diff --git a/meta-gnome/recipes-gnome/libgdata/libgdata_0.17.12.bb b/meta-gnome/recipes-gnome/libgdata/libgdata_0.17.12.bb
index 25bc202ae8..9ce8bb8e95 100644
--- a/meta-gnome/recipes-gnome/libgdata/libgdata_0.17.12.bb
+++ b/meta-gnome/recipes-gnome/libgdata/libgdata_0.17.12.bb
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ do_compile_prepend() {
     export GIR_EXTRA_LIBS_PATH="${B}/gdata/.libs"
 }
 
-PACKAGECONFIG ??= ""
+# goa is required for gnome-photos
+PACKAGECONFIG ??= "goa gtk"
 PACKAGECONFIG[manpages] = "-Dman=true,-Dman=false"
 PACKAGECONFIG[goa] = "-Dgoa=enabled,-Dgoa=disabled,gnome-online-accounts"
 PACKAGECONFIG[gtk] = "-Dgtk=enabled,-Dgtk=disabled,gtk+3"