Google has acknowledged and fixed an issue that left some Google Photos users with broken ZIP downloads when exporting large archives through the Google One Storage Manager on desktop.
In a fresh post on the Google Photos community, the company said the problem affected users who downloaded large collections of photos and videos on a computer using the Google One Storage Manager. Specifically, archives larger than 4GB were being created incorrectly, which meant the resulting ZIP files could not be opened.
Reports of the issue have been doing the rounds on Reddit and the Google Photos forum for over a year, but their scattered nature meant not many were affected. Still, it’s great to see Google doing something about it.
That is the kind of bug that turns a routine backup into a small personal disaster, especially for people trying to move years of memories off the cloud. A download appears to finish normally, and then the archive refuses to open.
According to Google, its engineering teams have now identified the cause of the issue and rolled out a fix. Going forward, any new Google Photos archive downloads initiated through the Google One Storage Manager on a computer should now work properly regardless of file size.
For users who were already affected, Google is offering two ways to recover their content.
The first, and likely easiest, option is to simply start a fresh download of the photos or videos. Google says any new archive generated now should be created correctly.
The second option is aimed at those who would rather not download everything again. Google has launched a dedicated repair tool that can fix previously downloaded corrupted archives. The tool is available at photos.google.com/2026zipfilerepair, and it will remain accessible until June 1, 2027.
Google also apologized for the trouble, saying it is sorry for the concern and inconvenience caused.
If you previously exported a large Google Photos archive on desktop and ran into a ZIP file that would not open, the fix is straightforward now.
Hillary Keverenge
2650 Posts
Tech has been my playground for over a decade. While the Android journey began early, it truly took flight with the revolutionary Lollipop update. Since then, it's been a parade of Android devices (with a sprinkle of iOS), culminating in a mostly happy marriage with Google's smart home ecosystem. Expect insightful articles and explorations of the ever-evolving world of Android and Google products coupled with occasional rants on the Nest smart home ecosystem.
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