no media found error?

[bmehling]

Any way to troubleshoot this error? More detailed logging option?

[ERROR] Error counting images: no media files found in folder structure

I've tried using the GUI and CLI, same result. The --input directory has an unizipped gTakeout of a single album containing photos and .json exif data. The --output directory is an empty subdirectory of the album directory.

Many thanks

[feloex]

Hello! I assume this is happening because the input directory is set to the "Takeout" directory and not the "Google photos" directory (directory names vary by language). The "Google photos" directory is the directory with the "Photos from (year)" and album folders.

And also I think it's better to keep the output directory outside of the takeout directory, but I'm not exactly sure how this influences the process.

And I agree with you that the logging could also definitely be improved.

[bmehling]

I appreciate the project and your response here!

1. I definitely was selecting the wrong directory (the actual directory) 🤦🏻‍♂️

2. I tried again w/ a clean takeout. I only exported a single album (no years).

• input: ~/Downloads/Takeout
• directory structure: ~/Downloads/Takeout/Google Photos/ (contains ~25 images + .json and couple videos)
• output: ~/Downloads/test1

I'm still seeing the same error. Maybe I also need to export the year directories? I am not seeing a logs directory.

[INFO] Logs will appear here...
[INFO] Processing...
[INFO] Starting processing with source: /Users/<user>/Downloads/Takeout and output: /Users/<user>/Downloads/test1
[ERROR] Error counting images: no media files found in folder structure
[INFO] Total processing time: 0s
[INFO] Detailed logs are saved in the ./logs folder
[INFO] Done
[INFO] Finished processing 0 files
[ERROR] Error: no media files found in folder structure

[feloex]

The log files are located in the "logs" folder of your GoogleTakeoutFixer path (the folder where the executable of GoogleTakeoutFixer is located). The full path should be logged in the future to avoid confusion.

Your problem would most likely be fixed if you also import year folders. I have only tested this program with complete takeouts yet. With partial takeouts I think there are some flaws in the code.

Could you please send the full path of any media file of your takeout? This could help diagnosing your issue in case this does not work.

[AnotherWorkingNerd]

Hello, Thanks for creating this. Google sure doesn't make it easy to leave. I'm having similar problems and get the same "[ERROR] Error counting images: no media files found in folder structure" message.

Here are the details. the user name in the paths has been changed of obvious reasons.
Using MacOS Sequoia 15.7.4
Memory: 32GB
Primary disk - SSD APFS 294GB free (this is the boot drive)
Data Disk - HDD Mac OS Extended (Journaled) 427GB free

Running on the data disk from cli (iterm2 if it matters) using:
~/Downloads/gtf/GoogleTakeoutFixer_macOS_universal/GoogleTakeoutFixer

I click on input and use Input folder: /Volumes/DataDisk/GoogleTakout-Photos/Takeout_April2/Google Photos

then as suggested about use a folder outside the Takeout folder so I use an Output folder: /Volumes/DataDisk/GoogleTakeoutFixer-output Then click the process button

and in the log section it shows:
[INFO] Starting processing with source: /Volumes/DataDisk/GoogleTakout-Photos/Takeout_April2/Google Photos and output: /Volumes/DataDisk/GoogleTakeoutFixer-output
[ERROR] Error counting images: no media files found in folder structure
[INFO] Total processing time: 0s
[INFO] Detailed logs are saved in the ./logs folder
[INFO] Done
[INFO] Finished processing 0 files
[ERROR] Error: no media files found in folder structure

there are over 3000 files in the input directory

happy to answer any questions.

HTH,
Just AnotherWorkingNerd

[AnotherWorkingNerd]

the log file really doesn't show much in addition to what above its:

`
[2026-04-03T14:28:52-07:00] [INFO] Starting processing with source: /Volumes/DataDisk/GoogleTakout-Photos/Takeout_April2/Google Photos and output: /Volumes/DataDisk/GoogleTakeoutFixer-output

[2026-04-03T14:28:52-07:00] [ERROR] Error counting images: no media files found in folder structure
[2026-04-03T14:28:52-07:00] [INFO] Total processing time: 0s
`
had to add a extra line otherwise everything got smushed in to one long string.

[feloex]

Thank you for this 🙏. I'm thinking about this. Will do an in-depth review of this asap.