Your precious memories shouldn’t just be lying around in your phone's gallery. Unlike traditional media, digital photos and videos are easily deleted, corrupted, or lost. To save them from the digital void, it’s best to back them up so you can access them whenever you want, even if they're deleted afterwards. To that end, this guide will help you create a Google Photos backup, choose which Google account is used, and fine-tune other backup settings as per your preference.
How to Set Up Google Photos Backup on Android and iPhone
Before we begin, make sure you have enough Google cloud storage available. By default, you only get up to 15 GB of cloud storage for free.
In case you have a bunch of other data saved on your Google account, like Gmail, Drive, WhatsApp backups, or have backed up your Android phone on this account, it lowers the space available for storing your photos. So, if you have tonnes of photos and videos to back up, a monthly Google One storage subscription is recommended.
With that out of the way, let’s start backing up your Google Photos. The steps below are identical on Android and iPhone. So regardless of which device you have, you can easily take a Google Photos backup. Here’s how:
- Open the Google Photos app on your phone, tap on your profile icon at the top right and hit Turn on backup.
- When prompted, select Turn on backup. Your photos and videos on Google Photos will start getting backed up.
- Alternatively, go to Photos settings > Backup.
- Here, turn on the Backup toggle. Once enabled, you'll be able to fine-tune your backup settings from this screen.
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Backup Google Photos to a Different Google Account
If you have multiple Google accounts, you can select which of them is used for backup. This comes in handy if your main account is full but your secondary account has enough storage space left. Here's how to do so:
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On Android
Before you begin, make sure you're logged in to more than one Google account on your Android device. Once that is done, follow the steps below to back up photos to a different Google account:
- Open the Google Photos app. Tap on your profile icon at the top right. Then select Photos settings > Backup.
- Select your Google account, and it will bring up your other Google accounts logged in on your device. Then choose the Google account where you want to save your backup.
- Hit Switch to confirm. Your Google Photos will now be backed up to your chosen Google account.
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On iPhone
Here's how to back up Google Photos onto a different account on iPhones:
- Open the Google Photos app, tap on your profile icon at the top right and select Google Photos settings.
- Select Backup and tap on your Google account.
- From the available Google accounts logged in on your iPhone, select the Google account where you want to save your backup. Tap Switch to confirm.
Your Google Photos will now be backed up using your chosen Google account.
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Back up Specific Google Photos Folders (Android only)
By default, Google Photos will back up all photos and videos in your camera roll to Google’s cloud. But you can specify which additional folders to backup as well. Here’s how:
- Open the Google Photos app, tap on the profile icon at the top right and go to Photos settings > Backup.
- Then select Default backup. Under Other options, select Device folders.
- Select the folders that you want to back up and hit Save and back up to confirm. You'll be able to see exactly how many additional folders are being backed up on the previous page.
- Alternatively, if you want to back up all gallery folders on your device, turn on the Back up all device folders toggle.
Do note, however, that this selective backup is available only on Android. Google Photos on iPhone doesn’t let you choose specific folders. It’s either all or nothing for iPhone users.
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Change Google Photos Backup Quality
If you don’t have a lot of storage space left on your Google account, you can also backup your photos and videos at a lower resolution. Here’s how:
On Android
Google Photos on Android gives you three different quality options when backing up your media. These are Original, Storage saver, and Express. Here's how to choose:
- Open Google Photos app. Then tap on your profile icon in the top right and select Photos settings > Backup.
- Select Photo and video quality, then choose Storage saver. Or, if you have very little storage left, choose Express.
Note that Express heavily compresses photos and videos, which leads to a noticeable loss of clarity. So unless you’re really down on storage space, stick to ‘Storage saver’ only.
On iPhone
Google Photos on iPhone only gives you two quality options for backing up your photos and videos – Original and Storage saver. Here's how to choose them:
- Open the Google Photos app on your phone and go to your profile icon > Google Photos settings > Backup.
- Under Preferences, tap on Photo and video quality and select Original quality (default) or Storage saver.
Use Mobile Data for Google Photos Backup
By default, Google Photos backs up your media only when you’re connected to Wi-Fi. If you're not connected to Wi-Fi, your backup will remain paused. However, you can still force backup using mobile data. Here’s how:
On Android
Google Photos on Android gives you granular mobile data usage options that stop backup after reaching a certain limit. Here's how to use it:
- Open the Google Photos app, tap on your profile icon at the top right, and go Photos settings > Backup.
- Select Mobile data usage and set a data limit for backup. You can also choose whether or not you want to backup videos using mobile data.
Once this limit is reached, backup will pause again until you’re connected to Wi-Fi.
On iPhone
Google Photos on iPhone only lets you enable or disable backup using mobile data. Here's how:
- Open the Google Photos app, tap on your profile icon in the top right and select Google Photos settings > Backup.
- Under Preferences, tap on Mobile data usage. Then turn on the on Back up photos over data and Back up videos over data toggles.
To keep mobile data usage under check on an iPhone, you should ideally back up only photos using mobile data. Unless you really can't wait to back up a video, keep the 'Back up videos over data' option off.
Backup Your Android Photos and Videos to Other Devices
Once enabled, Google Photos automatically handles all your backups in the background. But if you don’t have any Google storage left, sometimes backing up to another device is the only option left.
Until now, backing up to a PC or another phone required you to manually send your photos and videos using a USB-C cable or via Quick Share by simply tapping two phones. You can also AirDrop media between Android and iPhone using Quick Share.
But Google is now looking to add an automatic backup option that does away with these manual backup options. This new Quick Share feature will automatically be available via Google Play Services (version 26.43).
For this, you’ll need to open the Quick Share app on your PC and sign in to the same account as on your Android phone. Your phone and your PC must also be on the same network and close to each other. Once set up, all your photos and videos in the camera roll will back up automatically to your PC.
Do note that the feature is currently being rolled out. Once it does, you won’t have to worry about Google storage anymore to back up your photos and videos.
How to Stop Google Photos Backup on Android and iPhone
Stopping Google Photos is just as easy, and the steps on Android and iPhone are also exactly the same. Here's how:
- Open Google Photos, tap on your profile icon at the top right and select Google Photos settings.
- Select Backup and then simply turn off the Backup toggle at the top.
From now on, any future images and videos that appear in your gallery will not be backed up. However, this will not have any impact on media that has already been backed up.
How to Delete Google Photos Backup on Android and iPhone
Google Photos lets you delete all photos and videos that have ever been backed up on your Google account. This does not delete them from your device. But if you're running low on storage space, it's a good way to recover some precious storage. Here's how:
- Launch Google Photos and go to your profile icon > Google Photos settings.
- Select Backup and then tap on Undo backup at the bottom.
- Hit the tick box at the bottom to confirm deletion and then tap on Delete Google Photos backup.
Once deleted, Google Photos will also turn off backup.
The 3-2-1 Backup Philosophy
Google Photos is one of the most convenient ways of backing up and keeping a separate copy of your photos and videos saved on the cloud. Google Photos is also integrated into Samsung's Gallery app for backups, replacing OneDrive on Samsung phones.
However, if your media is extremely important, you should also consider the 3-2-1 backup strategy. As per this, you should ideally have:
- Total of 3 copies
- Saved on 2 different storage media types (internal drive + external drive or local + cloud)
- And 1 off-site (cloud backup)
Google Photos backup easily satisfies the cloud backup portion of the rule. Since everything is backed up automatically and your photos and videos always remain accessible on the app, Google Photos is also the gold standard of cloud backup on both Android and iPhone, as long as you have enough storage space available.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Google Photos backup paused?
By default, Google Photos backs up your media over Wi-Fi. If you are not connected to Wi-Fi, backups will remain paused. To back up over mobile data, go to Google Photos > Photos settings > Backup > Mobile data usage and choose data limit for backup.
Where is my Google Photos backup?
All your backed up photos and videos will be available inside the Google Photos app as well as on photos.google.com. Make sure to login using the Google account used for backing up. The photos and videos will be shown in chronological order.
Can I recover deleted photos from Google Photos?
Yes, your deleted photos in Google Photos can be recovered from the Bin folder. Deleted photos and videos stay in the Bin folder for 30 days after which they are deleted permanently.
How to stop Google Photos backup?
To stop Google Photos backup, open the Google Photos app, tap on your profile picture, then select Photos settings > Backup, and toggle off Backup is on.
How to delete Google Photos backup?
To delete Google Photos backup, open the Google Photos app, tap on your profile picture, then select Photos settings > Backup, and hit Undo backup. Confirm your deleting at the bottom and tap Delete Google Photos backup.
How to see Google Photos backup?
Your Google Photos backup is available from within the app itself. Photos and videos that don't have a cloud icon with a line through it are all backed up to your Google account. You can also see your Google Photos backup on photos.google.com
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