If you find yourself a former user of Google products like Hangouts, there is bad news that is following up. In a series of recent developments, Google has announced the closure of its Album Archive. The service will not be available after July 19, 2023. The tech giant is rolling out emails to the users to communicate their decision. The company is directing the users to utilise Takeout and download the important items before they are lost forever. Google Album Archive is a service that contains the videos and images that were shared on previous Google services, which have now been rendered defunct. It is recommended to download important data before losing it.
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Google sent out emails earlier this week that gave the users a warning. The warning read, “Some content that’s only available in the Album Archive will be deleted starting July 19.” This contains some Google Hangouts data currently housed in the Album Archive, background pictures posted in the Gmail theme selector before 2018, small thumbnail photos, album comments, and album likes.
When a user goes to the Archives Album page, they are shown the words, “Photos and videos that you see here will no longer be available after July 19, 2023. You can use Takeout to download these items before then. Learn more,” at the top. Just beside this, the user can see an option that will take them to Takeout. Google is advising consumers to use Google Takeout to download a copy of their Album Archive data. In this manner, you can get an email with a download link or move your data to one of the top cloud storage services, such as Google Drive, IDrive, OneDrive, or Dropbox.
The support page claims you might still be able to retrieve some of your data stored in Album Archive after July 19, even though it’s very obvious from the email that some of it will be permanently lost after that date. According to the support website, users can “view and manage” items on more Google services like Blogger, Hangouts (now Chat), Google Photos, and their default Google Account after July 19. The Google Takeout download link is only usable for seven days if you choose the email method.
Multiple reports claim that some users are perplexed by the difference between the email and the support page. However, due to the discontinuation of a service, it is highly advised to create a backup of the data. Even if one does not feel like exploring the enormous data that they have stored, it is still advised, at least as a “trip down memory lane.” One can explore other services that provide cloud storage facilities and picture organising services.
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Meanwhile, reportedly, Dropbox is planning to change its integration with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Through an email, the corporation informed its customers about the change. Dropbox’s native integration with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides is coming to an end, and Google files in Dropbox will be replaced by shortcuts to documents on Google Drive. In a month, users who have Google files in their Dropbox account must migrate those items to Google Drive, or else they will convert to Microsoft files.
