Are there better ways to download files from Google than Google Takeout?

Honestly, there’s no better option than Google Takeout for this. If you're dealing with a lot of data, try making separate requests for each type of file, like photos and docs. Use the smallest zip size to speed things up, especially since large downloads can sometimes stall. Once you’ve downloaded everything, extract the files one folder at a time to keep things organized and manageable.

You might want to check out the Google Drive desktop app. It’s a bit buggy, but it could sync your files directly to your computer. You’d be able to keep copies on your device and then move them to a different folder. Just be sure to have enough storage space!

Make sure you have a drive with at least 1TB of free space. Google Takeout will give you chunks of zip files, usually around 10GB each. You can use an app like 7-Zip to extract them and get everything into one folder. Once that’s done, you can organize it as you like!

You could use any IMAP email client to archive your Gmail content to your local storage. It’s pretty straightforward and can help you save important emails too.