In a way, the Google Photos app is a great unknown. Millions of people have it installed on their mobile phones, but beyond its basic functions there are a lot of things that most people are unaware of. Did you know that you can adjust the quality of the images ? Or that Photos is able to distinguish faces of people, pets or objects?
How to synchronize mobile folders with Google Photos
Personally, I wouldn’t know how to tell you from memory how to synchronize the mobile folders that I want replicated in the cloud, and I use the application every day. This is a very important aspect, since Google Photos by default only backs up the photos and videos that we take with the phone’s camera .
How to choose which folders are part of the Google Photos backup
Cloud copies of Google Photos can be really useful as a security measure to recover deleted videos from WhatsApp or any other messaging app, where the danger of deleting an image or file by mistake is the order of the day.
If you also use other tools to edit images, or any filter and effect app, having a backup copy of all that content is most convenient.
To add a folder from your mobile to the list of folders that are backed up in Google Photos, follow these steps:
- Open Google Photos.
- Click on the icon of your profile photo, located in the upper right corner of the screen and enter ” Photo Settings“.
- Go to “ Backup” and make sure the “ Backup is on ” tab is enabled.
- Then go down to the option ” Backed up device folders” and click on it.
- Here you will find a list of all the folders in your internal memory that contain at least one image or more. For example, the download folder (“Downloads”), the folder where screenshots are saved (“Screenshots”), etc. Applications that you have used to save or edit an image or video will also appear in the list. To make the backup, simply activate the tab of those folders that you want to synchronize in the cloud.
How to start the backup
Once the folders have been selected, as soon as you have a Wi-Fi connection, the Google Photos app will begin uploading the content of all those locations to the cloud. You will be able to check the evolution of the backup thanks to the blue circle that is displayed around your profile photo, located in the upper right margin of the screen. When the circle is complete it will appear green, indicating that the backup is complete.
Finally, if you do not have a Wi-Fi network nearby and you want to force the backup , go back to the “Photo Settings” menu by clicking on your profile picture, go to “Backup” and enter “Use of Mobile data”.
From here you can enable backups through the use of a mobile data connection, set a daily limit for the megabytes that can be consumed through this process and other interesting options, such as copying videos through a data connection or creating roaming copies.
Finally, if you see that the backup does not start automatically (sometimes it takes a bit to start) close the Google Photos app and reopen it. Ultimately, you can also force the copy by turning off and back on the internet connection (Wi-Fi or data)
