How to Use Google Photos to Back up Your Photos

• google photos can automatically back up your photos and videos from your phone, tablet, and computer.
• Google Photos backups stay in sync with all your devices, so you can view your images from anywhere.
• Backup controls are located on the google photos app: tap the account avatar at the top right, then photo settings, then tap “back up & sync”.

google photos is available on the mobile app for iphone and android, and in web browsers. One of the best reasons to use the app is because of the mostly free and unlimited cloud-based photo backup and storage it provides.

once set up, the google photos app will automatically save photos and videos to the cloud and sync them across all your devices so you always have access to your images.

what you need to know about google photos backup

Google Photos can automatically back up your photos and videos as long as they meet Google’s image size requirements. each photo must be less than 200mb and 150 megapixels, while videos cannot be larger than 10gb. on the other hand, images smaller than 256×256 pixels are ignored to prevent backup of thumbnails and icon images. some newer cameras are approaching these image limits. the samsung galaxy s21 ultra can capture 108 megapixel images, for example.

google photos backs up the most common image formats, including jpg, heic (used by iphone), png, webp, gif, and the most common raw file formats. Similarly, Google Photos supports most common and many less common video formats including mpg, mod, mmw, tod, wmv, asf, avi, divx, mov, m4v, 3gp, 3g2, mp4, m2t files. , m2ts, mts and mkv.

google photos backs up photos in “high quality” or “original quality”.

• The high quality setting slightly compresses your photos and videos to save space, reducing their quality. The advantage of high-quality backup is that it’s completely free: your photos and videos don’t count against your Google account’s total storage space.
• the original quality setting does not change your photos and videos in any way: they are stored at the resolution and image quality in which they were originally captured. however, these images count against your google store account.

If you use the original quality settings, you may need to subscribe to google one. Google offers several storage plans for Google One, including 100GB for $1.99/month, 200GB for $2.99/month, or 2TB for $9.99/month.

After June 1, 2021, new high quality images will count towards your google account storage in the same way as the original quality. you may need to add a google one subscription at that time to continue using google photos backup.

how to backup and sync google photos on iphone, ipad or android

1. launch the google photos app and sign in to your google account, if you haven’t already.
2. tap your account avatar at the top right of the screen.
3. tap “photo settings”.
   

4. on the settings page, tap “backup and sync”.
5. turn on “backup and sync” by sliding the button to the right.
   

6. on ios, you may need to allow google photos to access your photos. if so, launch the settings app and tap “privacy”, then “photos”. search for “google photos” and set it to “all photos”.

how to back up and sync google photos to your computer

whether you have a pc or a mac, you can enable google photos backup the same way:

1. on your computer, download and install google photos backup & sync app.
2. start backup & sync the app and then sign in your google account.
3. select “back up photos and videos” and click “next”.
4. change folders to back up if necessary, or accept the values defaults. choose whether you want to make a high-quality or original-quality backup, and then click “start”.
   

how to change google photos backup settings on your phone

There are a few ways to customize the Google Photos backup on your phone. The app looks slightly different on Android and iOS, but the steps to control the settings are almost exactly the same.

1. launch the google photos app, then tap your account avatar at the top right of the screen.
2. tap “photo settings”.
3. on the settings page, tap “backup and sync”. you can modify all backup settings from backup & sync page

You can make these changes to the backup settings:

• change backup accounts. you can change the google account that is used to back up your photos. If you’re signed in to more than one Google account on this device, touch the account name and choose the account you want to back up to from the list of accounts.
• buy a google one storage subscription . If you’re running low on storage space for your original-quality photos, you can add 100 GB of storage to your account. tap “buy 100gb for $1.99/month” and follow the instructions to complete the transaction.
• change upload size. tap “upload size” to switch between high quality and original quality uploads.
• change when google photos will back up your photos. If you want to allow Google Photos to use your cellular connection to back up photos and videos, make that selection at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, by default, the app will only use Wi-Fi to back up your photos and videos.

how to check if photos are backed up on your phone

To find out if Google Photos has backed up your photos or if there is an issue (such as no Wi-Fi connection) preventing your photos from being backed up, do the following:

1. Launch the Google Photos app.
2. Tap your account avatar at the top right of the screen.
3. You should see the backup status in the middle of the screen.