I downloaded my Google Photos library using Google Takeaway, unzipped the file to a removeable hard drive and then tried to import into Aspect.
The Aspect import function showed no folder or files to import - even though the Include Photos from subfolders box is ticked (but disabled)
Desired behaviour would be to import files from all subfolders and/or to recognise the file structure is Google Takeaway/photos. The sub folders are albums in Google Photos so it would be great if imported photos were tagged/organised into those same folders/albums in Aspect. Google also outputs a .json file of meta data for each photo, so would be good if that was imported too. Also, Google seems to make physical duplicates of photos - e.g. all photos appear in the Everything folder. To indicate a photo is in one or more albums, the photo file is duplicated in that album folder. So deduping these identical files, but still keeping the album structure would be great
When you open the drive using the “File Browser” in the bottom left, do you see the extracted folders and their contents there?
By the way, if I remember correctly, using Google Takeout will strip all metadata off the photos. I spent a few very boring hours in the past going an alternative route where you select a bunch of files in the normal Google Photos view (on the website, scrolling carefully without any jumps or the selection will reset) and download them from there. But that way at least they retain their metadata.
I have read that if you store your photos on Google Drive instead of using Google Photos then when you download them to your computer from Drive the metadata is preserved. If you sync photos from Google Photos to Google Drive you may loose some metadata. I have not tested this so try some test photos before relying on it.
Also, the internet says that Google Photos Takeout strips the image metadata but puts it into JSON files, a kind of sidecar file. If you use Google Takeout you can then use a tool like GPTH (Google Photos Takeout Helper), GitHub - TheLastGimbus/GooglePhotosTakeoutHelper: Script that organizes the Google Takeout archive into one big chronological folder. Again I have never tried it myself so test first.
Google Photos Takeout strips the image metadata but puts it into JSON files, a kind of sidecar file
The metadata in those JSON files are just part of the original metadata, though! On the other hand, there are also some extra fields that Google generates.