Lumen

Unlimited Google Photos backup for your computer in full original quality.

Note

Looking for the Android app? Check out Lumen for Android.

Lumen is an unofficial desktop client for Google Photos, built with Wails and Vue 3. It's a fork of gotohp with a redesigned Material 3 Expressive interface. Core upload and authentication logic come from upstream.

How it works

Google gives free original-quality uploads to certain Pixel devices. When you upload through Lumen, it sends your files directly from your computer to Google Photos with headers that tell Google's servers they come from a Pixel. Google stores them at full resolution and your storage space stays untouched. You can also switch to Storage Saver or Use Quota in the app.

Everything runs on your computer. No middleman servers, no paid accounts, no ads, and no tracking.

Disclaimer: Unofficial client. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Google LLC. Google Photos is a trademark of Google LLC. Using Lumen may violate Google's Terms of Service. See Account Safety & Risks.

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Features

• Unlimited original quality: Upload photos and videos without counting against your Google storage. You can switch to Storage Saver or Use Quota at any time.
• Automatic sign-in: Lumen opens a Chromium browser (Chrome, Brave, Edge, etc.), picks up your sign-in and closes it. Manual token entry is available as a fallback.
• Material 3 Expressive interface: Color themes, light and dark mode, and a navigation rail that adapts to the window size.
• Albums: Upload into an existing album by pasting its key or link, give it a nickname, or create albums named after your folders. Reusing a name reuses the album.
• Folder watcher: Watch folders in the background and upload new photos as they are added, with an option to include subfolders.
• Duplicate skipping: Hashes of uploaded files are cached locally, so files you already backed up are skipped.
• Apple Live Photos: Pairs .heic and .jpg photos with their matching .mov clips.
• Bandwidth limiter: Limit uploads from 0.5 MB/s to 50 MB/s, or leave it unlimited.
• Multiple accounts: Add and switch between Google accounts.
• Drag and drop: Drop files or folders into the window, or use the picker.
• System tray: Keeps running in the background and notifies you when an upload finishes.
• Standalone CLI: A headless lumen-cli binary for scripts, servers and cron jobs.

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Screenshots

Upload & Progress	Live Activity & Logs

Watched Folders	Multi-Account Switching

Material 3 Expressive Settings	About & Updates

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Security & Account Access

Your password is never requested, stored, or seen by Lumen.

When you sign in, Google gives the app an OAuth token.

• It works like a temporary key card that lets Lumen put photos into your Google Photos library.
• Uploads go straight from your computer to Google. No outside server touches your data.
• The token is stored in your operating system's secure credential manager (Linux Secret Service, Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain), not in a plain file.
• Lumen contains no analytics, telemetry or crash reporting.

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Account Safety & Risks

Lumen is an unofficial tool and isn't affiliated with Google. It uploads photos using an unofficial method that Google didn't design for third-party apps.

• Terms of Service: Using Lumen may violate Google's Terms of Service. Google can log you out, limit, or ban your account at any time.
• Gmail & Drive access: If Google restricts your account, you could lose access to Gmail, Google Drive, and other services linked to that email.
• Use a secondary account: Use an email you're okay with losing access to. Don't use your primary personal email or accounts used for work, school, or banking.
• Keep your local copies: Don't rely on Google Photos as your only backup. Keep your original files until the backup is verified.
• Avoid repeated sign-ins: If Google logs you out or asks for verification, don't spam sign-in attempts. Lumen pauses automatically when it detects account issues. Each sign-in registers a new device, so avoid logging in and out repeatedly.

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Privacy & Network Transparency

• No analytics or telemetry: No trackers, crash reporters or usage statistics.
• Direct to Google: Uploads, sign-in and media requests go straight between your computer and Google. Lumen runs no servers or relays.
• Update checks: Lumen only contacts github.com to look for new releases, and only when automatic update checks are on. You can turn this off in the app under About -> Updates.
• Local credentials: Tokens stay on your device in the OS credential manager and are only sent to Google.
• Sign-in browser: The browser used for automatic sign-in runs with a temporary profile that is deleted when it closes.

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Requirements

• Windows, macOS or Linux
• A Google account
• A Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Brave, Edge, Chromium, Vivaldi) for automatic sign-in. Without one, you can paste a token manually.
• An internet connection

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Download

Get the latest build for your system on the Releases page:

System	File
Windows	.exe
macOS	.dmg
Linux	binary / package for your distro
Any (no GUI)	lumen-cli

Tip

First-time launch on Windows & macOS: Since Lumen is an open-source project without commercial signing certificates, your OS may show an unrecognized app warning on first launch:

• Windows (SmartScreen): Click More info -> Run anyway.
• macOS (Gatekeeper): Right-click Lumen.app -> choose Open -> click Open. Alternatively, run:

  xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Lumen.app

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue.

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Sign In

Option 1: Automatic sign-in (recommended)

1. Open Lumen and click Connect Account.
2. Lumen opens your Chromium browser. Sign in to your Google account and accept the prompt.
3. Lumen picks up the sign-in, closes the browser and deletes its temporary profile.

Firefox, Zen and Safari are not supported for automatic sign-in because Google blocks them in this flow. If you don't have a Chromium browser, use Option 2.

Option 2: Manual token

1. Open Lumen and click Connect Account, then choose manual entry.
2. Open the Google sign-in page in any browser and sign in. Click I agree on the Google Embedded Setup page. (If the page keeps loading afterward, that's normal.)
3. Open Developer Tools (F12), go to Application (or Storage) -> Cookies -> https://accounts.google.com.
4. Copy the value of the oauth_token cookie.
5. Paste it into Lumen and click Connect account.

From the CLI:

lumen-cli creds add "<oauth_token value>"

Option 3: ReVanced (No root required)

View instructions

1. Install Google Photos ReVanced on your Android device or emulator:

   • Install GmsCore.
   • Install a patched Google Photos APK (via Morphe-AutoBuilds or patch it yourself using ReVanced Manager).

2. Enable USB debugging and connect your device to your PC via ADB.

3. Open a terminal on your PC and run:

   Linux / macOS:

   adb logcat | grep "auth%2Fphotos.native"

   Windows (Command Prompt):

   adb logcat | FINDSTR "auth%2Fphotos.native"

4. If you already had an account logged in, remove the Google account from GmsCore first.

5. Open Google Photos ReVanced on the device and sign in.

6. A log line containing the authentication parameters will appear in your terminal.

7. Copy the string starting from androidId= through to the end of that line.

8. Paste that string into Lumen or run lumen-cli creds add "androidId=...".

Option 4: Official APK (Root required)

View instructions

1. Make sure you have a rooted Android device or emulator with ADB root access.
2. Connect your device via ADB and install HTTP Toolkit.
3. In HTTP Toolkit, choose Android Device via ADB intercept mode.
4. Filter intercepted traffic using:

   contains(https://www.googleapis.com/auth/photos.native)
   

   (For older Google Photos versions, try contains(www.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Fplus.photos.readwrite)).
5. Open the official Google Photos app on your device and log in.
6. When the matching request appears in HTTP Toolkit, copy the request body text.
7. Paste the body string into Lumen.
8. If Lumen asks for a token binding key, keep the device connected with ADB root enabled and click Read from ADB. Lumen will read lstBindingKeyAlias from the Android AccountManager and attach it to the credential.

Troubleshooting

• No request intercepted: Log out and log back in, or use HTTP Toolkit's Android App via Frida interception method.
• Token binding key not found: Confirm root is granted to ADB shell (adb root) and the target Google account is present on the device.

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CLI Usage

The standalone binary lumen-cli runs without any GUI dependencies. The desktop binary lumen also accepts these commands.

# Upload photos recursively using 5 threads
lumen-cli upload /path/to/photos --recursive --threads 5

# Upload to an album (by name, creating it if needed; an album key or link also works)
lumen-cli upload /path/to/trip --album "Tokyo 2026"

# Pair Apple Live Photos
lumen-cli upload /path/to/camera --pair-live-photos

# Use Storage Saver quality instead of original quality
lumen-cli upload /path/to/photos --saver

# Add credentials
lumen-cli creds add "<oauth_token cookie value>"
lumen-cli creds add "androidId=..."
lumen-cli creds add - < token.txt

# List and switch active account
lumen-cli creds list
lumen-cli creds set user@gmail.com

The CLI shares stored credentials with the app. Upload options are controlled by command-line flags so scripts run predictably. Run lumen-cli --help or lumen-cli upload --help for all options.

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Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Go: 1.26.4 or later
• Node.js: 24 or later (Node 20.19+ and 22.13+ also supported)
• C compiler: gcc or clang
• Linux packages (Debian/Ubuntu):

  sudo apt-get install -y build-essential gcc pkg-config libgtk-4-dev libwebkitgtk-6.0-dev

• Wails v3 CLI (optional):

  go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/cmd/wails3@v3.0.0-beta.33

Build steps

git clone https://github.com/Reiux/Lumen.git
cd Lumen

# Frontend
cd frontend && npm install && npm run build && cd ..

# Desktop app
go build -o bin/lumen .

# Standalone CLI
go build -tags cli -o bin/lumen-cli .

Or with Task: task build

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Configuration

Lumen stores settings and saved accounts in:

• Linux: ~/.config/lumen/lumen.config
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/lumen/lumen.config
• Windows: %APPDATA%\lumen\lumen.config

To run portably, place an empty lumen.config file next to the binary.

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Credits & License

• Original project and upload logic: gotohp by xob0t.
• UI redesign and enhancements: Reiux.
• Licensed under the MIT License.