Category Archives: Blog

Computer Tips for Travelers and anything else that these Geeks feel like writing about will show up here! For additional articles on Picasa, see our separate site PicasaGeeks.com
. For additional articles on Internet Connections on the Road, see our separate site WiFiSavvy.com

Our favorite road trip planner is RVParky, what’s yours?

Yay! We are on the road. We plan to be gone about 6 weeks, and it’s important to me that we have an overview of where we’re going and when. I don’t need to plan every detail, I’m a big picture kind of gal. I find that RVParky suits my needs perfectly. 

It’s important to know what kind of travel planner you are in order to find the right tool for you.

#1 = all you know is you’re headed West

#3 = you have major stops mapped and scheduled 

#5 = you have reservations for every night, and every turn is mapped out in your GPS

There are several popular road-trip planning tools out there

I use RVParky for my planning. I love how easy it is to add stops, set the number of nights we’ll stay there and then see exactly when we will reach our next destination. For example, here is the first week of our current trip. Notice the driving time and mileage in between stops and the Dates and number of nights at each stop. Those are exactly the things I want to know when planning my trip.

Did you also notice the “Auto-Split” button? There is a setting for how many miles you want to travel in a day. If your plan goes over that number, the Auto-Split button appears. When you click that, RVParky marks a spot exactly halfway to the next destination. Then you can click the “Find a place to stay” and add a night stay. 

You can even click on any of the dates and see a simple calendar showing where you plan to be on each day.

I do most of my planning using RVParky on a computer thru the website, it is also an app on Android devices and iOS devices. All 3 versions allow you to view your trip in the list view and a map view. The calendar view is not availabel on iOS yet. 

Here’s the map view:

I find that we almost never stick to a plan, so I also love how easy it is to delete/change/add stops on RVParky and all the mileage and dates are recalculated immediately.

See this past article about RVParky: Travel Planning: Calculating Dates It also includes a video showing exactly how to use the website.

What about you?

What kind of traveler are you? Do you need every detail planned? Or do you just go? What trip planning tools work for you? Please leave a comment below.

About the author: Chris Guld has been teaching technology since 1983. Since 2010 her focus is on travel, smartphones, maps, and photography. You can get her current book: Learn Google Photos at Amazon. Chris is a Diamond Level Google Product Expert in Google Photos.

Google Photos Open Q&A – Ask Chris Anything

  • 0:00 Begin
  • 5:22 Webpage of Google Photos Updates: www.GeeksOnTour.com/gpupdates and new menu
  • 11:40 Is there a way to manually upload selective photos rather than use Auto-Backup?
  • 17:52 When I download, where do they go?
  • 18:50 Face recognition with dogs?
  • 20:04 How to post on Facebook from Google Photos
  • 22:32 Can I copy any photo I see in Facebook and use it somewhere else
  • 22:31 If I use magic eraser on the phone app, does it sync to my computer
  • 22:42 How do you save a memory
  • 26:16 How to backup photos to offload from your computer
  • 31:05 Is Picasa still available
  • 32:10 How to add from Google Photos to a specific Facebook account
  • 32:54 I uploaded many GB of photos to Google Photos but now I can’t find them.
  • 35:26 Does Search only search thru images in the cloud?
  • 36:30 How to use a Group album
  • 39:44 Why do some photos not allow me to add a location
  • 41:42 Can you search for text that was typed in a description
  • 43:03 Can face recognition be downloaded along with a photo
  • 45:29 How to turn off the geo-location setting for the camera?
  • 47:20 How to backup photos to an external hard drive (video 574)
  • 52:52 What brand of external hard drive is good?
  • 54:24 Google Photos on desktop will not save edits, why?
  • 56:44 Can you request an automated memory?

September 2023 News: Travel Planning Maps, Phone-Free up Space

Image

  September 2023 / Issue 193  / Archives
This Geeks on Tour monthly newsletter will always be free, but we also have a premium membership with perks like private Zoom meetings, eBooks, tutorial videos, and complete classes. Our premium members support us, making everything we do possible. It’s $58 yearly or $68 for one year only.
What’s up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks

Toastmasters Int'l Convention, Nassau Bahamas

August
We did get our passports! See my blog post, Passport Panic. So we made it to the Toastmasters International Convention and World Championship of
Public Speaking in Nassau, Bahamas. It was a fantastic, enriching, experience. We helped out by volunteering at the registrations desk. We attended several workshops, like “Transforming Public Speaking with Clown Presence.” and we witnessed the contestants for the speech contest – just WOW. You can see the winner’s speech here. Then, we stayed on a few days and
went scuba diving! Jim got to use his new underwater housing for his phone. It worked great for taking photos and videos. Here’s some of the results.

Classes

You can see all classes from past months on our Classes page. If you’re interested in having us present to your group, contact us here. We presented 3 classes during August:

We did 1of our Sunday Live “What Does This Button Do?” shows:

In this newsletter:

As usual, we have an eclectic mix of smartphone and technology tips for you.
  • Google My Maps
    for Interactive, Custom maps
  • Free up Space with Google Photos
  • Cinematic Photos
  • Scanning old photos

Click Here toJoin

Geeks on Tour Member

  • 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.

Recently added “Pick-a-Tip” for MEMBERS ONLY

New Member Benefit – Office Hours:

You can schedule a 30 minute one-on-one zoom meeting with Chris (Mrs. Geek) Click here and check it out.

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What’s coming up – Our Calendar September and October

The Geeks are really on tour this month and next!

We have online classes.

Chris is starting a new Podcast, Fun With Photos!

The videos will premier on Tech For Senior’s Mondays at Noon ET

View the Geeks' online Calendar

Let us know if you would like a Zoom presentation for your group.

September

  • “What Does This Button Do?”
    2 pm ET Sunday Live on YouTube

    • Sept 3 Episode 263
    • Sept 24 Episode 264
    • Members Only Backstage Zoom after the shows
  • September 11, 7 pm ET Ask Chris Anything
    Live Google Photos Q&A
  • September 10 and 17 Fun With Photos Podcast at 2 pm ET
  •  Tech For Senior’s Selected Mondays at Noon ET “Fun With Photos”

October

  • “What Does This Button Do?” 2 pm ET Sunday Live on YouTube
    • October Live from the UK Episode 265
    • Members Only Backstage
      Zoom after the shows
  • October 2nd and 16th – Fun With Photos Podcast at 2pm ET
  •  Tech For Senior’s Selected Mondays at Noon ET “Fun With Photos”

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube
Channel, click on the bell for notifications, and Like us on Facebook.

That way you’ll get notified when we go live.
Ask the Geeks
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
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Trip Planning with Google My Maps

I’m a huge fan of Google’s My Maps. If you are a premium member of GeeksOnTour.com we have a Learning Guide on how to use it. It’s free. It’s based on Google Maps, so it has all the information you could ever want, but then you get to personalize it with your own markers. Markers for places you’ve been, markers for places you want to go,
and just markers for places you want to remember for whatever reason. Every marker can be customized. You can specify an icon and color for each marker, or group of markers. You can add your own text descriptions, including links. You can even add your own photos on a marker.

Read More

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How to make Cinematic Photos

Create Cinematic Images With Google Photos

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Don’t use Google Photos Free Up Space on an iPhone unless you know this ..

Is your phone full?

There are 2 special considerations on iOS: your photos will also be deleted from iCloud, and the space is not released until you go in to Apple Photos and clean out the recently deleted album.

When your phone is getting full, odds are that photos/videos are a big part of the problem. If you could clear all the photos and videos off your phone, you’d have a lot more space! That’s exactly what google Photos “Free Up Space” does. After it confirms that all your photos/videos are in the Google Photos cloud, it erases them from the phone. When you use the Google Photos app, you’ll never miss them because you’re looking at the cloud and all your photos are there.

This works brilliantly on android – see video 739.GP-Free up space on Android. It also works on iPhone but with 2 concerns…

Read More
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Fun with Photos 3: Scanning Old Photos

On Sunday August 27, we posted episode 3 of Fun with Photos. Our plan is to post a new episode on Sunday afternoons whenever we are not live-streaming our “Button Show.” Episode 3 was about scanning old photos.

Watch Video

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Join us on a Hawaii Cruise – January 2024

See GeeksOnTour.com/Hawaii for details

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Trip Planning to Hawaii using Google My Maps

I’m a huge fan of Google’s My Maps. It’s free. It’s based on Google Maps, so it has all the information you could ever want, but then you get to personalize it with your own markers. Markers for places you’ve been, markers for places you want to go, and just markers for places you want to remember for whatever reason. Every marker can be customized. You can specify an icon and color for each marker, or group of markers. You can add your own text descriptions, including links. You can even add your own photos on a marker.

We’ve been using Google My Maps for years to remember our travels each year. See all of our yearly maps on our personal travel blog. But, in preparation for our Hawaii cruise in January, this is the first time we’ve used it for future planning. I love it even more!

Managing all of your travel notes

Have you ever been planning a trip and you write down hotel names, interesting attractions, phone numbers, websites, and more? Do you have sticky notes all over the place? Or maybe you are more organized and have one document on your computer where you write all this stuff. But then, how do you know which hotel is near which attraction?

We are taking an NCL cruise in Hawaii next January. We plan to get off the ship at each island – 5 different stops. There are so many possible things to do! I started a My Map to add markers for all the possibilities. Then I also added markers for the specific ports of call. For each marker, I can write as much description as I want, including a link to a website for more information. As we settle on specific itineraries, I add those to a “layer” of booked places. The “layer” feature allows me to view view all the places at once, or to view just the booked places. Such an easy way to cut thru the clutter while still allowing me to add as many items as I want.

Sharing a map

Family, friends, and Geeks on Tour members are joining us on this cruise. If you’re interested, just see the details at GeeksOnTour.com/Hawaii. It’s easy to share the map with a link so they can see the results of my research. When they tell me of another option, I can add it to the map with a note from them. Once you click on the link, the map is interactive. You can check or uncheck each layer so those markers will appear or disappear. You can also click on any marker – either on the map, or in the sidebar “map legend” – to see any notes I’ve written. And, of course, you can zoom in to see all the other data available from the underlying Google Maps.

Make your own map

The key is to go to mymaps.google.com and be signed in with your Google Account. Then you just click on “Create a New Map” and start adding markers. If you are a GeeksOnTour.com premium member, you can go thru the complete Learning Guide to Making Maps. The Learning Guide includes a printed class handout, a slide deck, and a playlist of tutorial videos. Here’s one short tutorial video:

About the author: Chris Guld has been teaching technology since 1983. Since 2010 her focus is on travel, smartphones, maps, and photography. You can get her current book: Learn Google Photos at Amazon. Chris is a Diamond Level Google Product Expert in Google Photos.

Don’t use Google Photos’ “Free Up Space” command on iPhone unless you know this.

There are 2 special considerations on iOS: your photos will also be deleted from iCloud, and the space is not released until you go in to Apple Photos and clean out the recently deleted album.

First of all, what is Google Photos “Free Up Space”

When your phone is getting full, odds are that photos/videos are a big part of the problem. If you could clear all the photos and videos off your phone, you’d have a lot more space! That’s exactly what google Photos “Free Up Space” does. After it confirms that all your photos/videos are in the Google Photos cloud, it erases them from the phone. When you use the Google Photos app, you’ll never miss them because you’re looking at the cloud and all your photos are there.

This works brilliantly on android – see video 739.GP-Free up space on Android. It also works on iPhone but with 2 concerns.

1. Free Up Space will result in deleting all iCloud Photos

If you have iCloud Photos turned on for your iPhone, it’s job is to keep the cloud and the phone in sync. So, when Google Photos erases the photos/videos from the phone, iCloud notices that and deletes them from iCloud. If that’s not what you want, you need to turn iCloud Photos OFF. You do that in Settings, Photos, iCloud Photos, then “Remove from Phone” if prompted.

You need to leave iCloud Photos off then. If you turn it back on all the photos/videos will be back on your phone and some may even be re-uploaded to Google Photos – what a mess.

2. Space is not released until you do this

On the iPhone, any photos/videos deleted from the device will be placed in an album called “Recently Deleted.” That’s like a recycle bin. They will stay there for 30 days before being deleted. If you want to free up the space right away, you need to manually empty that album.

  • On your iPhone, open the native Apple Photos app (icon above)
  • Tap “Albums” button at bottom
  • Scroll down till you see Recently Deleted
  • You should now be seeing all the deleted photos, Tap on Select at top right
  • Now tap on Delete All at the bottom

If you do all this, you should now notice a difference in your iPhone Storage

  • Settings
  • General
  • iPhone Storage

More info on cleaning up phone – Episode 263 of Button Show

Show263. My Phone is Full. What Do I Do?

  • 0:00 Begin
  • 1:42 Don’t delete photos until you know what you’re deleting
  • 9:45 Intro and Hello
  • 11:00 Scuba diving and taking your phone for underwater photos/videos
  • 15:00 Hello to viewers
  • 17:15 How to tell if your phone is full
  • 12:40 Phone storage vs Cloud storage
  • 26:23 Phone is full? Delete stuff
  • 27:11 Deleting photos from phone and not from cloud – Free up Space
  • 44:08 Deleting other things from Android
  • 46:30 iPhone – 2 clicks to free up space, optimize iPhone storage, Offload Unused Apps
  • 51:22 iPhone – cleaning out messages, music, books, podcasts
  • 57:32 Review Questions

Detailed show notes below, for members only.

For Members Only

Your smartphone’s volume buttons do more than you think.

When you press the volume up or volume down button what’s happening? Is it changing the volume of your phone ringer? Is it changing the volume of who you’re listening to on a phone call. Is it changing the volume of your notifications? Or is it changing the volume of music or videos?

In general, the volume buttons are context sensitive. That means, if a video is playing and you press a volume button, you’re adjusting the volume of videos. If you’re talking on a phone call, pressing a volume button adjusts how you hear the person on the call. But, what if nothing is going on? What does the volume button do?

There’s a setting for that

iPhone: In settings, Sounds and Haptics, you’ll find a setting for Ringers and Alerts, control with buttons? I kind of like the setting to be off. That way, I can set the volume of my ringer here – making it quite loud – and know that I’ll never accidentally turn it down. I miss so many calls that way.

But, it’s your choice, if you turn this on, then when no other sounds are playing, the volume buttons will set the ringtone volume.

iPhone mute button: on iPhones there is one more control over sound. You can easily stop the phone from ringing by switching on the mute button. It’s on the left side of the phone, directly above the volume button. If you see red when you look at it, that means your ringer is off and your phone will only vibrate if you get a call. This is very quick and handy for those times when you don’t want your phone to ring – but you need to remember to switch it the other way when quiet time is over or you’ll miss a lot of calls!

Android: when you press the volume buttons you should see info pop up on your screen about which volume is being affected. From that pop up you can tap the 3-dot menu and then tap a settings gear icon to see more choices. This screenshot is from my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultro phone. I pressed a volume button and initially saw a volume control just for Ringer, when I tapped the 3-dot menu I got several volume controls identified by icons. From there, I tap on the settings gear and get more controls with written descriptions. I get all these choices. Notice that the default for media is Off – that is why my first option was for Ringer. To avoid accidentally turning the Ringer way down low, I want this setting ON so that it generally controls media like music or videos rather than Ringtones.

Stop the ringing!

One of our very favorite smartphone tips is that, when your phone is ringing, you can make it stop by simply pressing a button. It must be a physical button, not any onscreen button. The up volume, down volume, or power button will do. So, if you’re in a quiet theatre and your phone starts ringing, you don’t have to fumble to get it out, open it, unlock it, find the phone call and hang up. No, all you need to do is press a button. Unless you have a phone case that covers up all buttons, you can usually just squeeze the sides of your phone and you’re bound to hit a button. So, even if the phone is in your pocket, you can grab and squeeze the sides and the ringing will stop. The call is still there – you can answer it, or let it go to voice mail – but the ringing will stop.

The camera shutter button

And now, for something completely different, did you know that the volume buttons can be used to take a picture? That’s right, when you’re using the camera on your phone you don’t have to tap that round button on the screen to take the shot, you can press a volume button instead. Sometimes this is more comfortable when you’re holding the phone in such a way that your finger is already poised on the volume button. Either the up volume or the down volume works. This even works on the volume buttons on earbuds – kind of like a remote control.

This works on both iPhone and Android phones, but some Androids may have a camera setting that lets you choose whether the volume buttons take a picture or zoom in/out.

How to delete photos from Google Photos: delete from cloud, phone, or both?

If you use Google Photos and the trashcan icon, that’s one kind of delete. If you choose the menu and “Delete from Device”, that’s another kind of delete. And, if you use a photo gallery app other than Google Photos to delete, that is yet another kind of delete. It is so important to know what you are deleting when you press the button! Yes, it can be confusing, make sure you have an extra backup first. This is a common question with Google Photos. For lots more detail, see the official help page on Google Photos for deleting.

First, for some background

When you take a photo or video on your phone, it is stored on your phone. If you have enabled the Google Photos Backup feature, a copy of the photo is uploaded to the cloud where it is stored on a remote Google server. This allows you to access your photos from any device that is connected to the internet – just go to the website Photos.Google.com. With your Google account, you get 15GB of free cloud storage, then you need to pay a nominal amount for more. Some people would rather delete photos from their Google account (in the cloud) than pay for more storage. But they do not want to delete the device copy. Other people are running out of storage on their phone and want to delete that copy without deleting cloud copy.

In this article, I’m going to tell you how to delete photos in 3 different ways: 1) from both cloud and device – the default, 2) from device only – easy, and 3) from cloud only – hard. Realize that it is Google Photo’s mission to collect your lifetime of photos in the cloud and work with them there. Once that is done, it doesn’t really care about the device copy any more. So, Google Photos has no problem deleting from the device because it is working with the cloud copy. But, to delete from the cloud while leaving the device copy is counter to its mission.

“Device” refers to the device (phone) that took the photo.
“Cloud” refers to your Google Photos account.

Some advice

  • Deleting photos in one place and not another can be very messy and have unintended consequences. My advice is to only delete photos/videos that are garbage – you want them gone from everywhere. Use the Google Photos app on your phone to do this, not the native app like Samsung Gallery or Apple Photos. Use the trash can (bin) icon and confirm that the selected photos/videos will be deleted from everywhere.
  • If you’re running out of cloud storage space, pay for more – deleting from cloud while keeping photos on device simply doesn’t work with Google Photos unless you turn off auto-backup forever.
  • If you’re running out of space on your phone, you’re probably ready for a new phone. If that’s not possible, you can use the Google Photos “Free Up Space” command, but on iPhones be aware that the Apple iCloud copy will also be deleted if the iCloud setting is ON. If you want the iCloud copy of all your photos to be deleted – you’re good, that’s what will happen. If not, be sure to turn iCloud Photos OFF before using Free Up Space.
  • In any case, make sure you have a separate backup of your precious photos. Either downloaded to your computer’s hard drive, or another cloud storage service like Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Photos, Dropbox, or Backblaze. The Google Support forum is loaded with queries from people like this: “I permanently deleted my photos from Google Photos, please restore them for me.” Sorry, it can’t be done. If you deleted, then emptied the trash (or it’s been more than 60 days) those photos are GONE, unless you have another backup.

On Pixel – or other phones where Google Photos is the only photo gallery app

  1. Delete from both cloud and device
    • From Google Photos on web or device: click the trashcan (bin) icon and approve by clicking “move to trash”
  2. Delete from device but not cloud
    • From Google Photos on device – delete one photo from device:
      Open 1 photo/video, swipe up, tap “Delete from Device”

      If you don’t see “Delete from device” then it’s not on the device.
    • From Google Photos on device – delete all photos from device:
      tap the account button, Free up Space, confirm “Free up xxx GB”
      note: this only deletes photos from device after confirming that they are safely in the cloud
  3. Delete from cloud but not device
    • This is not possible with the Pixel phone because Google Photos and your device photos are one and the same.

On iOS and Samsung, or other phones where there is a native gallery app in addition to Google Photos

  1. Delete from both cloud and device
    • From device that took the photo: using Google Photos app: Open photo, tap trashcan (bin) and confirm deletion. That confirms the deletion from the device as well as from Google Photos’ cloud copy.
    • From Google Photos on web (photos.google.com) = 2 steps:
      1-click the trashcan (bin) icon and approve by clicking “move to trash”
      2-go to GP app on device, tap account button, Review Out-of-Sync changes, Delete there
  2. Delete from device but not Google Photos cloud
    • Do not delete photos using the native gallery/Photos app because you may be deleting your only copy. The native app (Apple Photos or Samsung Gallery) does not know if any given photo was successfully uploaded to Google Photos cloud.
    • 1 photo: – using the Google Photos app, open the photo to delete and swipe up. Tap the option to “Delete from Device.” This will free up the space taken by that photo on the device, but it’s still there when viewing your library in Google Photos. It’s gone if you use the native gallery app like Apple Photos or Samsung Gallery.
      iOS notes: 1) this will also delete from Apple’s iCloud if ON because it syncs with device 2) Space will not be freed up immediately because Apple just moves the photos to the “Recently Deleted” album. You need to clear that before space is freed up on phone. After 30 days, they will be cleared automatically.
    • All photos: this is an option in the Google Photos app. Tap the account button (your face or initials in upper right) and tap “Free up Space.” If you don’t see those words, tap where it says “xxx items to delete from this device.” Either way, it will ask to confirm before deleting. It will only delete photos from your device that it knows have been safely backed up to the Google Photos cloud. You won’t see any difference while viewing your photos in Google Photos, but they will be gone if you use your native photo gallery app.
  3. Delete from cloud but not device: Google Photos’ purpose is to collect all your photos in the cloud. Wanting to delete from the cloud while still keeping the photo on your device goes against its design. There will be problems! I highly recommend making an additional copy of the photos affected (to your computer or to another cloud service.)
    It is possible to delete from the cloud while leaving the photos stored on your device, but you need to turn OFF the Backup setting on the Google Photos app, and leave it off. Basically defeating the purpose of Google Photos!
    • On phone – turn off Backup (account button top right, Photo Settings, Backup, turn OFF)
    • Using the web version of Google Photos delete the desired images. This deletes them from the cloud while leaving them on the device because it is not now a “device with backup turned on.”

      This is the message when deleting photos using the Web version of Google Photos.
      iOS – even with Backup off, the deleted photos will disappear while viewing with Google Photos. They are still on your device if you look at your camera roll using Apple Photos.
    • On phone – You cannot turn backup back on. If you do, the photo(s) deleted on the web will still be deleted from the phone when they are emptied from the trash and out-of-sync changes are deleted. So, if you want to do this (delete from cloud but not device) you will have to manually backup photos from now on.

      To manually backup – select the photos, then tap Back up that appears below.
    • Note: you can also add photos to an album. That will, of necessity, upload those photos.
    • See discussion about How to not delete from phone when deleting photos from Google Photos web.

About the author: Chris Guld has been teaching technology since 1983. Since 2010 her focus is on smartphones and photography. She wrote a book on Picasa in 2009, you can get her current book: Learn Google Photos at Amazon. Chris is a Diamond Level Google Product Expert in Google Photos.