What is Google Takeout and how to use it? And how you download all your data

Google allows you to export and download your data in any of its services, such as: Gmail, calendar, Google Photos, YouTube, and many other services easily, thanks to a service called (Google Takeout).

So what is this service and how do you use it to download your data from any Google service?

What Is Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is one of Google's little-known services, which collects Google account data in one place, and allows you to export a copy of the account content to save an archived backup, or use it in other third-party services.

You have probably heard of this service if you work in a company or educational institution, as it is commonly used to transfer employee data to another Google account when they leave the company, and it also provides a quick way to download data from Google Drive, allowing you to save a copy of your important data in your computer or free up space in Google Drive by archiving old files.

Google lets you download Gmail data in an MBOX or JSON file, making you able to backup offline, or transfer all your emails to another email service, or to a new Gmail account.

What data can you download through the service?

If you sign in to your Google account and go to the Google Takeout homepage, you'll see the latest list of Google services where you can download your data, and there are currently 48 different data sources you can choose to include in the export.

The list includes your data in all Google services you use, such as:

• Your data in popular services such as: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, Chrome, Keep, Arts & Culture, and YouTube.
• Your activity data in the Google Play Store, Google Play Books, and Google Play Game Services.
• Your account activity data, this section includes login log data, including: the dates and times your Gmail account was used, and the IP addresses used to access your account.
• Your location and settings in Location History.
• Your Android device's settings data.
• Data from your smart home devices such as Google Nest Hub.

How to use Google Takeout to download your data:

-Go to the Google Takeout page.

-You'll see a long list of all Google products and services you use. This list selects all by default, but to prevent data from being downloaded from a specific product, uncheck the box that appears next to that product.

-If you want to download Gmail data only, click on the Deselect all option at the top of the list.

-Scroll down to the Mail service, then check the corresponding box.

-You will see that you can download the file in multiple formats, namely MBOX and JSON, as the messages and attachments in the Gmail account will be in MBOX format, and the user settings will be in JSON format, making it easy for you to transfer Gmail data to a new account or any other service easily.

-By default, you'll include all your Gmail messages from all categories. If you want to adjust this, tap the All Mail data included option, and remove the check mark next to the Include All Messages in Mail option.

-Choose the folders you want, then tap OK.

-Scroll down the list until you reach the Next Step option, click on it.

-Here you can choose how you prefer to download a Gmail data file, this can be a download link sent to an email address, or a file added to your Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box account.

-You can also select the file type – zip, or tgz – and when you're ready, click on the Create export option.

-Google will start archiving your data and sending it to you in the way you specified, this process may take some time depending on how much data you download.

-When the archiving process is complete, Takeout will send you an email with a link to download the archived files, where you can click on the (Download Archive) option to start downloading, like any other file.

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