Google Drive for desktop ends automatic photo backups today
What's the story
Google has made a significant change to its photo backup policy, effective from today. The tech giant is discontinuing automatic backups of photos and videos from certain computer folders via Google Drive for desktop. This means that if you have been relying on this feature to back up your family photos over the last decade, you will need to take some action now.
Policy change
The change was first announced by Google in June
The change, first announced by Google in June, affects users who have been using the Drive desktop app as their backup method.
This includes those who scan documents, import camera footage, or organize old photo dumps into computer folders and let Drive do the work.
The good news is that nothing already uploaded to Google Photos will be lost with this policy change.
User guide
How to back up photos and videos from your computer
To keep your desktop photo backups alive without using Drive, open Google Photos in a web browser.
Click the "+" icon in the top right corner and select "Back up folders." Choose the folders you want backed up from your computer, including those previously set up in Drive.
Grant folder access permissions when prompted by your browser. Note that these backups only run while the Google Photos tab or web app is open on your machine.
Storage management
Things to remember
If you're setting up new backup folders in Photos, make sure to go back into your Google Drive desktop preferences and turn off the old "Back up to Google Photos" option first.
Running both at once can mean the same files get counted twice against your Google One storage.