Assigned
Status Update
No update yet.
Comments
jf...@google.com
Thanks for the report!
Unfortunately you can't specify a height or width for video files at the moment, and the 'dv' parameter returns a downsampled version of the video. There is currently no option to retrieve the video in its original resolution.
I have forwarded this to the team and will update here once I hear back.
Unfortunately you can't specify a height or width for video files at the moment, and the 'dv' parameter returns a downsampled version of the video. There is currently no option to retrieve the video in its original resolution.
I have forwarded this to the team and will update here once I hear back.
am...@gmail.com
Thanks
The documentation should be updated then?
https://developers.google.com/photos/library/guides/access-media-items#video-base-urls
If specifying a video width or height is not possible the sentense "with your required dimensions:" makes no sense then.
The documentation should be updated then?
If specifying a video width or height is not possible the sentense "with your required dimensions:" makes no sense then.
jf...@google.com
Thanks - Good catch, I'll get the documentation updated. (The previous sentence is quite explicit, but we must have missed this one.)
he...@gmail.com
Is there a separate ticket for adding the ability to download full resolution video? Or does this documentation ticket also cover that? I want to make sure I'm tracking the correct ticket so I'll know when that feature is added.
jf...@google.com
Re #5, we can track this here. I have renamed the title of the issue to capture this.
sa...@gmail.com
Not sure if this works (or is fool-proof), but I tried reverse-engineering this based on the URLs I see in Google Photos directly, and in Picasa. My hunch is, if you pass the attribute "=m37", you might get a higher resolution video. How I tracked this down is:
1. Go to Picasa's API for showing your albums:https://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/api/user/YOUR_USER_ID_HERE?kind=album&prettyprint=true . Find the album you are looking for, in the element <gphoto:id>xxxxx</gphoto:id>. Note that this album id is different from your Google Photos album id.
2. Now look at your album via Picasa's API:https://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/api/user/YOUR_USER_ID/albumid/YOUR_ALBUM_ID?kind=photo&prettyprint=true . Find the video you are looking for (you can search by title etc.).You will see the following defined:
<media:content url='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dummy-image-url=m18 ' height='360' width='640' type='video/mpeg4' medium='video'/>
<media:content url='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dummy-image-url=m22 ' height='720' width='1280' type='video/mpeg4' medium='video'/>
<media:content url='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dummy-image-url=m37 ' height='1080' width='1920' type='video/mpeg4' medium='video'/>
Specifically look for those items where the type='video/mpeg4'.
If you observe the URLs you will see that they have the same URL with a different suffix: =m18 for the smallest resolution, =m22 for the medium resolution, and =m37 for the highest resolution. This is what I see in my albums; you might see something else. What I have found, though, is that if I simply append "=m37" to the URL shown in Google Photos API, it seems to neatly bring me a good resolution video.
Product Team,
Is my hypothesis correct? Or am I completely off-base?
1. Go to Picasa's API for showing your albums:
2. Now look at your album via Picasa's API:
<media:content url='
<media:content url='
<media:content url='
Specifically look for those items where the type='video/mpeg4'.
If you observe the URLs you will see that they have the same URL with a different suffix: =m18 for the smallest resolution, =m22 for the medium resolution, and =m37 for the highest resolution. This is what I see in my albums; you might see something else. What I have found, though, is that if I simply append "=m37" to the URL shown in Google Photos API, it seems to neatly bring me a good resolution video.
Product Team,
Is my hypothesis correct? Or am I completely off-base?
sa...@gmail.com
One more thing - I got the idea of looking at the Picasa API because in the preview page of Google Photos I saw that the small preview of my video was suffixed with "=m18", and I had seen that while I was working with the Picasa API.
ke...@gmail.com
Re #8 Adding "=m37" works for me in a browser but gives me a 404 when calling the API.
Furthermore, requesting 'https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/[video-baseUrl]=dv ' now results in an Error 400 (did work before for low-res videos) - do I just leave that here, or do I open another issue?
Furthermore, requesting '
jf...@google.com
Please do not use any flags that are not documented on the "Access media items" guide in our developer documentation: https://developers.google.com/photos/library/guides/access-media-items
Undocumented flags are not supported and should not be used directly. If you have a use case for other types of encoded or processed video, please do file a new feature request, describing your use and any technical requirements.
Undocumented flags are not supported and should not be used directly. If you have a use case for other types of encoded or processed video, please do file a new feature request, describing your use and any technical requirements.
de...@gmail.com
How is this a feature request, this is clearly a bug. The dv link should download the full resolution just like the documentation states and also its a minimum functionality of getting a media item. Currently there is no way to download the video so the feature is broken. Please update the bug type and priority.
de...@gmail.com
Correction (I shouldn't say just resolution but rather full quality of the video):
Based on the description in the documentation the dv parameter should download the full quality video. There is no mention of down sampling the in documentation.
In addition it the basic expectation of getting a media item is to have access to its full quality download.Not having this ability makes the api incomplete missing basic functionality most apps require.
Finally access to full quality video would be consistent with the way images download works (full quality with some tagging stripped).
This is why I think this is a bug, the behavior is unexpected, undocumented, and inconsistent with other interfaces.
Thanks!
Based on the description in the documentation the dv parameter should download the full quality video. There is no mention of down sampling the in documentation.
In addition it the basic expectation of getting a media item is to have access to its full quality download.Not having this ability makes the api incomplete missing basic functionality most apps require.
Finally access to full quality video would be consistent with the way images download works (full quality with some tagging stripped).
This is why I think this is a bug, the behavior is unexpected, undocumented, and inconsistent with other interfaces.
Thanks!
an...@gmail.com
Any update on this? There's little point in me using the API if I can't download the original (or thereabouts) video. It can't be that hard to implement.
an...@gmail.com
It's blocked by 109754198 but I don't have permission to view that.
jf...@google.com
We have made some changes recently to the way data is returned from base URLs for videos.
Can you confirm if the quality and resolution is of higher quality now?
If you are still seeing this, could you provide an example of the file or the exact codec, resolution and framerate of the video?
Can you confirm if the quality and resolution is of higher quality now?
If you are still seeing this, could you provide an example of the file or the exact codec, resolution and framerate of the video?
an...@gmail.com
What I'm trying to do is transfer photos and videos from my phone to my computer, where I keep my master copy of 20 years worth of photos. I don't want a higher resolution video, I want the original. For me, having my photos on Google Photos is nice, but it's secondary, TBH.
I tried using the Google Drive integration with Google Photos, but it was a nightmare because deleting a photo from Drive wouldn't necessarily delete it from Photos. Now I'm hoping to use the Google Photos API.
I tried downloading a video from Google Photos today, but the 50MB video from my phone resulted in a 13MB download. Also, the video was taken at a time as per the filename on my phone: 20181124_140007.mp4 but the EXIF data in the downloaded video had been rewritten by Google Photos and the only timestamp in there was 2018:11:24 16:48:07, which was probably the time that my phone uploaded the video. So now I have a poorer quality copy of my original video with the wrong timestamp.
And it's just this second dawned on me that I've deleted files from my phone to free up space, so the only original copy of those files is on Google Photos and I can't get access to them.
I'm just trying to keep a few files in sync between different devices. It shouldn't be this difficult.
I tried using the Google Drive integration with Google Photos, but it was a nightmare because deleting a photo from Drive wouldn't necessarily delete it from Photos. Now I'm hoping to use the Google Photos API.
I tried downloading a video from Google Photos today, but the 50MB video from my phone resulted in a 13MB download. Also, the video was taken at a time as per the filename on my phone: 20181124_140007.mp4 but the EXIF data in the downloaded video had been rewritten by Google Photos and the only timestamp in there was 2018:11:24 16:48:07, which was probably the time that my phone uploaded the video. So now I have a poorer quality copy of my original video with the wrong timestamp.
And it's just this second dawned on me that I've deleted files from my phone to free up space, so the only original copy of those files is on Google Photos and I can't get access to them.
I'm just trying to keep a few files in sync between different devices. It shouldn't be this difficult.
om...@gmail.com
what about this issue any news how to download the original file size, i have a video 2GB and when i download it it downloaded as 320MB and not working..
Any solution about this issue ???
Any solution about this issue ???
fr...@dioshotel.com
Hello
Any news about this issue. ?
Any news about this issue. ?
ma...@gmail.com
Hi,
someone work on it?
someone work on it?
gi...@gmail.com
In answer to https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/80149160#comment15
I have recently discovered that my 1080p 60fps videos are now transcoded down to 30fps with high compression - they look terrible. But if I directly download them from the Google Photos Web they are fine. Why is the API transcoding, please?
Here is an example which I share globally for all to see.
Album =https://photos.app.goo.gl/Avm52meJycEH8N5o6 contains a single video showing the issue.
The attachment contains three copies of the video:
- the original file from the phone directly (1080p 60fps)
- the file as downloaded from the Google Photos Web (similar but not identical to the above)
- the file as downloaded from baseUrl with =dv -- this shows only 30 fps and file size is 1/10 of the above
I have recently discovered that my 1080p 60fps videos are now transcoded down to 30fps with high compression - they look terrible. But if I directly download them from the Google Photos Web they are fine. Why is the API transcoding, please?
Here is an example which I share globally for all to see.
Album =
The attachment contains three copies of the video:
- the original file from the phone directly (1080p 60fps)
- the file as downloaded from the Google Photos Web (similar but not identical to the above)
- the file as downloaded from baseUrl with =dv -- this shows only 30 fps and file size is 1/10 of the above
cj...@gmail.com
Hey Google. Any news here? Not sure why this was ever switched to a feature request type of ticket, as this is 100% a bug.
This is getting really ridiculous. This API has been the only means of interacting with Google Photos since you all did away with the Google Drive folder a couple months ago and yet we still can't get any traction on this issue that's been open for OVER A YEAR???? What kind of terrible management is going on over there that the person assigned to this hasn't been canned already for not completing their work?
For the love of all things holy Google... PLEASE FIX THIS DUMPSTER FIRE OF AN API!!!!
This is getting really ridiculous. This API has been the only means of interacting with Google Photos since you all did away with the Google Drive folder a couple months ago and yet we still can't get any traction on this issue that's been open for OVER A YEAR???? What kind of terrible management is going on over there that the person assigned to this hasn't been canned already for not completing their work?
For the love of all things holy Google... PLEASE FIX THIS DUMPSTER FIRE OF AN API!!!!
cl...@gmail.com
I think step back on this or similiar issue when fetching video with =dv suffix
I'm using
com.google.photos.library:google-photos-library-client:1.4.0
to fetch videos. It was working pretty well but for some new videos i got issue IOException with reason 500 from google endpoints:
It describe itself more like this:
java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 500 for URL:https://video-downloads.googleusercontent.com/ABzBgw2CdMg09PwSry__Bl [...]
this is (partial) output from fields of MediaItem
google.photos.types.MediaItem.base_url=https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lr/AGWb-e6s [...]
google.photos.types.MediaItem.mime_type=video/mp4, google.photos.types.MediaItem.media_metadata=creation_time {
seconds: 1570301787
}
width: 576
height: 1024
video {
fps: 29.918403416437823
status: READY
}
, google.photos.types.MediaItem.filename=video-c523eb1bb7a18b3e31f97ac581bffabf-V.mp4}
all i do is append =dv to the end of baseUrl
I'm using
com.google.photos.library:google-photos-library-client:1.4.0
to fetch videos. It was working pretty well but for some new videos i got issue IOException with reason 500 from google endpoints:
It describe itself more like this:
java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 500 for URL:
this is (partial) output from fields of MediaItem
google.photos.types.MediaItem.base_url=
google.photos.types.MediaItem.mime_type=video/mp4, google.photos.types.MediaItem.media_metadata=creation_time {
seconds: 1570301787
}
width: 576
height: 1024
video {
fps: 29.918403416437823
status: READY
}
, google.photos.types.MediaItem.filename=video-c523eb1bb7a18b3e31f97ac581bffabf-V.mp4}
all i do is append =dv to the end of baseUrl
cl...@gmail.com
sorry for the above. I meant to paste it in related issue that point to this one. But there is also mention about 400 return from the endpoint not 500
mean:https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/111638708
I cannot remove above comment...
mean:
I cannot remove above comment...
ro...@catfood.net
Is there any plan to fix this bug?
jl...@gmail.com
Hi there also wishing that issue was prioritized :p
me...@woet.me
It's been nearly 3 years. Why has this not been fixed yet?
la...@gmail.com
Bumping this...
ar...@gmail.com
Hello,
will this be fixed anytime soon?
will this be fixed anytime soon?
dr...@gmail.com
I second the people above, this should not be listed as a feature request - not having the ability to download an original quality video is obvious a bug. Also, coming up on the 2 year anniversary of this bug, which I can only imagine is a major blocker for anyone doing anything with video where the user expects high quality.
pu...@gmail.com
I think this limitation is entirely deliberate, for limiting bandwidth and prevent a large number of apps most often than not using the original video rather than a smaller transcode.
dr...@gmail.com
Kinda like keeping a car under the speed limit by slashing it's tires. There are already limits and quotas in place, they could just make a new limit on data downloaded or on number of full quality video requests pretty easily.
ji...@gmail.com
I'm using the Original Quality option and paying for storage, but I expect to also be able to download the Original Quality then. Please fix this _issue_ (this is not a feature request).
dr...@gmail.com
That's my situation exactly. I had hoped to write something to auto backup all my photos and videos to my network attached storage every night, in case anything happens to my Google account.
ke...@gmail.com
If you need some inspiration on the auto backup: I did exactly that. Working every week in my case flawlessly for months now. Didn't fix the video issue though... https://github.com/paranerd/backup-my-accounts
gi...@gmail.com
I to have written a backup service that works OK and I believe a few thousand people use it. But here is my list of Google API issues that mean that it is not a true backup https://github.com/gilesknap/gphotos-sync/issues/119
ro...@googlemail.com
Any news on this? I just spent a whole bunch of time adding Google Photos support to our desktop video application only to discover that I can't retrieve video files in their original resolution, which unfortunately makes it useless to me.
go...@iamgo.net
Bumping this up as a user in need of the video feature
th...@gmail.com
+1
ar...@gmail.com
+1
ca...@gmail.com
+1
sl...@gmail.com
+1
o....@gmail.com
+1
yt...@bu.edu
+1
ma...@gmail.com
+1
du...@gmail.com
how do i download original quality video ???
vi...@gmail.com
+1
ju...@googlemail.com
+1
lo...@gmail.com
+1
ca...@gmail.com
+1
jb...@gmail.com
+1
an...@gmail.com
+1
lu...@gmail.com
As a paying costumer, I would also like to be able to download my data at the original quality if I requested to using the API.
lo...@gmail.com
Hey Google, dont be evil? please? we can all see where this is going...
th...@gmail.com
As someone who's been paying for 1tb (now 2tb) google drive storage since 2015. I also demand that we should be able to download the original files as we uploaded them
ma...@gmail.com
I'll chime in that this is important to me as well, as another paying Google customer.
na...@gmail.com
+1
al...@gmail.com
+1
[Deleted User] <[Deleted User]>
my problem is totally reverse
i can easily download the original video with =dv but =m18, =m22 etc simple dont work after full video encode
it works for a few then is gone
i can easily download the original video with =dv but =m18, =m22 etc simple dont work after full video encode
it works for a few then is gone
mi...@stallinger.cx
+1
wa...@gmail.com
+1
[Deleted User] <[Deleted User]>
+1
ke...@osmosit.eu
Hello Google,
any news on that topic? The first issue has been introduced in 2018. Would you please come with a solution? ${baseUrl}=dv does not work and it has definitely something to do with the exposed endpoint.
Many thanks
With best regards
ju...@gmail.com
Hello Google,
are you still working on this? I don't want do download my videos squished down in quality with the api...
are you still working on this? I don't want do download my videos squished down in quality with the api...
bp...@gmail.com
+1
ne...@gmail.com
As a paying customer I need this issue fixed asap. If not fixed in 1 month moving to icloud
er...@gmail.com
As a paying customer, I need this issue, and other issues related to syncing MY photos libraries with an external storage, to be fixed.
y....@gmail.com
when will this problem be solved, is anyone doing this at all?
to...@gmail.com
Bueller, anyone????
Come on google, I'm PAYING you extra to store original quality video. you are holding my data ransom here... please fix this bug.
Come on google, I'm PAYING you extra to store original quality video. you are holding my data ransom here... please fix this bug.
ju...@gmail.com
Dang :(
to...@gmail.com
I second the importance of downloading an original quality video. This is absurd.
th...@gmail.com
+1
ci...@gmail.com
+1
ja...@gmail.com
+1
cr...@gmail.com
Comment has been deleted.
cr...@gmail.com
Poor decision. OneDrive provides original quality via API.
se...@gmail.com
My family's memories are now trapped in Google Photos. This is unacceptable.
83...@gmail.com
+1
gu...@gmail.com
This bug is still open after 4 years?!?!?!
br...@gmail.com
+1
What the fuck is going here Google ? Do you want users let your services down ? I always lov(ed?) Android, but those kind of WFT is making me really reconsider it for the future
What the fuck is going here Google ? Do you want users let your services down ? I always lov(ed?) Android, but those kind of WFT is making me really reconsider it for the future
or...@gmail.com
Wow, as a paying customer I'm disgusted that I can't get my original photos ans videos. I'm freaking paying for that exact reason. I'll be moving away for SURE, it's one thing on top of too many.
to...@gmail.com
Is Google Takeout also affected with this ?
gi...@gmail.com
No Google Takeout is not affected, however it gives you a chaotic set of images/videos and metadata. It also takes maybe a day or so to download my library, so its not a very effective backup process.
dp...@gmail.com
+1
My data is too valuable to entrust to Google if they are going to snub their customers by not fixing a bug like this after knowing about it for 3 years. I'll be exfiltrating my Google One data and canceling my subscription ASAP.
My data is too valuable to entrust to Google if they are going to snub their customers by not fixing a bug like this after knowing about it for 3 years. I'll be exfiltrating my Google One data and canceling my subscription ASAP.
jg...@gmail.com
Quick poll - for those that have left gphotos due to this (or related) issues, what have you switched to instead?
ch...@gmail.com
As a paying customer I'm joining to the comments above. WTF, Google? Obviously, your infrastructure is able to return full raw original video since I can download it in original 4K60fps by google photos web UI. I need the same behavior in the API.
f....@gmail.com
@Google please raise the priority of this ER. It is a shame !
ar...@gmail.com
Come on, Google, don't be evil and fix this. We shouldn't rely on Takeout to get the best versions of our videos.
ms...@gmail.com
+1
ru...@gmail.com
+1
so...@gmail.com
bump this as this still an issue
du...@gmail.com
+1
va...@gmail.com
+1
ha...@hagafiles.com
+1
va...@gmail.com
+1
jo...@gmail.com
+1000
ah...@gmail.com
+1
st...@gmail.com
M
ol...@frolovs.me
I never heard of Google Photos product previously although I have been working in Google Cloud Partner ecosystem for over two years, so am quite familiar with Google's product portfolio both in and outside Google Cloud.
When I learned about Google Photos from one of the Machine Learning courses that I am taking I thought that it sounds like a pretty good product so I spent some time to check it out. I liked the interface and the features but I also learned that this product does not allow to export the photos and videos back at their original resolution/quality level. This is vendor lock-in and is a deal breaker.
I cannot recommend this product to my customers and friends. In fact, I feel that now that I know about the vendor lock-in situation, it is my duty to mention this to any client or friend who is using Google Photos or is considering it. I also feel it is my duty to mention this every time I mention Google Photos in my line of work as an example of successful application of ML models.
I believe that in our time, and I'm writing this in year 2023, not allowing customers to export and take away all their data is socially unacceptable for a SaaS. I'm looking forward to this being fixed so that I can try this product again and begin recommending it to my clients and friends.
kl...@mail.com
Issue still there. Absolutely unacceptable for a paying customer like me. I have to look elsewhere now, thanks google photos.
di...@gmail.com
+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
xi...@gmail.com
+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
pr...@gmail.com
+1
Please provide a solution to this
Please provide a solution to this
ro...@gmail.com
+1
This is very frustrating; there shouldn't be a difference between downloading through API and through web browser
This is very frustrating; there shouldn't be a difference between downloading through API and through web browser
ju...@gmail.com
6 yeas wow
th...@e-x-e.dk
+1
da...@gmail.com
Seriously, 6+ years without resolution?! This is an essential feature and I can't believe this hasn't been fixed yet. C'mon Google!!!!
ph...@gmail.com
Assignee
li...@google.com
Does this person(s) still work for Google?? Why would it take 6 yrs with no update??? I literally discovered this bug just AFTER signing up with 5tb plan. Well...just cancelled the account and moving to another provider.
li...@google.com
Does this person(s) still work for Google?? Why would it take 6 yrs with no update??? I literally discovered this bug just AFTER signing up with 5tb plan. Well...just cancelled the account and moving to another provider.
sa...@gmail.com
It is worth noting that the open source Immich is becoming more and more a viable alternative to Google Photos.
I've started the process of migrating my large library over to a self-hosted instance. (You can export your photos with Google Takeout, and there are scripts to add back the metadata.)
Once you self-host, getting the highest quality version isn't a problem.
https://immich.app/
I've started the process of migrating my large library over to a self-hosted instance. (You can export your photos with Google Takeout, and there are scripts to add back the metadata.)
Once you self-host, getting the highest quality version isn't a problem.
ap...@gmail.com
Huh, is this still an issue? I’m in the process of migrating my media from dropbox to google photos now, but if I don’t have a programmatic way to access my original media… that entire effort is a non-starter.
Is there at least a private API we can use for this? How is the web interface accessing the media?
Is there at least a private API we can use for this? How is the web interface accessing the media?
xd...@gmail.com
I was trying to use Google Photos API and faced this problem.
How on earth is the core function of downloading the original video missing from the API? Do you say this is intentional?
Has anyone tried any workarounds, private APIs or anything else? There must be a way
How on earth is the core function of downloading the original video missing from the API? Do you say this is intentional?
Has anyone tried any workarounds, private APIs or anything else? There must be a way
20...@daiict.ac.in
+1
es...@gmail.com
+1
Description
The issue is simple though, I'm reading the Guide => Access media items => Video base URL.
It explains it's required to add `=dv` to the video's base URL but I get the video in a smaller resolution. If I open the same video from the Google Photos webapp I get it in it's original resolution. The documentation says exactly:
"To do this, concatenate the base URL in the following format with your required dimensions:"
But I don't understand where I'm supposed to define the required dimensions and I get a lower resolution video. It specifically says "that this parameter is not compatible with the height and width parameters."
I've tried the following combinations:
But I really don't know how can I download the video in it's original resolution.
This issue is also reported as a question in Stack Overflow