Media stays local
ZIP archives, photos, videos, JSON sidecars, GPS coordinates and repair reports are processed on your computer. Network access is used for license status, downloads and update checks.
The license service receives a device identifier and entitlement state. It does not receive filenames, media, metadata, coordinates or repair reports.
Originals remain unchanged
The source ZIP or extracted folder is opened for reading. Repaired files are created under a different output directory, existing destination files are not overwritten and an output location inside an extracted source is rejected.
Keep the original archives until the result has been inspected in its destination and backed up independently.
Verified dependencies and releases
The repair engine is pinned by SHA-256 before use. Public download responses expose release checksums so transferred artifacts can be compared with the published build.
The current Windows 0.3.10 ZIP is unsigned and relies on the published checksum for integrity verification. The macOS release uses Developer ID signing, hardened runtime, Apple notarization and a stapled ticket.
Known boundaries
Takeout Rescue does not invent missing Apple MakerNote identifiers, transcode damaged video streams or promise recovery of information absent from both the media and Google sidecar. Ambiguous matches are reported instead of silently forced.
An exact duplicate requires a matching content hash. Similar-looking photos and edited copies are not automatically deleted.