Google Photos Google Photos is a unique application that helps you backup your photos securely, the google photos application provides you with great storage space, here is how to use the application.
If you are looking for the best photo backup service, Google Photos is on top. Because the Google Photos app is easy to use, and enables you to search for the photos you want easily through the smart search feature.
Cloud is a secure backup option
- Backing up and storing your precious photos in the cloud is important.
- Unlike a hard disk, there is little risk of mechanical failure in the electronic cloud.
- Storage is usually much larger and can be increased by subscribing and paying when you need it most.
- The cloud makes you able to access your entire library from anywhere, using any device connected to the web.
Google Photos has some idiosyncrasies when it comes to backing up and managing photos in the cloud, but once you've got the important settings ready, it can be one of the simplest options for safely storing your photo library online.
However, it's still a good idea to have two backups of your photos in different places, so we'll walk you through how to back up your Google Photos library.
We'll also explain some top tips to help you get the best out of the service whether you're on a Mac, PC, iOS, or Android device.
Storage options and download limits
First you need to decide whether you want to upload your photos as original or high quality photos?
If you choose High quality, Google will allow you to upload an unlimited number of 16MP, 1080p videos to the cloud for free. This means you can take as many photos as you like, and your photos will always be safely backed up in Google Photos.
Keep in mind that if you choose the High Quality setting, it will compress the images in the cloud minimally so that space can be saved.
The compression is very effective, reducing file size without any significant or noticeable loss in quality, and this option should be good enough if you're primarily uploading smartphone photos or displaying images on your screen.
As for the second option, which is the “original” option, your photos will be stored in their original form on the cloud without any compression and without a decrease in quality. This is if you want to back up the photos completely, but accurately, or even if you want to print them from the cloud.
In the case of compressed files, Google provides you with free unlimited storage. In the case of storing original images, you will only get 15 GB. If you need more space for your uncompressed files, you can pay a subscription fee for Google One membership.
Back up photos from a phone or tablet
If you want to back up the photos on your phone or tablet, do the following:
You must download the Google Photos app for iOS or Android.
Open the app and sign in to your Google account.
You will be given the choice between backing up the “original” or “high quality” photos as we explained earlier.
You'll also have the option of using mobile data for backups when you're not on Wi-Fi, only enable this if you have a large enough data package.
After making these selections, you can change your backup settings by pressing the menu button, and select "Settings."
Click on "Backup & Sync".
When Backup and Sync is enabled, this will automatically and continuously upload your Camera Roll to the Google cloud. This will enable you to change the size of your uploads. Since it is a Google service, of course Android users will have more options than iOS users.
The Android app, for example, lets you choose specific folders you want to back up – this helps you avoid storing all your photos and screenshots in the cloud.
To do this, go to “Backup and Sync”, then click on “Backup Device Folders” to choose the folders that you want to download. If your phone space is low and you want to increase it, do the following:
Free up storage space
Go to settings.
Click on “Manage Device Storage”.
Then “Free up space” This will delete the photos from your phone that were previously added to the cloud.
You can also toggle Limit cache size to control how much storage your thumbnails use.
Back up photos from a PC or Mac
If your photos are currently stored on your computer or an external hard drive, there are two ways to back up your photos using Google Photos and upload them to the cloud.
You can visit google.com.
Sign in with your Google account
Click on “Download”.
Choose a folder from your computer to upload to Pictures but you'll need to keep the window open until the upload is complete.
If you want to automatically back up photos from any folder on your computer, you'll need to download Google's "Backup & Sync" desktop app, which works with both Windows and Mac.
Once it's installed, just sign in to your Google account and select the folders you want to store in the cloud.
The folders you choose will be backed up on an ongoing basis, so any photos you add afterwards will be automatically uploaded via the app.
If you want to back up an SD card or a folder stored on an external hard drive, you'll need to insert or connect it to your computer before selecting it as the source during Backup and Sync setup.
Google Drive
Do you have some photos on Google Drive that you'd like to backup using the Photos app? There is a relatively simple way to do this manually, in the web version of Google Photos do the following:
Go to the Download button in the upper-right corner.
Choose "Upload from Google Drive ".
Then choose the photos from Drive you'd like to import.
You'll have the option to transfer them as "original" or "high quality" files, and they'll appear in your library right away.
This policy also applies to other actions, including editing and deleting pictures. Even if you store the same picture in both Drive and Pictures, the files are not dependent on each other, so if you delete a picture from Drive, it's still in the Pictures folder and vice versa.
Now any photo synced to your Drive will be considered separately, and if you want to free up space in your Drive journals, you can do so safely because they will definitely be in the Google Photos app.
How to manage and organize your photos
After you have backed up your complete photos to Google Photos app? You'll probably want to organize and categorize your archive for easy navigation. The Google Photos app provides the same functionality as an album, so you can easily group selected photos into folders in the cloud.
Select multiple photos and click the plus icon to add them to an album, or go to the Albums tab to create a new album first and then add photos.
You will then be able to share it easily.
However, you won't be able to put albums inside each other or group them together, so the organization options are somewhat limited compared to other services.
How to edit your photos
Google Photos offers relatively limited editing options. To try it out, do the following:
Open any photo you've backed up to the cloud.
Tap the sliders icon and you'll be able to apply filters, crop and rotate the image, and adjust and save color and lighting settings.
It's like you're doing it on your smartphone.
Back up your Google Photos library to a hard drive
It is always a good idea to keep two backup copies of your photos in different places.
So you can create an offline backup of your Google Photos library on your hard drive.
Unfortunately, while it's easy to download a full copy of your photo library, there's no easy way to keep that copy in sync with your photos. So you'll need to save your entire photo library periodically using Google's Takeout service.
To do so:
Go to the "Download your data" section of your account under "Data management and personalization" or head straight to Google Takeout.
Here you will see a list of Google apps with data that you can export.
If you just want to download the photo library, hit Deselect All.
Scroll down and check the box.
Don't want to export all your photo albums?
Tap on “All photo albums included” and uncheck anything from the list that you don't need.
Click on Next Step and you will be presented with several options.
You can choose whether to back up directly to another cloud service (such as Dropbox or OneDrive) or receive a download link via email.
You can also change the compression file format and the maximum export size, from 1GB to 50GB (anything larger will be split into separate downloads).
Finally, you can choose to make a one-time download or schedule regular exports, every two months for a year.
Click "Export" and Google Photos will start making a copy of all the files in your photo library. Depending on the size of your library, this could take several hours.
Once this is done, you will receive an email and you can start downloading the backup to your hard drive.
In the end, we must admit that Google has made it easier for us to do a lot with what it offers us, especially in the Google Photos application, as the Google Photos application provides us with a photo backup service, which is one of the important services that we definitely need.