We’re taking more photos than ever, thanks to the convenience of having powerful cameras packed into our smartphones. And unless you want to risk losing all of those precious moments, you need to think about backing up your images and videos.
Google Photos is undoubtedly one of the best tools for the job. There are apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS, and you can use the web interface to upload files too. You get 15GB of cloud storage space for free (which is actually shared across Google Photos, Gmail, and Google Drive), and paid plans start at $2 per month for 100GB of room.
All the backing up runs more or less automatically, once you’ve got Google Photos set up on the devices where you take your photos and videos. You’ll also be able to access all your memories from every device. Here’s how to get it up and running.
Google Photos on Android and iOS
The first device you probably want to get Google Photos set up on is your phone, as that’s what you’ll be using to shoot most of your photos and videos. If the app isn’t already installed, you can download Google Photos for Android and iOS—the setup is very straightforward, and if you haven’t already got a Google account, you can create one.
Google Photos is tied into other Google services, such as Gmail and Google Drive, but perhaps not as tightly as you might expect. You can’t, for example, see your photos and videos in Google Drive—but if you’re adding a picture to an email in Gmail, you can access Google Photos with a click.
To get everything seamlessly backed up to the cloud, tap your Google account profile picture (top right), then Backup. Turn the backup toggle switch to on, and the syncing will get underway, with the current status of the backup shown on the same page. You can then access further settings by tapping the gear icon (top right).
On the subsequent page you can choose Backup quality to choose whether your images and videos are kept at their original sizes or slightly compressed (which of course means your cloud storage goes further). You’ll also find options for choosing whether photos and videos are backed up over cellular connections, or just Wi-Fi.
If you’re on an iPhone, Google Photos automatically backs up everything on your camera roll. If you’re on an Android phone, you get a bit more control: Tap Back up device folders on this settings screen, and you can choose which folders are included in the backup. These folders might include screenshots, or images saved from WhatsApp, for example.
Google Photos on Windows and macOS
The easiest way to get at Google Photos from a desktop or laptop computer is through the web interface: You can view all your photos and videos, search through them, and download them if you need local copies. Down the left of the interface you’ll see some image categories are automatically created, like People and pets.
You can also upload new photos and videos from your computer by clicking the + (plus) button up in the top right corner. Choose Import photos, and you can pick individual files from your Windows or macOS system. This is handy for occasional backups where you don’t necessarily need automatic syncing.
If you click + (plus) and then Folder backup, you can pick entire folders to upload: Any new photos and videos added to these folders in the future will be backed up too, as long as the Google Photos web app is open. There’s no two-way sync though, so files deleted in Google Photos won’t delete the local copies.
There’s one other option, which is the Google Drive for desktop app, available for both Windows and macOS. This runs in the background, monitoring the folders you select, and automatically backing up any photos and videos in those folders. As with the web upload, the sync isn’t two-way, so changes you make in the Google Photos apps aren’t then reflected on Windows or macOS.
The desktop utility is perhaps the most straightforward way of getting files from a laptop or desktop computer up to Google Photos. Sign in with your Google account, then follow the instructions: Click the gear icon (top right), then Preferences and Add folder to choose new folders to back up. You get the option to send the files to Google Drive, Google Photos, or both (which will of course use up double the cloud storage).
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