi, perhaps you want to try out https://astrada.github.io/google-drive-ocamlfuse/

This link might help you http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/04/mount-google-drive-ocamlfuse-linux

You can also follow the Google+ Group from the Google Drive 4 Linux with lot’s of help

#4

One issue here that I still am not able to solve (Linux or otherwise( is that photos sent to the “Google Photos” folder in Google Drive STILL don’t show up properly in the Google Photos mobile app. You can find them by going to Drive, but not the Photos app… Any thoughts on how to handle this? Thanks.

#5

Photos directly uploaded to “Google Photos” (the folder) via Google Drive will not be added to Google Photos (the product). This is expected behavior.

To add photos to Google Photos (the product), you must use a Google Photos client, either the mobile app, or the “Backup and Sync” desktop client. There doesn’t seem to be a Google Photos client for Linux desktop users, unfortunately.

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