Pixstead moves your entire Google Photos library onto a drive you own, dates, places, captions and albums intact, and hands you the manifest proving every single item arrived.
Since March 31, 2025, no app can read your Google Photos. Google removed the API for everyone; Google Takeout is the only exit left: a maze of 50 GB zip files and broken metadata. Pixstead makes that exit safe, complete, and verified.
Mac & Windows app · works with Google Takeout · your photos never leave your computer.
NO. 000 001
CLASS: HOUSEHOLD
Tear-off · Reserve your place
Google storage is rent, and the rent went up in 2025. Slide to your library size and compare the fares.
Basis: US Google One pricing (100 GB $19.99/yr · 200 GB $29.99/yr · 2 TB $99.99/yr · 5 TB $249.99/yr). Savings shown net of Pixstead’s full $69 price, assuming you downgrade to the free 15 GB tier after moving out.
You click; Pixstead carries the bags. No command line, no unzipping, no guesswork.
LEG 1 · CHECK-IN
Pixstead walks you through Google Takeout with the exact right settings (the ones Google makes easy to get wrong), then keeps watch while Google packs your archives.
LEG 2 · IN TRANSIT
When the zips land, Pixstead gathers all of them, straight from the archives, nothing extracted, and checks every file against the packing list. Missing parts get flagged, not lost.
LEG 3 · ARRIVAL
Every date, place, caption and album is written back into the files themselves, then delivered to your drive, NAS, or Apple Photos — searchable in whatever app you use next.
Movers count boxes. Pixstead counts photos before, during, and after, and won’t call a migration done until every item is delivered or explained. You keep the manifest as proof, forever. And your photos’ permanent home is the files themselves, not another app’s database — apps come and go; a repaired library stays readable by all of them.
PIXSTEAD · DELIVERY MANIFEST
SHIPMENT GGL→PXD · 10 ARCHIVES
| Items in archives | 165,336 |
| Delivered & verified | 161,569 |
| Exact duplicates set aside | 3,767 |
| Quarantined | 0 |
| Lost | 0 |
| Accounted for | 165,336 / 165,336 |
| Photos repaired & embedded | 142,974 |
| Data delivered | 487.37 GB |
Real manifest · the founder's own library, Aug 2026 · read case study № 0001 →
No. Pixstead reads the .zip archives exactly as Google delivers them, even a 50 GB, twenty-part export, and never needs them extracted. Files stream straight from the archives to your drive.
Because Google shut that door for everyone on March 31, 2025: the Photos API scopes that allowed reading your library were removed, and no app (including this one) can get them back. Takeout is the only complete exit, so Pixstead is built to make Takeout painless instead of pretending the API still exists.
Yes, that’s the point. Dates, GPS and captions are written into the photo files themselves, in the standard fields Apple Photos, Windows Photos, Lightroom, Synology and Immich all read. Import your delivered library anywhere and search by date, place, or caption on day one. (Google’s current exports no longer include people tags, so no tool can restore those — we don’t pretend otherwise.)
$69 once, not a subscription, covering up to 5 Google accounts in your household ($99 for the edition with cloud destinations and Apple Photos handoff). Waitlist members get launch pricing at $45. A 2 TB Google One plan costs $99.99 every single year.
Different job. Free importers move your metadata into one app’s database — the photo files themselves stay broken, so if you ever leave that app, the mess comes back. Pixstead repairs the files: dates, places and captions written into each photo itself, readable by every app, Immich included. It also verifies the journey (corrupt and incomplete downloads are caught before they cost you photos) and hands you the manifest. The house you move into may change; the moving company makes sure the boxes are sound. Pixstead + Immich is a great combo: deliver a verified library, then point Immich at it.
No. Pixstead is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. It works with the export files Google Takeout produces.