Transfer Pictures from Old Phone to New Android Phone with Google Photos
Upgrading to a new Android phone can be exciting, but it also means you need to transfer all your pictures from your old phone. Luckily, Google Photos provides a way to back up your pictures through your Google account, so you can access them no matter which Android device you use. Here’s a guide on how to sync Google Photos backups and ensure your files are saved immediately.
How to Manually Back Up Your Images Using the Google Photos App
Manual syncing allows you to selectively choose which photos to back up and save your cloud storage. Here’s how to manually back up and sync your images with Google Photos:
Turn on Backups
- Launch the Google Photos app.
- Sign in or select the Google account you want to store your backups.
- Tap Turn on backup.
- Choose Original quality or Storage saver. Keep the slider turned off for Use mobile data when there’s no Wi-Fi since backing up photos may exceed your data usage if done in bulk, so it’s safer to place a limit on your uploads.
- Tap Confirm.
Manually Sync Google Photos
- Launch the Google Photos app.
- Tap on your Google account icon, located in the top-left corner of the app.
- Select Backing up.
- Scroll down your photos and search for the photos you wish to store; photos are filtered by date.
- If you want to sync an image, tap on an image manually, then select the cloud icon next to the star icon.
- Your image will now upload to your Google account’s cloud storage (where your backups are located).
- To upload multiple images, tap Select and then choose your photos.
- All selected images will have a checkmark; tap on the cloud icon with the upwards arrow to manually start backing up your pictures.
How to Back Up Any Folder
- Launch the Google Photos app.
- Select Library (located at the bottom), find “Photos on device,” then choose a folder.
- Turn the slider on for Back up and sync.
- To manually sync your backups, select an image, and tap on the three-dot menu to access more options.
- Tap on Back up now to manually sync your picture to your backups.
- To select multiple images from your folder, tap on the three-dot menu while in your folder and choose Select.
- Tap on the images or the date you wish to back up, then select the three-dot menu and tap Back up now.
Review Your Google Photos Backups
Always review your backups after they’ve uploaded in case of app interruptions, lost internet connections, or uploading the wrong photos/albums. You can review your backups on any web browser after logging in to your Google account:
- Log into your Google account (where you saved your backups) on any web browser.
- Select the square to access Google Photos and click on it; alternatively, visit photos.google.com.
- You’ll find the images you manually chose to back up on this page. You can continue to add to your list as long as your storage space doesn’t reach its maximum capacity.
- Click on your image, locate the circle “I” icon, and click on it.
- On this page, you can view the file size, where your image came from and the backup status.
Managing Your Backups and Storage with Google One
You have to abide by a 15GB limit if you’re using your Google account for storage. If you need more storage, you can subscribe to Google One, which offers extensive cloud storage, including Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos. Subscription fees are billed monthly or annually, ranging from 200GB to 2TB. Family sharing is also available for others to back up photos in your household.
Never Lose Your Photos
You can transfer and save up to 15GB of photos to your Google account, but there are multiple ways to transfer pictures into bigger storage units like external memory cards, hard drives, and subscriptions to Google One. Google Photos lets us keep our most precious photos in one place and can be set up just a few minutes. If it’s not the app for you, plenty of fantastic alternatives to Google Photos already exist that work just as well.
