iPhones have incredible cameras that make it easy to take amazing, high-quality pictures. And if you’re like us, you probably have thousands of photos on your phone. But what happens if you lose it? And how do you transfer your pictures when you upgrade to a newer model?
Google Photos is an excellent, cloud-based backup solution for your photo library that allows you to automatically back up all of your pictures and videos. Plus, it provides the ability to create shared albums, which are a great way to quickly and easily send your group shots out to the crew. Keep reading for a deep dive into Google Photos. You’ll read about how to back up your photos, share them, and even clean them up to avoid wasting storage space.
Google Photos is a user-friendly app. You can easily download it and start using it with a few questions asked. But there are a couple of things you should look out for before you jump right into using Google Photos.
As the old saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” The last thing you want to do is waste storage space on your Google Cloud with duplicate pictures. So, before you start backing up your photo library to Google, clean it up with CleanMy®Phone. This app will scan your pictures for duplicates, blurry photos, and even similar-looking images, helping you quickly purge the ones you don’t want anymore.
Here’s how simple it is to clean up duplicates before moving your pictures and videos to Google Photos:
You can then tap Organize, choose a time frame or set up a filter, and hit Scan to find similar photos.
When you’re done cleaning up with CleanMy®Phone, your pictures are actually still in your photo library. They’ve just been moved to the Recently Deleted album. When you’re ready to permanently delete those pics, open the Photos app and navigate to Albums > Recently Deleted > Select > ellipsis bottom right > Delete All.
One of Google Photos’ best features is that it will automatically back up every photo and video you take with your phone. When you first download Google Photos on your iPhone, the app will ask you to sign in to your Google account. Then, you’ll be guided through a setup process where you can turn on backup and sync:
That’s all you have to do to start using Google Photos as a backup. If you missed or skipped that sign-in step when you were setting up Google Photos, don’t worry; just follow these quick and easy instructions to turn the backup on:
Depending on the size of your photo library, it may take a couple of hours to upload everything, but your pictures should begin to upload momentarily.
Maybe you don’t want to upload your entire library to Google Photos. If that’s the case, you don’t even need the app. You can upload select pictures from Safari on your phone. Here’s how:
Yes, Google Photos aims to provide safety and privacy. By default, everything you upload is private. That said, you can select specific images and change the security settings to make them public.
If your pictures aren’t syncing with Google Photos, here are a couple of things that could be causing the problem:
Not only is Google Photos great for backing up your pictures, but it makes it incredibly easy to share and organize them, too. Ahead, we cover the basics of creating an album and sharing an image, all from your iPhone.
Organizing your pictures together in an album makes it easier to find them again later. And Google Photos makes this simple to do. Follow these steps to create an album:
If you forget a picture, no worries. You can always add more photos to your albums later.
Google Photos also makes it really easy to share a picture. Here’s how to share a single image:
Shared albums are another great feature of Google Photos. These are similar to regular albums, but you can also invite other people to view them and even add their own images.
Here’s how you create a shared album in Google Photos:
When you join or create a shared album, it will appear with the rest of your albums. A Shared tag appears next to the album name.
If your photos library is getting cluttered or you’re looking for ways to free up space on your iPhone, Google Photos makes it really easy to clean up. And not just with the pictures on Google Photos but also in the Photos app on your iPhone.
Google Photos is pretty good at catching duplicates before they’re imported, but it’s not perfect. And unfortunately, there’s no automatic duplicate finder tool in Google Photos, so you’ll have to search for duplicates manually.
Thankfully, the Google Photos app sorts pictures chronologically, making duplicates a little easier to spot. Here’s how to remove duplicate images:
If you’re worried about filling up all of your storage on Google Photos, periodically cleaning up your photo library is a good idea. This is how you delete photos on the app:
It’s your call! When you delete a picture from Google Photos, you will get a prompt asking you if you want to allow Google to also delete the photo from your iPhone.
There isn’t an easy way to delete your entire Google Photo library within the iPhone app. To delete all of your pictures from Google Photos, grab a computer and follow these steps:
Unfortunately, there’s no way to download all of your photos directly to your iPhone, so you’ll need a computer to start the process. Here’s how to do it:
When the export is ready, you’ll be emailed a link to download your photos. Depending on how many pictures you have, it could take a while to get the email. Then, once you’re able to download the pictures to your computer, you’ll just need to sync them back to your iPhone using either the Photos app or iCloud Photos.
If you want to set up another Google account to use with Photos — or you realize you’re signed into the wrong account — never fear. Here’s how you remove it from the app:
No. In fact, deleting the Google Photos app won’t even delete your pictures from Google Photos. When you remove the app from your iPhone, all of the pics in your Camera Roll will stay in place.
Google Photos is an easy-to-use and affordable service for backing up all your pictures. And it can be incredibly helpful for sharing and organizing your photos. Now that you know the basics, you’re ready to get started with Google Photos.