How to Download a Single Google Photos Album

You want one album out of Google Photos, and every download option seems to offer the whole library or one photo at a time. Google Photos does have a single-album download, but it lives in the web version, not in the phone app. The steps below cover the web, the app, and a bulk export that keeps originals.

Open the album on the web

Go to photos.google.com in a desktop browser, click Albums in the left sidebar, and open the album. Shared albums that someone else created are under Sharing and work the same way.

Click Download all

Click the three-dot menu in the top right of the album, then Download all. Chrome saves a zip file named after the album. Large albums arrive as several zips, each around 2 GB, so let all of them finish before unzipping.

Select the photos in the app

The Android app has no album download. Open the album, long-press the first photo, then tap Select all if it appears, or drag your finger down the grid to extend the selection. Tap the three-dot menu, then Download (labeled Save to device on some versions). Photos already stored on that phone are skipped, which is why the option is sometimes missing.

Export only that album with Takeout

For originals in bulk, go to takeout.google.com, click Deselect all, tick Google Photos, then click All photo albums included and untick everything except the album you want. Choose a file size and delivery method, then click Create export. Takeout emails a link when the zip is ready, which can take hours for a large album.

If the quality looks lower. Downloads give you the version stored in the cloud. Photos backed up as Original quality come down at full resolution; photos backed up under Storage saver come down compressed, and there is no way to get the original back from Google. Albums shared with you by other people download the same way, at whatever quality the owner uploaded.