Why Google Photos isn't in the Finder location

If you've connected a Google Photos account, you won't find it in the Storage Studio location in Finder. That's deliberate. Google only lets apps like Storage Studio see the photos that the app itself uploaded, so a Finder folder could never show your library, and it would keep the folder busy for nothing.

Why it's left out

Google limits what other apps can read from Google Photos. An app can see only the photos it uploaded itself, not the rest of your library. On top of that, when asked for a folder listing, Google still works its way through your whole library before saying there's nothing to show.

In Finder, that would mean:

• A folder that never finishes loading, even though it would end up empty.
• Your account's daily allowance used up. Google limits how many requests an app can make each day, and an endless listing would spend that allowance without showing you anything.

So Storage Studio doesn't put Google Photos in the Finder location at all, rather than show you a folder that spins forever.

%% caption: Where a Google Photos account can and can't be used
flowchart TD
  A[Your Google Photos account] --> B{What do you want to do?}
  B -->|Browse it in Finder| C[Not available. Google only shows apps their own uploads]
  B -->|Copy photos into it| D[Use it as a destination in Data Transfers]
  B -->|Get your whole library| E[Use Google Takeout]
  E --> F[Download the archive and copy it where you like]

What you can still do

• Send photos to it. Google Photos still works as a destination in Data Transfers.
• Get your whole library out. Google's own export, Takeout, gives you an archive of everything. Google Photos: what's possible and the Takeout route walks you through it.
• Use Google Drive normally. A connected Google Drive account is a separate account and appears in the Finder location like any other. See Connecting Google Drive.

Other accounts aren't affected

This only applies to Google Photos. Your other connected accounts, your external drive's Home folder and your paired devices all appear in the location as usual. If one of those is missing, see The Storage Studio location is missing from Finder.

See also: Cloud accounts · Accounts Storage Studio doesn't connect