When connecting Google Photos, it shows 2 EB of free space and no files. I’ve tried connecting via both the standard login and the API, but nothing works. Google Drive has no issues.
Hello,
Thank you for the report. We investigated this, and what you are seeing is not a problem with NetDrive or with your account — it is the result of a policy change by Google.
As of March 31, 2025, Google changed the Photos Library API and removed the permission that allowed third-party apps to browse a user’s full Google Photos library. Any third-party app can now only see photos and videos that were uploaded through that app itself. NetDrive is no exception, and both the standard login and the API method are affected equally — the restriction is enforced by Google’s servers, not by the sign-in method. Google Drive uses a separate API, which is why it continues to work normally.
- Why you see no files: your existing photos were uploaded outside NetDrive (phone, web, etc.), so Google excludes them from what NetDrive is allowed to list. Files uploaded to Google Photos through NetDrive do appear and can be downloaded — you can verify this by uploading a single file via NetDrive.
- Why it shows 2 EB: the Photos API does not report storage quota, so NetDrive displays a placeholder value. We will improve how this is displayed.
If you need to download your existing photo library, Google’s official Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com) is currently the only way to do so.
We are sorry for the inconvenience — this is a limitation imposed by Google that affects all third-party applications. We will also make this limitation clear in our documentation.
Thank you.