Google Photos just changed some wording on it’s app for both iOS and Android. See the announcement here. Instead of Backup and Sync, it now just reads Backup. Wait. What? Does that mean it doesn’t sync anymore? No. According to the announcement, “There are no changes to how your photos and videos are stored in Google Photos, we are only simplifying the terminology.” And, as 9to5Google reports, “It’s interesting how ‘sync’ is considered a given with modern technology and cloud backups.”
“Syncing” may be considered a given, but the devil is in the details. When you delete the cloud copy of a photo, does it delete the original on the phone? When you edit a photo in the cloud, is that edit reflected in the device copy? Read on to learn the nitty gritty of how it works with Google Photos. If you’re lucky enough to have a Pixel phone, these issues do not appy to you. These issues only arise when you have a native photo or gallery app on your phone in addition to Google Photos. On Pixel (made by Google) phones, Google Photos is the only app for managing photos.
Does Google Photos Sync from the Cloud Down?
Let’s test this. You take a photo with your phone, the backup setting is on, and Google Photos uploads the photo to your Google Account in the cloud. You now have two copies of that photo, one on your phone (device, camera roll) and one in the cloud.
To see only the Google cloud copy: go to the web (preferably with a computer) and go to Photos.Google.com signed in with the same account as your phone. Here you are looking directly at the cloud, only photos that were successfully backed up will be showing here. You will need to refresh to see the latest changes.
To see only the device copy: use the “Native” app for photos that came with your phone. For example, on your iPhone, when you open the Apple Photos app, you will only see photos that are on your device, in the iPhone camera roll. You won’t see all the other photos that may be in your Google Photos cloud.
Here’s the test: Viewing the cloud copy, make some edits. Crop it, make it black and white, add a vignette, whatever. Now view the device copy using the Native photos app. Is it the edited version? Next try deleting a photo from the cloud, is it deleted on device?
Edit cloud copy, what are your results?
View using Google Photos app on phone: I see the edited version
View using Native app: I see the unedited version.
View again using Google Photos and tap “Review out-of-sync changes” Then tap the photo under “Edited” and “Apply Changes”, Modify. (if you don’t see “Review out-of-sync changes” right away, tap the account button, then “Review out-of-sync changes”
Now when I view using the native app, I see the edited version
Delete cloud copy, what are your results?
View using Google Photos app on phone: photo is gone
View using Native app: photo is still there
View again using Google Photos and tap “Review out-of-sync changes” Then tap the photo under “Deleted” and “Delete”. (if you don’t see “Review out-of-sync changes” right away, tap the account button, then “Review out-of-sync changes”
Now when I view using the native app, the photo is gone
Does Google Photos Sync from the Device Up?
If something changes about a photo on your device, without using Google Photos to make the change, will Google Photos see it and upload that change to the cloud? This time I want you to view your device-only copy of a photo by using the Native App. On an iPhone, use the Apple Photos to edit and delete a photo. On android, use the Gallery app.
Edit device copy (using the native app), what are your results?
View using Google Photos app on phone: I see the edited version AND the original
View using Native app: I see just the edited version.
View using Google Photos on the web (Photos.Google.com – remember to refresh) : I see 2 copies, the original and the edited version
Delete device copy (using native app), what are your results?
View using Google Photos app on phone: photo is still there, NOT deleted
View using Native app: photo is gone
View using Google Photos on the web (Photos.Google.com – remember to refresh) : photo is still there
Important Note about deleting device copy: if you delete a photo using the native app, what if that photo has not yet been backed up by Google Photos? You will then be deleting your only copy. Don’t use the native app! Google Photos does have a command to delete the device copy while leaving the Google Photos copy in tact. See #s 4 and 5 below. The most important thing is to have a separate backup, on your computer’s hard drive, or in another cloud storage service like OneDrive or DropBox.
What’s it all mean?
If you use Google Photos for all your photo tasks, you’re golden. It’s when you sometimes use the native app, and sometimes use Google Photos that things get messed up. So, don’t do that!
Different goals:
You want to edit photos sometimes on your phone, sometimes on the web, and know that those edits are reflected everywhere in Google Photos. As long as you use the Google Photos app on your phone, and the Photos.Google.com web interface then that is exactly what will happen. OR
You want to edit photos on the web and know that the original on your phone is also edited. You’ll need one more step: open the Google Photos app on your screen and tap “Review out-of-sync changes” and tap “Change All” under Edited.
You want to delete photos from your device and have them also be deleted from the Google cloud. As long as you use the Google Photos app and tap the trashcan, that’s exactly what will happen. OR
You want to delete photos from your device and not from the cloud. Use the Google Photos app, select the photo(s) to delete and then the “Delete from Device” command. OR
You want to delete all device copies of your photos to free up space on your phone. Use the Google Photos app on your phone, tap the account button (top right) and then tap where it says, “999 items to delete from this device.” On an iPhone, you’ll also need to delete the contents of the “Recently Deleted” album before the space is freed up. OR
You want to delete photos from the cloud while leaving them on your device. Use the web interface to delete the photos, then ignore the “Review out-of-sync changes message in the Google Photos app.
Lesson Learned
If you’re befuddled by all of this, the main lesson is to not assume that your expectations are correct when it comes to syncing or not – check it out. The second lesson is to pick one photo management app and stick with it, there’s a lot to learn. If you’re going to use Google Photos, we think it should be your primary photo app. Do not use the Apple Photos or Android Gallery app that came with your phone.
As with everything in technology, YMMV (your mileage may vary.) Leave a comment below if you have further questions. If you want to learn more about Backup vs Sync, here’s another article: Backup or Sync? What’s the Difference?
Recently we did our show on the multitude of ways to share photos using Google Photos. See Episode 247 here. This article is to reiterate that the best way to share is by using a link. There are 3 benefits to sharing with a link:
Anyone with the link can view the photo(s)
It doesn’t take up any space, it’s just a link
If you share an album, and they ‘join’ the album, they’ll see future additions
Share one photo with a link
On Computer/Web: Open the photo you want to share and click the Share button. Find the “Create Link” button and click that. Copy the resulting link, and paste it wherever you want. In an email, a Facebook post, a text message, etc. When your friends see the link, they can click on it and see the photo. Like this: https://photos.app.goo.gl/76xiyHARwLNpxNMN9
On iPhone: Open the photo you want to share and click the share button (square with up arrow) Next tap the ‘Share To:” link and scroll down to find Create link. Follow the prompts to Create link and it is copied. Now go to where you want to share it and paste. If you don’t know how
to copy/paste on a phone, check out the video at the end of this message.
Share an Album with a Link
If you have an album of photos and you’d like to share them all, it’s easy with a link.
On Computer/Web or Mobile
Open the album
and tap the share icon – you should see it just above the top of the album
Now find the “Create Link” button. On iOS you’ll find it under “Share To:”
Once you’ve copied the link, you can paste it anywhere your friends will find it. They don’t need to use Google Photos, they don’t even need to have a Google account. Anyone who clicks that link, will see the
photos in the album.
IF they do use Google Photos, they can “Join” the album. That means that they will be notified any time you add new photos to that album.
There’s not just one Google Photos, not even 2, but 3! Web interface, Android app, iOS app. There are a few places where these different versions work differently. That’s what we’re talking about with Michael Daniels and Heather Kraafter of Tinkering with Tech.
1/25/23 – A Potpourri of Google Photos Tips & Tricks with Chris & Jim. Including Recent Improvements for faster and easier searching with Google Photos; Advanced photo searching techniques, including smarter naming of photo albums; How to share your album or a single photo with relatives and friends; Using motion photos (Android) and Live photos (iPhone): These are handy tools to ensure everyone in a group photo has their eyes open; Using motion photos (Android) and Live photos (iPhone)—handy tools to ensure everyone in a group photo has their eyes open; Background blurring; Face unblurring after the picture is taken, Color focus and the Smart Object Eraser.
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What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks
As the sun sets on 2022 – we wish everyone a healthy, happy
2023
December
The photo above comes from our last scuba trip of the year. (Do you like the way the edges are darkened? That’s called “Vignette” and you can do it easily with the Google Photos – see the how-to below.)
Friends from the UK joined us and we visited Bimini in the Bahamas and went
diving with Neil Watson Scuba Center . They are known for their special excursion, diving with Hammerhead Sharks. The Hammerheads did not disappoint. Check out those teeth!
Sharks are magnificent animals who deserve protection. Also in this picture is “Joker,” a tiger shark and a nurse shark. Yes, they were close enough to touch!
Classes
You can see all
classes from past months on our Classes page. We presented 2 classes during December:
Thank you to our premium members for supporting us and making this newsletter possible! If you learn something from us, and you’re not a member, consider joining us now.
What’s coming up – Our Calendar January and February
January is Mr. Geek’s birthday month. Celebrate with us!
January
Jan 8 2pm Eastern: Google Photos Live Q&A
“What Does This
Button Do?”Jan 15 2pm Eastern: Episode 249 How to transfer photos from your phone to a computer
Backstage Pass after every live Button Show for Premium Members only
Jan 16 7pm ET Valencia Reserve Photo/Computer Club Presentation Rescheduled to March 20
February
“What Does This Button Do?”
Feb 5: Episode 250
Rest of February and part of March we will be in Indonesia
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Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions
How to set multiple reminders for a calendar event
Have you ever created an event on your calendar then missed it anyway? I have several online events
that are on my calendar, they even give me a one hour reminder notification, and I still miss it because I started doing something else and completely forgot at the one hour mark.
This article shows you how you can set multiple reminders using Google Calendar (or Apple’s iCalendar.
We think you should do this for our next Live Show Episode 249, because it’s about transferring photos from your phone to your computer and we don’t want you to miss it on Jan 15 at 2pm
Eastern.
You can have your calendar remind you of this by email or notifications, one day before, one hour
before, and even 5 minutes before. Read the article to find out how.
Happy New Year! May you never miss an appointment in
2023.
How to watch just the parts you want with YouTube “Chapters”
Have you noticed the chapters in YouTube videos? They allow the viewer to know what topics are included in a given video and to jump straight to the parts
they’re interested in. This article shows you how to use the Chapters to watch just the parts you want. It also shows you how to create those chapters for your own videos on YouTube.
When we were brand new fulltime RVers, we worked for a company called Coach Connect who installed Wi-Fi in RV parks. We work-camped at a park in Arizona called Palm Creek and helped the RVers use the Wi-Fi system. We actually made house-calls! err RV-calls. Here’s an article from our personal blog about when Chris filled in doing Jim’s rounds: “Chris the Magic Techie“
And, here’s an article from 2010 about how hotspots’ radio frequency interference prevented Steve Jobs from doing his demo when the iPhone 4 was announced. In 2005 while managing a busy hotspot at an RV rally, we learned firsthand about that interference. Maybe we could have helped Steve Jobs?!
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Have you ever created an event on your calendar then missed it anyway? I have several online events that are on my calendar, they even give me a one hour reminder notification, and I still miss it because I started doing something else and completely missed one hour mark.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get an additional reminder at 10 or even 5 minutes before the event? Yes, you can! You can try it now with this important event you don’t want to miss! Our next Live Show – What Does This Button Do? Episode 249 is scheduled for Jan 15, 2023 at 2pm Eastern time. Our topic will be How to transfer photos from your phone to your computer.
Using Google Calendar
Open Google Calendar, either on computer at Calendar.google.com or the app on your phone. Click the + and choose Event, then fill out the
Date = Jan 15, 2023
Time = 2pm – making sure to specify the Time Zone of Eastern (New York) For more information about the time zone settings, see this video: 697.OT-Google Calendar and Time Zones
Description: How to transfer photos from phone to computer
Setting multiple notifications
When you see the section for Notification, there may be a default notification for 1 hour already added – if not go ahead and add it yourself, then you can “Add another notification for 5 or 10 minutes. You can even add a “Custom notification” via email 1 day before. There doesn’t seem to be any limit to how many reminders you can add to an event using Google Calendar.
Your screen should look something like this:
After clicking “Add Notification” you should see “5 minutes before, 10 minutes before, 30 minutes before and Custom. Just tap the ones you want.
On iPhone’s – Apple iCalendar: it’s called “Alert” rather than notification, and you can only have 2. We recommend using Google Calendar, even on your iPhone.
