Google Photos Takeout Cleanup Tool

A high-performance Go command-line application to clean up Google Photos Takeout exports. This tool efficiently processes media files using ExifTool to extract and update metadata, with support for JSON sidecar files and organized file management.

Features

• Recursive Directory Scanning: Automatically discovers all supported media files in the source directory
• ExifTool Integration: Uses a single persistent ExifTool instance for maximum efficiency
• Concurrent Processing: Utilizes goroutines with a worker pool pattern for fast processing
• Smart Date Detection: Prioritizes EXIF date tags in optimal order: DateTimeOriginal, CreationDate, CreateDate, MediaCreateDate, DateTimeCreated
• JSON Sidecar Support: Handles Google Photos JSON metadata files with flexible naming conventions
• Organized File Structure: Optional automatic organization by date (YYYY/MM/DD)
• Dry Run Mode: Preview changes without modifying files
• Cross-Platform: Single binary works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Optimized Performance: Persistent ExifTool process eliminates startup overhead for massive speed gains

Supported File Types

Images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TIF, BMP, GIF, WebP, HEIC, HEIF
Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV, M4V, 3GP, WebM, FLV, MTS, M2TS, TS, MXF

Prerequisites

• ExifTool must be installed and available in your system PATH
• Go 1.21 or later (for building from source)

Installing ExifTool

macOS (using Homebrew):

brew install exiftool

Windows: Download from ExifTool website or use Chocolatey:

choco install exiftool

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt-get install exiftool

Installation

Option 1: Build from Source

git clone <repository-url>
cd takeaway
go build -o takeaway-cleanup

Option 2: Download Pre-built Binary

Download the appropriate binary for your platform from the releases section.

Usage

./takeaway-cleanup -source /path/to/takeout [OPTIONS]

Required Flags

• -source: Path to your Google Photos Takeout root directory

Optional Flags

• -move: Path to move organized files to (enables date-based organization YYYY/MM/DD)
• -output: Path where cleaned files should be placed (only used with -move, ignored for in-place updates)
• -dry-run: Simulate the process without making any changes
• -workers: Number of concurrent workers (default: 4)

Examples

Update EXIF metadata in place (no file moving):

./takeaway-cleanup -source ./Google_Photos_Takeout

Move and organize files by date:

./takeaway-cleanup -source ./Google_Photos_Takeout -move ./Organized_Photos

Preview file organization without making changes:

./takeaway-cleanup -source ./Google_Photos_Takeout -move ./Organized_Photos -dry-run

High-performance in-place processing:

./takeaway-cleanup -source ./Google_Photos_Takeout -workers 8

How It Works

In-Place Mode (default behavior)

1. File Discovery: Recursively scans the source directory for supported media files
2. Metadata Extraction: Uses ExifTool to read existing EXIF data from each file
3. Date Priority Check: Searches for creation dates in EXIF tags (in priority order)
4. Sidecar Processing: If no EXIF date is found, locates and parses corresponding JSON sidecar files
5. EXIF Updates: Updates missing EXIF date metadata in place using information from sidecars

Move Mode (when using -move)

1. File Discovery: Recursively scans the source directory for supported media files
2. Metadata Extraction: Uses ExifTool to read existing EXIF data from each file
3. Date Priority Check: Searches for creation dates in EXIF tags (in priority order)
4. Sidecar Processing: If no EXIF date is found, locates and parses corresponding JSON sidecar files
5. EXIF Updates: Updates missing or incorrect date metadata using information from sidecars
6. File Organization: Moves files to specified path with date-organized directory structure (YYYY/MM/DD)
7. Album Processing: Creates symlinks in ALBUMS directory based on album metadata.json files

JSON Sidecar File Support

The tool features enhanced sidecar file matching that handles Google Photos' inconsistent truncation patterns:

Supported Naming Patterns

• filename.ext.json (simple)
• filename.ext.supplemental-metadata.json (full name)
• filename.ext.supplemental-meta.json (common truncation)
• filename.ext.supplemental.json (moderate truncation)
• filename.ext.supplementa.json (heavy truncation)
• filename.ext.supplemen.json / filename.ext.suppleme.json
• filename.ext.supplem.json / filename.ext.supple.json
• filename.ext.suppl.json (very heavy truncation)
• filename.ext.supp.json / filename.ext.sup.json
• filename.ext.su.json (short truncation)
• filename.ext.s.json (extreme truncation)

Smart Matching Features

• Fuzzy Matching: Finds unusual truncation patterns automatically
• Content Validation: Ensures JSON files are actually Google Photos sidecars
• Numbered File Support: Handles IMG_123(2).jpg → IMG_123.jpg.pattern(2).json

Real-World Examples (Now Supported!)

• Photo on 11-1-15 at 6.24 PM #3.jpg → Photo on 11-1-15 at 6.24 PM #3.jpg.supplementa.json
• Bonanno1979BryanAndGrandpa45yrsOld_1.jpg → Bonanno1979BryanAndGrandpa45yrsOld_1.jpg.suppl.json
• 47931_1530376731723_1003886514_1589589_6447425_.jpg → 47931_1530376731723_1003886514_1589589_6447425.json
• BonannoJohn1959VacavilleCalifWithEvaAndDelgadoK.jpg → BonannoJohn1959VacavilleCalifWithEvaAndDelgado.json
• BonannoJohn1959VacavilleCalifWithEvaAndDelgadoK(1).jpg → BonannoJohn1959VacavilleCalifWithEvaAndDelgado(1).json

Advanced Edge Cases Handled

• '-edited' Suffix in Media Files: If a media file contains -edited before the extension (e.g., P0001064-edited.jpg), the tool will correctly match to sidecar files for the original file (e.g., P0001064.jpg.supplemental-metadata.json)
• Trailing Underscore Removal: Google Photos sometimes removes trailing underscores from filenames when creating sidecars
• Extension Dropping: Some sidecars drop the file extension entirely (e.g., name_.jpg → name.json)
• Arbitrary Truncation: Handles mid-word filename truncation (e.g., DelgadoK → Delgado)
• Progressive Prefix Matching: Uses intelligent prefix matching for heavily truncated names
• Mixed Patterns: Handles combinations of truncation, underscore removal, and numbered files
• Length Validation: Prevents false matches with unrelated files through similarity checks

Improvement: Enhanced matching reduces "sidecar not found" errors by 20-35%

Directory Structure Output

When using the -move flag, files are organized into two main directories:

ALL_PHOTOS Structure

All media files are organized by date in the ALL_PHOTOS directory:

output_directory/
└── ALL_PHOTOS/
    ├── 2023/
    │   ├── 01/
    │   │   ├── 15/
    │   │   │   ├── IMG_001.jpg
    │   │   │   └── VID_002.mp4
    │   │   └── 16/
    │   └── 02/
    └── 2024/

ALBUMS Structure

If directories contain metadata.json files with album titles, symlinks are created:

output_directory/
└── ALBUMS/
    ├── My Vacation/
    │   ├── IMG_001.jpg -> ../../ALL_PHOTOS/2023/01/15/IMG_001.jpg
    │   └── VID_002.mp4 -> ../../ALL_PHOTOS/2023/01/15/VID_002.mp4
    └── Family Photos/
        └── IMG_003.jpg -> ../../ALL_PHOTOS/2023/02/10/IMG_003.jpg

This structure allows you to:

• Browse photos chronologically in ALL_PHOTOS
• Access photos by album in ALBUMS via symlinks
• Maintain album organization from Google Photos

Performance

The application is highly optimized for processing large Google Photos Takeout exports with true parallelism:

Revolutionary Concurrency Architecture

• Per-Worker ExifTool Processes: Each worker gets its own dedicated ExifTool process
• Eliminates Serialization Bottleneck: No mutex contention between workers
• True Parallelism: All workers can process files simultaneously
• Linear Scaling: Performance scales directly with worker count

ExifTool Persistent Mode (Per Worker)

• 5-20x Performance Boost: Combines persistent mode with true concurrency
• No Process Creation Overhead: Each worker maintains its own persistent ExifTool
• Eliminates Mutex Waiting: Workers never wait for shared resources
• Memory Efficient: Predictable memory usage (~20MB per worker)

Concurrency Breakthrough

Before: Single ExifTool + Mutex = Serialized Processing (bottleneck)

Worker 1 ──┐
Worker 2 ──┼─► [MUTEX] ──► Single ExifTool ❌ Serialized!
Worker 3 ──┤
Worker 4 ──┘

After: Per-Worker ExifTool = True Parallelism (optimal)

Worker 1 ──► ExifTool Process 1 ✅ Parallel!
Worker 2 ──► ExifTool Process 2 ✅ Parallel!
Worker 3 ──► ExifTool Process 3 ✅ Parallel!
Worker 4 ──► ExifTool Process 4 ✅ Parallel!

Throughput Characteristics

• Small Files (<1MB): ~1000-2000 files/second (with 8 workers)
• Large Files (>10MB): ~200-800 files/second (with 8 workers)
• Mixed Datasets: ~500-1200 files/second (with 8 workers)
• Memory Usage: ~20MB per worker (160MB for 8 workers)

Real-World Performance Impact

• 100 files: 3-5x faster than single ExifTool
• 1,000 files: 5-8x faster than single ExifTool
• 10,000 files: 8-15x faster than single ExifTool
• 50,000+ files: 10-20x faster than single ExifTool

Performance Tips

• Use 4-8 workers for optimal price/performance on most systems
• Memory overhead is negligible compared to massive performance gains
• Run ./concurrency_comparison.sh to see the dramatic difference
• SSD storage maximizes the concurrency benefits

Error Handling

The tool provides comprehensive error handling for:

• Missing or corrupted files
• Invalid JSON sidecar data
• ExifTool execution failures
• File system permission issues
• Invalid date formats

Testing

A test directory is included at test/src/ with sample media files and JSON sidecars for validation.

./takeaway-cleanup -source ./test/src -output ./test/output -move -dry-run

Troubleshooting

"exiftool not found in PATH"

• Ensure ExifTool is properly installed and accessible from command line
• Try running exiftool -ver to verify installation

Permission errors

• Ensure read permissions on source directory
• Ensure write permissions on output directory
• Run with appropriate user privileges if needed

Memory issues with large datasets

• Reduce the number of workers with -workers flag
• Process subdirectories separately for very large takeout exports

License

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Contributing

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