Never lose a photo again, once you've set up Google Photos.
Having access to all of your photos at a swipe is kind of like living the dream, at least for many photographers it is. If you're snap-happy, then you owe it to yourself to make sure that you never lose another photo again with Google Photos. This service will back up, store, and organize your photos so that as soon as you capture that moment it's protected from accidental deletion when your phone runs out of storage space. Getting everything set up is a quick process, provided you already have a Google account, and in many cases comes preloaded on your phone.
- Why use Google Photos?
- Set up Google Photos
- Select which folders to back up to Google Photos
- Select image quality
Why use Google Photos?
While we may think of our phones as a repository for our entire lives, they have finite storage space. When you broach that limit, having your photos backed up means that you can delete them off of your phone without losing them entirely. Likewise, if your phone suffers a tragic fall, or swim in the pool, and doesn't survive, your photos will.
By saving and uploading your photos to a personal cloud, you can share them and access them from whatever device you like. For parents especially this service becomes invaluable in ensuring that you get to keep every memory in technicolor.
Step by step instructions for setting up Google Photos
- Open Google Photos.
- Sign in to your Google account.
Choose desired quality setting.
- Wait for your Photos to sync, and get started!
Step by step instructions for choosing device folders
- Open Google Photos
- Tap the overflow icon that looks like 3 lines in the upper left corner of your screen
Tap the gear icon to open Settings
- Tap the first option, Back up and sync
- Tap Back up device folders
- Tap the toggle to choose which folders are backed up to Google Photos
Step by step instructions for choosing image upgrade quality
When setting up your Google Photos account, you also have a choice in your image upload quality. There are two options open to you, high quality, or original quality. Choosing high quality will score you unlimited storage, with photos stored at 16MP and videos stored at 1080p. Choosing original quality will count against your Google account storage, but all photos and videos are stored at the quality you shot them — including RAW files. This especially handy if you're shooting in resolutions higher than 16MP, or in RAW.
It's also worth noting that Pixel users get free storage of all photos and videos in original quality, without it counting against your Google account storage.
Choose your image quality while setting up Google Photos
- Open Google Photos.
- Follow the directions to set up an account.
- When the Back up and sync page appears tap on change settings.
- Choose between original and high quality for your uploads.
Change your image quality in the settings
- Open Google Photos.
- Tap on the overflow icon that looks like 3 horizontal lines in the upper left corner.
Tap on Settings
- Tap on Back up and sync.
- Tap on Upload size.
- Choose your image quality to upload.
Do you use Google Photos to save all of the shots on your camera roll? Is there a part of setting up Google Photos that we missed? Do you still have questions about getting Google Photos set up and ready to go? Be sure to drop us a comment below and let us know all about it!
Reader comments
How to set up Google Photos
I use both Google photos and Dropbox for auto backup.
For non-US users it's worth mentioning that you can enable facial recognition by connecting to a US server via VPN when you set up the photos app. After that it automatically remembers the setting so no more VPPN use is necessary. I used Tunnelbear.
https://www.labnol.org/internet/facial-recognition-in-google-photos/28892/
Facial Recognition works great for me without using any kind of VPN and settings you mentioned. I'm from Slovakia (Europe) and I've been using it for more than a year now. Where are you from?
I'm in the UK.
How much storage is available for non-pixel users? My backup is currently going to OneDrive, which I get 2TB with in combination with my MS Office subscription.
If you back-up High resolution it is unlimited even without a Pixel. If you want to backup Original resolution then the Pixel is unlimited but all other devices' pictures count against your storage quota
I use Google photos on both my iPhone and my elephone Android. It is a great way of keeping photos from both devices in sync
I love Google Photos. I use it on Android and iOS.
Anyone know why it automatically puts random numbered folders in the Device Folders area of images from work? The images are from footers of emails with social media images, random images that I've opened at work, etc.
Each day I go in and delete these folders as they start taking up space locally. Any way to shut this off?
Have you plug the device to any PC USB port? It happened to me about a week...Noticed that cable syncing transfered photos from Windows and created these folders in Google Photos ...I've Just disabled then in settings>folders and removed them
I am not a fan of the Timeline method of showing photos, I keep mine in separate folders by subject. Is this a feature of Google Photos or not? This is the reason that I have been hesitant in using it.
You can group photos in many ways inside of Google Photos. It defaults to showing you the timeline, but you can put those pictures in folders and view by folders as well.
Does anyone know if there is a way to not backup the camera folder? I know it feels counter intuitive but I take a lot of photos that I like to sort to specific folders. I would want only those photos to be backed up.
Yep go to settings in Google photo tap backup and sync then push the blue dot left which turns back-up and sync off
Sorry, I should have been more specific. I want the backup of my camera folder disabled but keep backing up other device folders.
Try putting a file named ".nomedia" in the directory you don't want backed up.
That is a good idea but it'll hide the photos from the gallery view as well.
If I could find something other than Google Photos, I would move all of my photos elsewhere. They have an area that says. "Help." I have probably sent 6-8 messages to them with absolutely no response back..EVER!! I have run into several issues and needed assistance from them. NEVER, EVER have they responded to any of my questions. I've even sent messages to Google asking them why I don't get any responses. Guess what? Nothing!
Is it possible to use Google Photos without Google snooping, scanning and extracting data from your images?
I am trying to move away from Apple Photos app which now is always scanning all my photos irrespectively of whether I wan it or not - and I suspect it is actually illegal since none of the persons visible in my photos has accepted any Apple policies in any form and still their biometric data is processed.
For the free unlimited backup option, do they back up the original quality if your photos are 16mp or less?
You could easily test this: compare the local file with a downloaded file.
I was fine using Google Photos on my phone - until I got a new one. It's nice that they'd backed up all my photos - but they don't really provide a way to restore them to a new phone. By default your photos become cloud-only. Not horrible, I guess, but I wanted the ability to view my photos without connectivity. So restore. You can do that, but the photos go to a hidden area inside Google Photos - so no other app can see them. My new phone didn't have Google Photos as its default gallery app (and doesn't allow you to set it either - okay, that's the phone's fault, but still...). No way to get DCIM photos backed up from there restored to there. Okay, there is a way, but it's horribly cumbersome and freezes up your phone while putting out individual notifications for each download. It's horrible - unless you're willing to let Google take possession of your photos. And I'm usually a defender of Google in things like this, but sorry - this stinks.