How do I download my Google profile?

If you use Google services, there's a really easy way to download everything you have stored on the company's servers.

This is particularly important if you ever decide to quit Google and delete your account entirely, but still want a record of your Google Calendar, an archive of the pictures in Google Photos or a copy of everything in Gmail. It's also useful if you want a reminder of everything Google knows about you.

We already showed you how to download a copy of everything Facebook knows about you. Now here's how to download an archive of your footprint on Google.

A reminder: downloading your data doesn't delete it. Think of it as a backup.

What Google Knows

We've already published a pretty extensive guide on how to find out everything Google knows about you.

It knows a lot, particularly if you use its services such as Google Maps or search. I discovered late last year that it knows my name, gender, birthday, personal cell phone numbers, where I work, where I've been over the past several years, the types of hobbies I enjoy and more.

In the archive you're about to download, you'll get a copy of nearly everything Google has stored on its servers, including Gmail contacts, Chrome bookmarks, transactions from various Google services, locations stored in Google Maps, and more.

You'll find all sorts of data, including (in my case, dating back to Nov. 8, 2013):

• Every single place I've searched in Google Maps.
• The apps I've opened on Android down to the exact second I opened it.
• Rewards cards I once used in Google Pay.
• Everything I've asked Google Assistant.
• Every comment I've left on YouTube and every video I've watched.
• Every Android app I've searched for or downloaded.
• Every news article I've read on Google News.
• Ads I viewed or visited in any of Google's products.
• All of my Gmail files including Spam and Trash.

... and more.

How to download your Google archive

You can download your own archive of everything you have stored in Google's services. Here's how:

• Go tohttp://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
• Select the products that you want to back up. I decided to select everything.
• Click 'Next' at the bottom of the page.
• Choose the file format - you can pick a .ZIP file and choose a maximum size. I recommend going with the full 50GB file to avoid having your data split into multiple files. If you choose 2GB and have a lot of information on Google, for example, you're going to have a lot of ZIP files. Choose 2GB if you're on an older computer, since ZIP files larger than 2GB require newer operating systems.
• Choose your delivery method. You can get a link via email or have the archive sent to Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
• Tap "Create Archive."
• Be patient. Google warns the archive may take hours or days to create. It took about 20 hours for me — and I then had about 148GB of content to sort through, which is a lot.

Google will gather all of the information you've stored across its products and will send you an email with an alert including a link or notification that it's now in one of the cloud storage services mentioned above. You'll then be able to open that file to see all of your data, photos, calendar files and more.

Google takeout is a feature of your Google account that lets you download your data. You can export your photos, emails, calendar data, contacts, files, and lots of other data.

Another way to save your information from Google is to selectively open the service that you want to download data from, such as Gmail or Google Photos, and pick what to save to your computer.

Beyond a simple offline backup, you might want to download your Google data if you plan on deleting your Google account but you want to retain a copy of everything you’ve got stored on Google’s servers. Or maybe you’d like to keep a second copy of your Google data on another cloud service provider’s server, like Dropbox or OneDrive.

Export All Your Google Info

Follow these steps to access the Google takeout page that lets you choose what to download from Google, and then decide how you want to receive the archive:

Step 1: Access your Google account and log in when asked.

Step 2: Select Data & personalization on the left.

Step 3: Scroll to the Download, delete, or make a plan for your data section and choose Download your data.

Step 4: Pick what to include in the Google archive.

Use the Deselect all link at the top of the list to remove all the check marks and manually include specific items. Or, you can leave every item selected to download absolutely everything available.

Note: Some of the items in the list have an extra button you can select to choose what data in that particular section should be included in the backup. For example, if you press the button next to Mail, you can choose which Gmail labels to include and exclude from the download; save only what’s in your Inbox folder, for example, or everything but the contents of Spam.

Step 5: Scroll to the very bottom to pick Next step.

Step 6: Select Send download link via email so that you’ll get an email when the download is ready. Or, pick from the other options in that menu if you want your data saved to a cloud storage service first so that you can easily copy it to your account there.

These options include Add to Drive, Add to Dropbox, Add to OneDrive, and Add to Box.

Step 7:  Select .zip or .tgz from the File type menu. ZIP is more common for Windows users, so if that’s the operating system you use, it’d be best to keep that format selected.

Step 8: Pick an option from the Archive size menu to choose at what file size Google will split the archive into separate files. The options include 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 10GB, and 50GB.

For example, if you pick 2GB and your download is a total of 3 GB, you’ll get two files. However, if that size is chosen and your download is less than 2 GB, you’ll have just one file.

Step 9: Select Create archive to start the Google backup procedure based on all the information you provided in the prior steps. You’ll get an email right away to notify you that a request of your data has been started.

Step 10: Wait for the archive to complete and then open the email from Google that includes the link(s) to download your Google information.

Note: It could take quite a while to get this email — even several days — so don’t expect it right away. If you leave the last page that shows the progress of the archive, just return to Step 3 above to make sure it’s still running. That same page can be used to cancel the archive.

Other Ways to Download Your Google Data

Some of Google’s individual services provide export/backup features. Going a different route than what’s described above might be preferred if you don’t want to wait for the archive to complete. However, Google takeout is still the best way to download all of your data.

With Google Calendar, for example, you can access the export page to back up your calendars to the iCal format. This lets you import those same calendar events into a different application while simultaneously providing a way to easily backup Google Calendar to your computer.

Save Google Photos data in bulk by opening an album and using the menu at the top to choose Download all. Google Photos will package the contents of that album into a ZIP file with the same name as the album.

You can also select multiple photos in your Google Photos account and use the Download option in the menu to save just those photos.

You can save your Gmail messages to your computer by loading them through an offline email client like Thunderbird. Set up the email client with your Gmail login information and then once the emails have downloaded to your computer, right-click the group of emails to back up and select Save As. Pick a folder and your Gmail emails will copy over as EML files!

If you’ve made custom maps in Google Maps, you can export those to KML or KMZ files for use as a backup or to load into other programs such as Google Earth.

To do this, select the menu at the top left of Google Maps, go to Your places and then Maps, choose a map from the list and select Open in My Maps. Use the three-dotted menu at the top to find the export button.

Similarly, if you use the Timeline feature in Google Maps to keep track of where you’ve been, you can find an export function there. It works for the day you’re currently viewing, so pick a date and then select Export this day to KML.

Google Contacts is one of the easiest ways to keep your contacts synced between all your devices. However, if you need a backup of your contacts, you can do that, too, by selecting More and then Export on the left side of the Google Contacts page. You can backup all your contacts or just the ones in a specific group.

Downloading Google Drive files is as easy as it is to save any of your information from Google. Right-click one or more folders or files and choose Download,or install Backup and Sync and select which folders to save to your computer.

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