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Google Photos Locked Folder could soon gain the ability to back up to the cloud
A new feature has been uncovered in the latest version of Google Photos, which could allow the Locked Folder to back up to the cloud.
If you're an Android user, there's a very good chances you rely on Google Photos to back up your photos and videos to the cloud. Of course, there are plenty of cloud backup alternatives, but Google Photos comes built into Android, and the integration and features are pretty good too. While the backup feature is relatively seamless, one area that many have complained about is the Locked Folder.
Google Photos adds a storage management tool ahead of unlimited backup changes
Ahead of the upcoming removal of unlimited free backups from Google Photos, the app is getting a new storage management tool. Learn more!
That dreaded day is about to arrive. Unlimited backup storage for Google Photos will be gone soon. Google has offered users free, high-quality backups for all photos and videos for probably as long as we can remember. And that was precisely one of the biggest selling points of the platform. Google even went so far as to offer free backups for full quality pictures rather than just high-quality ones as a perk for Pixel owners back when the first Google Pixel smartphones came out. Now, though, while you can still use Google Photos for free, you'll be limited to however many pictures can fit in the 15 GB that is offered to all Google accounts for free, and if you need more than that, you'll have to pay.
What will you do once Google Photos ends unlimited backups?
Google Photos' unlimited storage ends next month. How do you plan to back up your photos when that happens?
Google Photos has been one of Google's most popular services as it lets users back up their photos online for free. But starting next month, Google will no longer offer free unlimited backups to users – other than those who already own a Pixel smartphone. Instead, the company will count photo uploads against their Google Account storage quota and will require users buy a Google One subscription to continue backing up past the 15GB free storage limit. The change was announced in November last year so we've known about it for quite a while, but with the policy change set to go into effect soon, we wanted to know what you plan to do?
PSA: Google Photos' unlimited free storage offer expires this month
Upload your photos and videos to Google Photos before the end of this month to make the most out of the service's expiring unlimited free storage offer.
In November last year, Google announced that it would no longer offer unlimited free storage for "high quality" photos on Google Photos starting June 1, 2021. At the time, the company had revealed that it would limit free storage on Google Photos to 15GB, and users would have to pay for a monthly Google One subscription for any additional storage. Since photos and videos uploaded to Google Photos before the deadline won't count towards the new 15GB limit, you should probably upload all your precious memories right away and avoid paying for the Google One subscription.
Google Photos prepares disabling backups for messaging apps due to COVID-19, video autoplay settings, and setting a profile photo
Google Photos v4.53 hints at disabling automatic backup for messaging apps and automatic video playback, as well as setting up Google profile picture.
Google Photos is one of the most convenient apps for managing images and galleries. Besides letting you gather all of your images from different devices in one place, Photos also uses Google's machine learning insights to suggest which pictures can be deleted to free up space on local as well as cloud storage. Now, Google might be working on two new features; one to restrict help unwanted media from crowding up your Google Drive storage, and another to prevent motion photos and videos from auto-playing.
How a typo broke Google Photos' unlimited original quality backup for Google Pixels on custom ROMs
For Google Pixel/Pixel XL owners running custom ROMs, Google Photos unlimited original quality backup was broken for quite some time. Here's why.
One of the perks of buying a Google Pixel smartphone is the free, unlimited original quality photo backup in Google Photos. It's a huge benefit considering the incredible camera quality on the Pixel smartphones thanks in large part to the Google Camera software. If you own a Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, Google Pixel 2, or Google Pixel 2 XL you should fill up your Photos library with a lot of high-quality shots, though you have until January of 2021 to do so. However, if you ran a custom AOSP-based ROM on your first-generation Pixel or Pixel XL in the past, you may have noticed that uploading photos taken by the Google Camera app was still counting against your storage limit in Google Photos. And it's all because of a typo in AOSP that has just been fixed.