How Do I Keep Google Photos From Uploading My Photos

By now, you've near certainly heard how good Google Photos is. Your friends, family, and coworkers are probably using it and singing the app'due south praises. It makes backing up your photo library effortless. It tin can identify people — even babies — in your images with freakish accuracy. Information technology automatically creates GIFs and movies that the people in your life volition cherish. Hooray.

Only at that place'south actually no great transmission or user guide for Google Photos. Google's FAQ site is virtually as shut as the company comes to a "getting started" handbook. And then I've compiled some how-tos and tips hither and program to update this article to keep up with whatever big changes that Google makes to the app.

MOVING TO GOOGLE PHOTOS

Few tasks feel as daunting as transferring your entire photo library from i service to another. And few things feel worse than accidentally losing images or videos that you can't supplant. So equally great as Google Photos might be, switching to it won't exist a small undertaking for everyone.

Apple Photos: If all of your pictures and videos are on your telephone or Mac, this should be relatively straightforward. But install Google Photos app on your iPhone or the desktop app for your Mac. On iOS, Photos will automatically start backing upwardly your photo library. On Mac, you'll need to bespeak information technology to the folder where your photos are stored.

There's just ane potential snag to be aware of if you're using Apple's iCloud Photo Library. Depending on your settings, some of your images could be in the cloud and visible on your devices — but not really stored on them. This might be the case if you got tired of warnings well-nigh low storage on your telephone and decided to purchase more infinite with iCloud. If yous're using iCloud Photo Library, Google Photos might be unable to run into or upload your photos and videos. The easiest solution is to make sure every file is actually saved on your smartphone or calculator. To do that, merely enable the options below:

• iOS: Settings > [your name at the top of the screen] > iCloud > PhotosSelect "Download and Keep Originals"
• Mac: Open up Photos app. Cull Photos > PreferencesSelect "Download Originals to this Mac"
• Windows: Apple explains how to download iCloud photos to your PC hither.

Flickr: Glenn Fleishmann put together a thorough step-past-pace guide at Macworld for relocating from Flickr to Google Photos. I wish I could say it's a quick, easy process, but that's not the example. Information technology takes some piece of work to bring everything over — specially if y'all want to save things like image titles, descriptions, and other details that some photographers will insist on preserving.

Glenn goes the manual road using Flickr's own export process, which is sure to exam your patience since it involves downloading multiple, large zip archives of your entire Flickr library to a PC or Mac. You might be able to find third-party apps that can assist with that arduous footstep. Pictogo is one I've had some success with on macOS. Once y'all've got all the files, using the Google Photos desktop app to send them to their new home in the cloud is the like shooting fish in a barrel role. Thankfully, Google Photos makes it painless to edit disquisitional data for photos (ie. when they were taken) in instance some of that gets lost during the move.

My best advice is this: tough it out. Don't permit the deplorable procedure make you abandon the unabridged mission. You lot'll merely accept to practise this once. Endure the grunt work and be washed with it.

Windows / Mac: If y'all're got a traditional photo library (folders upon folders), the Google Photos desktop uploader should get the job done fairly well.

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

CHOOSE WHAT TO Back up, WHEN, AND AT WHAT QUALITY

Google Photos automatically backs up the pictures and videos you capture with your smartphone. When yous offset set the app, yous'll exist given 2 choices on fill-in quality: optimized or original. Optimized is an enticing choice since it offers unlimited storage for free. And it's a fine pick if yous plan on sharing your images mostly online — via email, on social media, etc.

But if you're a semi-serious photographer, potentially see yourself making a photo volume, or just want to archive everything without whatever quality degradation, it'south best to pick "original." Notwithstanding, original backups will eat into your Google account storage, and then you'll likely need to upgrade at some point to get more than room in the deject for your library. By default, Google accounts come with 15GB of storage.

The backup options in Google Photos are pretty flexible.

Google Photos gives y'all plenty of flexibility near when backups occur. Y'all tin can tell the app to only back up over Wi-Fi if you need to be careful about using too much data on your phone. Google Photos can also be set to only exercise backups while your telephone is beingness charged to minimize any bombardment drainage. Personally, I've configured Photos to back upward pictures at any time with cellular information merely to wait for Wi-Fi for video uploads.

Sometimes you might demand Google Photos to dorsum upwards more than than just camera roll items, though. You can cull which folders — screenshots, downloads, Instagram, etc. — Photos backs upwardly by going to settings, then "Support & sync," then select "Back up device folders" to toggle folders on and off.

If yous want to back up an private photo or video that'due south in a binder not being synced with Google Photos, you tin can just do it manually. Open up the image, tap the three-dot menu push in the top right, and choose "Support now." Y'all can select multiple items when doing manual backups, as well.

THE HELPFUL, AUTOMATIC Banana

One of the best aspects of Google Photos is how much work it does for you automatically — without you doing a thing. Did you take a weekend trip somewhere? Photos volition recognize that those pictures were taken in a specific location and create an album grouping them all together. If you took a sequence of similar images (fifty-fifty if they're non technically "burst" shots), Photos will often make an animated GIF out of them. It'll likewise create movies (with a music track), collages, and filtered versions of your shots. Again, this all happens with no work on your part.

These automatic creations testify up in the Assistant tab, where you're costless to either save them to your library permanently or swipe them away if Google made something bad. And yes, sometimes at that place are misfires. Movies are often imperfect when an algorithm is doing the editing, and Google really tends to layer on the effects thick when it randomly applies a filter to 1 of your photos. And just like with Facebook, on some days y'all'll open up Photos and be greeted with photos of an ex or other delicate memories thanks to the "Rediscover this day" feature.

But more frequently than non, the Banana produces really great stuff that'll cause you a quick outburst of emotion. And whether they're rooted in joy, nostalgia, or wistfulness, those surprises become very addicting.

How to hide someone in Google Photos:

1. Tap the search bar
2. Aggrandize the section with faces of people in your library
3. Tap and hold on the person you don't want to meet
4. Select "Hibernate" in the upper right corner

Once that'south washed, Google Photos will avert surfacing photos featuring that person in "Rediscover this day."

SEARCH IS THE KILLER Characteristic

If you want to sell someone on Google Photos, show them the app's search powers. Y'all tin exercise the basics like "selfie" or "photos from last weekend." But the wow factor actually hits when you search for specific subjects that Google Photos has identified in each of your shots. From individual people in your life to animals, objects, events ("concerts") and nearby landmarks, Photos tin pull up whatever yous're looking for in a massive library with astonishing speed. Occasionally some odd and not-quite-right results will appear with the good ones, but search is commonly far more accurate than non.

You can too enquire search to testify specific types of content within your library similar GIFs, 360-degree photos, screenshots, and videos.

Make YOUR Ain GIFS

You're not but express to the GIFs that Google Photos automatically makes. The app as well lets you create them with any photos yous'd like. Select the sequence of images you want, tap the + icon, choose blitheness, and y'all're done. You can string together any photos in your library that you'd like, which allows for a fiddling more inventiveness than a GIF of flare-up-shot photos.

OR Make MOVIES FOR YOUR PARENTS

GIFs might exist popular amidst your friends, but your parents and other family unit members might appreciate the movies feature of Google Photos a little more. They like that stuff. To take the app automatically create a motion-picture show, select any images and videos you want to include, tap the plus button, and selection flick. Movies can but be created with the Google Photos mobile app; you can't still make them from the web.

From in that location, you can either just go with whatever Google makes or take control and edit things yourself. To change up the style and transitions, tap the clapperboard icon at the lower left of your screen. To switch up the music rail, tap the music note. And if you desire to adapt the order of content in the motion picture — or add or drop images — cull the movie strip. Once y'all're done, you can either share your movie directly or upload it to YouTube for public viewing.

SHARED ALBUMS

If yous want to share your shots from a wedding or a party with other people that attended, Google Photos makes this relatively simple. Select the album that you want to share, tap the share icon, and showtime inbound their name or electronic mail address. You tin too create a new "Shared Album" and cull whether or not people yous share information technology with will be immune to contribute to the album.

If someone you're sharing with is already a Google Photos user, you'll see the app's icon on that person's profile image. In this example, you can choose to share via Google Photos and they'll receive an in-app notification. Otherwise, y'all can only simply share by email. Recipients must have a Google business relationship to add together their own images and videos to a shared album, just anyone with the link tin can view the album and download photos — even if they're not in Google's ecosystem. In that sense, information technology's worth using a chip of care with the shared album link. There's no way to assign different permissions to specific people you're sharing with. You lot tin can cake someone'south Google business relationship to revoke access to whatever shared album. Next to the person's name, tap "More" and then hit the cake option.

Gratuitous Upwards STORAGE ON YOUR PHONE

Equally Google uploads your phone's camera curlicue to the cloud, you might want to erase the copies of those images on your device to gratuitous up space. Photos makes this fairly uncomplicated:

1. Open the side carte
2. Select "Costless upwards space"
3. Google Photos volition know what content has already been backed up and is prophylactic to clear off of your device. Only tap the "remove" button to accept the last footstep.

FOLDERS! TURN ON THE PHOTOS Folder IN GOOGLE DRIVE

If for whatever reason you want or need to dig through the bodily binder and file construction of Google Photos, you tin practice this through Google Bulldoze. Go to Bulldoze, then settings, and so check the "Create a Google Photos folder" selection and you get... folders. Like this:

ARCHIVE THE UGLY STUFF

Google recently added an "archive" feature to Photos. This removes images from the main view of all your photos — but they're still accessible in the Archive binder. Photos will suggest some stuff to archive (like screenshots) but you can utilize annal for more than... sensitive content also.

SATURATE YOUR SKIES

The built-in editing tools in Google Photos are perfectly acceptable if you're making basic touchups. And if nil else, hitting the "Auto" filter normally does a very nice job of improving the white remainder of your image.

Google Photos editor

At that place's also a manner to pump upwards the blues in your sky photos — without ratcheting upwards the saturation of the entire scene. Tap the pencil / edit push, choose the centre icon of setting sliders, and then expand the "colour" section. There, you'll see a slider for "deep bluish." Move that up, and your sky photography volition get a a lot more pop. You tin can also use it for other bluish subjects, likewise.

Other random tips and tricks:

• You can alter the look and density of your library equally information technology appears on your phone'southward screen with a pinching gesture. Pinching in will increment the number of images shown on screen at once until you get to a month / yr view, while pinching outward will zoom in to display only a few photos at a time — just much larger.
• For the mobile app: if you know when a photo you're looking for was taken, it's much faster to use the scrubber on the right side (that appears equally you whorl) to navigate your library. Once you catch information technology and scroll either upward or down, you'll see the month and year pop up next to your finger so you know when to stop.
• You tin tell Google Photos to automatically strip out the location data from images and videos that you share with a link. Go to settings and toggle on "Remove geo location." Google notes that this doesn't remove geolocation data for photos and videos that you share "past other means" in the app.
• Google Photos is the best cloud photograph service going today, only if yous're not a fan of giving Google then much of your data, it's relatively easy to bond on the whole thing. Just go to Google Takeout and y'all tin can cull to download your entire photo collection.

Every bit I mentioned earlier, I plan to update this How-to over fourth dimension as Google introduces or changes Photos features. If you've got any questions (or if there's something you're dying for Google to add), I'd beloved to hear almost all of it in the comments.

keetontioncer.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/9/15762170/google-photos-how-to-master