How to Backup with Google Photos? A Complete Guide of Backing Up

22 March 2023 by

Apryl Zhang

Your phone likely stores many precious memories from your travels, daily snaps, and moments with family and friends. But ultimately, due to laziness or lack of time to organise, you may fear losing these memories if your phone malfunctions. Fortunately, Google Photos can automatically backup and categorise your photos and videos. Capture.HK introduces you to Google Photos backup feature, allowing you to quickly backup and protect your memories from being lost.

Preparing for Google Photos Backup

Before backing up with Google Photos, you can check the backup status of your photos and set backup preferences to identify which photos have already been backed up and whether they are taking up storage space on your phone.

1. Checking if Photos are Already Backed Up on Google Photos

There are three ways to check whether your photos have already been backed up on Google Photos. Firstly, click on the photo and look for two things:

First, check if there is a cloud symbol above the photo, and second, check if there is a ‘storage path’ below the photo when you swipe down. After understanding these two things, there will be three possible scenarios, indicating whether the photo has been backed up and whether it is in the phone album, as follows:

Scenario 1: The photo has been backed up and is in the phone album: No cloud symbol and a storage path is present.

Scenario 2: The photo has been backed up but is not in the phone album: No cloud symbol and no storage path is present.

Scenario 3: The photo has not been backed up: A cloud symbol is present, indicating that the photo has not been backed up yet.

2. Setting up Google Photos Backup

First, click on the personal profile icon in the top right corner to set up Google Photos Backup, and select ‘Google Photos’ settings. Click on Backup, turn on the backup mode, and then select ‘Backup quality’. You can customise the settings according to your needs, and here are some options:

Turn on automatic backup: backup using Wi-Fi or mobile data to save your mobile data usage
Quality selection: choose between compressed or original quality, compressed quality can save storage space.

How to backup photos to Google Photos?

Backing up photos to Google Photos one by one

How to determine the backup status: First, open the photo you want to backup. If there is no ‘cloud’ symbol on the top right corner of the photo, it means the photo has already been backed up. If there is a ‘cloud’ symbol, it means the photo has not been uploaded and backed up yet. You can proceed with the following steps to backup to Google Photos.

Backup steps: Firstly, click on the photo you want to backup. If there is a cloud icon on the top right corner of the photo, it means the photo has not been uploaded and backed up yet. Click on the cloud icon on the top right corner to start uploading. You will see a ‘backing up window’. After the upload is complete, the window will close and the cloud icon on the top right corner will disappear, indicating that the backup to Google Photos was successful.

Back up all photos to Google Photos all at once

If you have a large number of photos in your album that need to be backed up, backing up one by one can be very time-consuming and frustrating. You can use Google Photos' one-time backup feature to back up all photos to Google Photos with just one setting.

Backup Steps: Click on your profile picture in the top right corner, and you will see the option ‘Turn on backup,’ below the profile picture. At this point, ‘High Quality’ or ‘Original Quality’ will appear, indicating that you can choose the backup mode. After selecting the desired option, you have successfully backed up all photos to Google Photos at once.

How to clear phone storage after backing up to Google Photos?

After backing up to Google Photos, you can delete photos and videos from your phone to save storage space. The following two methods can both help clear phone storage space.

Method 1: Delete photos/videos one by one in Google Photos

Firstly, open the photo or video that you want to delete. Then, pull the photo or video downwards and check the ‘Storage Location’ section. If it shows ‘Device’ or ‘Local’, it means that the photo or video is still taking up storage space on your device. Click on ’Delete from Device’ to remove it from your device's storage.

Method 2: Free up space on Google Photos all at once

Click on your profile picture in the top right corner and select ‘Free up Space’. This option will delete all the photos and videos that have already been backed up to Google Photos from your device. It's a convenient and fast way to free up space, especially if you have a large number of photos.

Digitise precious photo albums now and free up space at home!

Google Photos' backup and classification function is very powerful, making it easy to view photos and videos. Capture's album digitisation service can digitise entire photo albums and upload them to Google Photos folders, allowing you to view your memories anytime, anywhere, and freeing up space at home!

Learn more about Capture HK photo album digitisation services now!

*This article is brought to you by Capture HK.

Capture HK is the premier analogue media digitisation company in Hong Kong.

Capture HK's business covers photographs, photo album digitisation, videotapes digitisation, including VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C Hi-8, Video8, Digital8, DV, DVCAM, MiniDV, DVC and digital media digitisation, including Secure Digital (SD), Smart Media (SM), MultiMediaCard (MMC) Compact Flash (CF), xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick, USB Drive, CDROM, DVD.

Source from:

[Google Photos Tutorial] How to backup? How to distinguish which photos have been uploaded? What is "archiving"? How to hide private photos? - YouTube

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