Your Digital Content
What you can take, what you can replace, and why Google's real lock-in isn't your content.
Google Takeout is one of the most comprehensive data export tools any tech company offers. Your content is mostly exportable. The problem isn't that Google traps your content. The problem is that Google keeps a shadow profile of everything you've ever done — and that profile is not in the export.
Leaving Google is less about taking your content and more about cutting the data pipeline.
Section 1 — Content you own and can export
Start with takeout.google.com — one of the best data export tools in the industry.
Gmail
- Google Takeout: select Gmail → exports as MBOX file (standard format, imports anywhere)
- IMAP: connect any email client (Thunderbird, Proton Bridge) → drag mail to new provider
- Direct migration: Proton Mail, Fastmail, and Tuta offer built-in Gmail import tools
Critical step people forget: Your Gmail address is probably the login for dozens of other services. Update every service that uses your Gmail before you stop using it. This takes weeks. Start early.
Google Photos
Google Takeout exports your library as ZIP files with original JPEG, PNG, HEIC, MP4 files.
Known issue: Takeout stores photo metadata (dates, locations, album info) in separate JSON sidecar files rather than embedded in the image EXIF. Without merging these, your exported photos lose date and location data. Use ExifTool or Google Photos Takeout Helper to merge them before importing elsewhere. Worth knowing before you export.
Google Drive, Calendar, Contacts
- Drive: Takeout exports everything. Google-native formats convert automatically: Docs → .docx, Sheets → .xlsx, Slides → .pptx. Verify complex documents after conversion.
- Calendar: Exports as .ics files — universal standard. Imports into any calendar app.
- Contacts: contacts.google.com → Export → vCard. Imports anywhere.
Location History
Takeout exports your complete location history — everywhere you've been, when, and how long. Download it if you want a personal record. Then delete it from Google's servers at myactivity.google.com.
This is one of the most sensitive datasets any company holds about you. Make a deliberate decision about whether you want Google to keep it.
Section 2 — Content you can replace but not transfer
Google Play Books
Good news: Google uses Adobe DRM on most titles, not proprietary Google DRM. Some titles are DRM-free (publisher dependent). This makes Google's ebook store more portable than Amazon's or Apple's.
- DRM-free titles: Download the EPUB. Works everywhere. Move to Calibre, Kobo, or any reading app.
- Adobe DRM titles: Readable in any Adobe Digital Editions-compatible app — Kobo, Nook, various third-party readers. Not locked to Google.
Overall: Google Play Books is the least locked-in ebook ecosystem among major platforms. If you buy ebooks from a major retailer, Google is the most portable choice.
Google Play Movies
Google participates in Movies Anywhere. Link your Google account at moviesanywhere.com — eligible purchases become accessible on Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, and other linked platforms.
Google's movie ecosystem is the most portable of the three major platforms thanks to Movies Anywhere. If you buy digital movies, Google is the best starting point for cross-platform access.
Section 3 — Google's real lock-in isn't content
The data shadow you can't export
Google knows what you search for, watch, where you go, who you email, what you buy, what ads you click, what questions you ask at 3 AM, what symptoms you look up, what routes you drive, what restaurants you visit. Your content is exportable. Your data shadow is not.
You can download your location history, but Google's model of your behavior — the advertising profile, the prediction engine, the inferences drawn from fifteen years of search queries — is not in the export.
You can export your files in an afternoon. Disentangling your life from Google's surveillance infrastructure takes months. Both are worth doing.
The main Google exit guide covers the data pipeline: replacing Chrome, search, Gmail, Maps, and Android's default Google integration.
Section 4 — The approach we don't recommend
Google DRM tools — a shorter section
Google's content ecosystem has significantly less DRM lock-in than Apple's or Amazon's. Most Google Play Books titles use Adobe DRM (interoperable across many readers) or are DRM-free. Google participates in Movies Anywhere, making movie purchases accessible across platforms. The urgency of DRM removal is lower here than with Kindle or Audible.
For titles with Adobe DRM: the same Calibre plugin ecosystem discussed in the Amazon guide handles Adobe DRM. The same legal landscape applies — DMCA Section 1201, circumvention illegal regardless of purchase, enforcement focused on tool makers not end users. The same risks are real.
Our position: We believe purchased content should be owned. The law says otherwise. Tools exist. Risks are real. Adults can make their own decisions with full information. That is all.
The structural solution: check whether your Google Play Books titles are DRM-free before assuming they're locked. Many are. For future ebook purchases, prefer DRM-free sources.
What Google genuinely does better than any alternative
- Google Maps business data — hours, reviews, real-time info. No alternative matches the density. Use OsmAnd or Apple Maps for navigation; use a browser (not the app, not signed in) for business lookups.
- YouTube's content library — no alternative platform has the same breadth. Watch without tracking (Invidious, Brave browser) rather than pretending alternatives exist.
- Google Scholar — academic research. No real equivalent yet.
- Gmail's deliverability — Proton and Tuta emails occasionally land in spam at servers that implicitly trust Gmail. Real consideration for professional email.
- Google Translate — DeepL is better for many language pairs, but Google covers more languages and has camera translation and conversation mode.