Android 101: Keep your Picasa account synced with your Android device

Because Google wants us all to use the cloud, they have some pretty slick ways to make it easy with your Android device.  One of the free perks of having a Google account is your own online gallery at Picasa, where photos under 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes in length can be stored in unlimited numbers, and anything larger can be applied to your 1GB storage limit.  Read more about that, as well as how to upgrade that limit and how it works with Google+ right here

So you have a nice place to store pictures you take and want to keep, let's get that synced up so it's always available on your Android device.  We're going to use the Samsung Galaxy Tab here in our example, as I have about a ton of data stored in the cloud with music, video and pictures that I can look at on demand synced up.  But the procedure is the same for any Android device.

From the homescreen, hit the Menu button, then open the settings.  Scroll through the settings until you come to the Accounts and sync option, then select it.  You should see your Google account listed, go on and press it.  Depending on what applications you have installed, you'll see entries to keep different things synced to your device.  Today we're looking for "Sync Picasa Web Albums", so go ahead and make sure that box is checked.  If it wasn't already checked, it may take a few minutes to get all the information synced up, but after that's done you'll find all the images in their gallery folder available in the Gallery app on your Android device, just as if they were stored locally.

The real beauty here is that you can manage folders and files from your computer's web browser (or if you like, from the browser right on your Android device itself) and upload content easily from things like your camera.  And if you use your Android device for your camera, you can upload directly to Picasa using the Google+ app or with any number of Picasa uploaders available in the Market.  It's an easy way to manage your photos once you get it set up, and an even easier way to share them.  Now get things setup, and start sharing your photos with the world!

Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.