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Some kind of companion app that runs on my phone and streams the latest data (photos, location history, texts, etc ) back to the timeline would probably be more tractable for live updates. But that is probably a wildly different scope than the import based workflow. This is very cool regardless.

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For sure.

About 5-6 years ago, Timelinize actually used only the Google Photos API. It didn't even support imports from Takeout yet. The problem is the API strips photos of crucial metadata including location, and gives you nerfed versions of your data. Plus the rate limits were so unbearable, I eventually ripped this out.

But yeah, an app that runs on your phone would be a nice QoL improvement.

Is takeout the only way to get the original photos out?

As far as I know, yes. ("Original" is a strong word, but it's pretty close if you don't have space saver enabled / pay for storage.)

Syncthing from phone to a directory on PC?

That's what I do. Though I don't then put them into any system. Yet.

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