Until recently, tools like rclone and MultCloud were able to access Google Photos albums using the photoslibrary.readonly and photoslibrary.sharing scopes.
Due to recent Google API changes, these scopes are now deprecated and only available to apps that passed a strict validation process — which makes it nearly impossible for open-source tools or personal scripts to access your own photos and albums.
This effectively breaks any form of automated backup from Google Photos.
We've just submitted a proposal to Google asking for a new read-only backup scope, something like:
[https://www.googleapis.com/auth/photoslibrary.readonly.backup/](https://www.googleapis.com/auth/photoslibrary.readonly.backup%5C%60)
✅ Read-only
✅ No uploads or sharing
✅ For archival and backup tools only
📬 You can support the request by starring or commenting here:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/422116288
Let’s push back and ask Google to give users proper access to their data!