# Removing Google as a Single Point of Failure

DevFeed: [Removing Google as a Single Point of Failure](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/removing-google-as-a-single-point-of-failure-20967.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://jakewharton.com/removing-google-as-a-single-point-of-failure/>)

Published: 2020-02-19T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Jake Wharton](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jake-wharton.md>)

Topics: [Google](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/google.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [DRIVE](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/drive.md>), [Persistence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/persistence.md>), [Docker](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/docker.md>), [Docker Container](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/docker-container.md>), [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>)

Tags: [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [backup](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backup.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [docker](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/docker.md>), [docker-container](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/docker-container.md>), [drive](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/drive.md>), [google](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/google.md>), [persistence](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/persistence.md>), [sync](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sync.md>)

## AI overview

The article describes a plan to reduce dependence on Google as a single point of failure while continuing to use Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive as sources of truth. It recommends exporting data with Google Takeout and using recurring exports plus rclone to incrementally synchronize Drive contents into redundant storage, with Docker-based monitoring for sync health.

## Source excerpt

I want to remove Google as a single point of failure in my life. They have two decades of my email. They have two decades of my photos. They have the only copy of thousands of documents, projects, and other random files from the last two decades. Now I trust Google completely in their ability to correctly retain my data. But I think it's clear that over the last 5 years the company has lost something intrinsically important in the way it operates. I no longer trust them not to permanently lock me out of my account. And I say this as a current Google employee. This year I've embarked on a mission to reclaim ownership of my data. This does not mean that I'm going to stop using Google products. Quite the opposite. Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive will remain the source-of-truth for all of the things I listed above. What's different is that should Google disappear tomorrow (or just my account) I would lose no data. Get Your Data Step 1: Takeout The first thing you need to do today is visit takeout.google.com and export your Gmail, Photos, and Drive data (and anything else you want). This will send you links to a set of 50GB .tar.gz files of your data that you can download. That is, provided it works. It took me 5 attempts of exporting just my Photos data to have one succeed. Persistence pays off, though, so don't give up even though this is a slow process. Get. Your. Data. Google providing the Takeout service is amazing, but as far as a backup solutions go it is woefully inadequate. It's an extremely manual, slow, and non-incremental process. However, it's also comprehensive in ways that no other solution can match. Because of that, I have a monthly recurring task to perform a Takeout. Do it during a boring meeting so it feels less of a chore and more of a welcome distraction. Seriously, do this today! Step 2: Drive Sync The rclone tool can incrementally sync your Google Drive contents. It will also take Google's proprietary document formats and convert them into