PhotoRecull

Setup

PhotoRecull reads which photos are still in your Google Photos account through the Google Photos Picker API, which requires a Google OAuth client. This is a one-time setup.

1. Create a Google Cloud project & OAuth client

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console.
2. Create a project (or reuse one).
3. APIs & Services → Library → search “Photos Picker API” → Enable.
4. APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen:
   • User type: External.
   • Under Test users, add the Google account whose photo library you’ll compare against. (Only test users can use an unverified app — no Google verification needed.)
   • Recommended: Audience → Publish app to move it from Testing to In production. Google expires a Testing app’s sign-in after 7 days, so you’d sign in again every week. An unverified app in production keeps working for your own account; you’ll just keep seeing the “unverified app” warning when signing in.
   • Branding links (home page, privacy policy, terms of service) are optional.
5. APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → OAuth client ID:
   • Application type: Desktop app.
   • Download the JSON.

2. Add credentials to the project

Rename the downloaded file to credentials.json and place it in the repository root (where you run dotnet run --project src/PhotoRecull.Cli from), or pass its path with --credentials <file>.

credentials.json and the cached OAuth token are git-ignored — never commit them.

3. First run

On the first run a browser window opens asking you to sign in and approve access. You’ll see an “unverified app” warning (expected for a personal test app) — choose Advanced → Go to … (unsafe) to continue. The token is then cached under src/PhotoRecull.Cli/bin/.../token_store_picker/, so later runs don’t prompt again.

To sign in with a browser other than your default (e.g. keep the default signed out of Google), use --browser chrome. See USAGE.md.

Windows app: built-in Google client

Store builds of the Windows app have a Google OAuth client built in, so users only click Sign in with Google. The client isn’t in the repository. A build picks it up from:

• Locally: copy src/PhotoRecull.App/GoogleOAuthClient.local.props.example to GoogleOAuthClient.local.props (git-ignored) and fill in a Desktop OAuth client’s ID and secret.
• CI: the PhotoRecullGoogleClientId and PhotoRecullGoogleClientSecret environment variables.

A build without them (a fork, for example) asks for a credentials.json during Setup instead, as the command-line app does.

Notes on the Google API change

Before 2025-03-31 an app could read a user’s entire library via the Library API. Google removed the photoslibrary.readonly scope, so that approach now returns 403 PERMISSION_DENIED. PhotoRecull uses the Picker API instead: you select the surviving photos yourself. Consequence: completeness is on you — any photo still in Google Photos that you forget to select will make its OneDrive twin look like a deletion candidate. That’s why the tool defaults to non-destructive --dry-run / --stage, and why you should work one month at a time.

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