Long-time back, I had uploaded some photos to Maps directly from my old desktop PC, which now stands discarded.
There were no backups of those pics anywhere, including Google photos.
I considered multiple alternatives to retrieve that through Maps.
To begin with, I thought of capturing a screenshot. However, that wasn’t much pleasing.
I struggled to locate a download option. Nevertheless, it wasn’t apparent there anywhere.
At long last, I managed to obtain a reasonably close copy of those photos.
Maybe, the downloading option is not straightforward to protect copying.
Thanks for asking. In addition to @ErmesT 's reply, I would like to mention that downloading photos that are not your own is not encouraged due to copyright.
In there you will find all your storage (public contributions, like Maps, Blog, and more) and private photos, visible only to you.
What you see there is public visible, so from there you can see what others can see about you.
Be careful in managing the visibility in there: If you change to “private” a photo that you added in Google Maps, your photo will be no longer visible
That is simply so uncool of Google Maps to allow !!! It is no wonder so many of us legitimate Local guides have our best photos disappear along with out reviews.
So uncool! We are not appreciated at all! Our work we finance and post without compensation not to at the very least protected against fraudulent bad actors?
Not fair!
I just attempted to download my Google Maps reviews and images to no avail.
My images are also disappearing from Google Photos.
Please be advised that the photos you upload on Google Maps are visible for everyone only if you made your contributions public.
In addition, photos that do not adhere to Maps User Contributed Content Policy will be made private and are only visible to you - view counts for these reviews do not count towards the total photo view counts. This is probably the reason why some of your photos disappeared from the map. The same goes for reviews.
As a reminder, the Local Guides program is for individuals who contribute to Google Maps who like to help others to discover and explore their world. It is a voluntary program for everyone who would like to participate and make Google Maps better.
The photos reside probably in various places, depending of the type of contributions, @VBenedict , all of them accessible through your Album archive
You can download an album, or a single photo, through the menu on the three dots on the top-right of your screen (on desktop). For more information: Use the Google Album Archive
Through the link I provided you have access to your own archive but, if you share the URL of your own archive, everyone will be able to access and see only the photos that are flagged as Public. This includes Maps, Blog, and other Google programs.
If you flag a photo as “private”, the photo will not be accessible to others. Of course, if you flag as private a photo you uploaded in Google Maps, the photo will be no longer visible, and your point deducted.
The risk that other people use our contents is always present, in Google Maps and everywhere on the wed. Maps is safer, as you cannot directly download a photo, and you have to use a workaround (that I will not share because you don’t need that to download your own contents).
What I personally do is to add a watermark with my name in most of the photo I post in Maps, here in Connect, on the web and on Social Media
Hello, @VBenedict , I suggest you should never use the option to download anything through the report a photo option. In my opinion, that’s an incorrect way.
To backup your contributions, please follow the steps as suggested by @ErmesT only.
Yes, I have always been fully aware that this is a volunteering effort.
Nevertheless, for the more reason, Google Maps should make every effort to dearly protect our contributions against Bad Actors breaching our Intelectual Property as volunteering LGs.
Thank you @C_T I do not seem to even have the “report a photo” download option and yes if I had discovered it, I would just as soon report it as a vulnerability since this option would not make sense.
Yes, I am fully aware and in full understanding of the publishing use rights I grant to Google Maps while retaining ownership of my intelectual property. i.e., content and images.
Moni, I so much appreciate that you are taking the time to make sure we understand how it all works.
"You can download an album, or a single photo, through the menu on the three dots on the top-right of your screen (on desktop). For more information: Use the Google Album Archive "
I followed the link and in fact arrived at my archive. The only option I did not appear to have was the “download” option neither in my mobile or laptop.
Will look again… but the three dots did not provide the dl option.
anyone can go to the link 
!!! It is no wonder so many of us legitimate Local guides have our best photos disappear along with out reviews.
