Have you ever pulled out your phone to take a photo of the kids FINALLY getting along? Or how about when the little stinker is covered in chocolate Halloween candy and you just have to have proof you survived the clean up?
Then suddenly you get that horrible message “CANNOT TAKE PHOTO: there is not enough available storage to take a photo”! NOOOO!!!
Well what if I told you, you would never have to see that message again?
LOL I’m starting to sound like an infomercial! I’ve been telling everyone I know about this, even random strangers at the grocery store! I just love Google photos so much! If you’ve never heard of Google photos or have heard of it but don’t fully understand how it works, let me tell you: its magic, Cloud storage magic!
Here’s the basics— this free cloud storage app automatically backs up all of your iPhotos and organizes them by date!! And you get 15 GB for FREE— that’s a LOT of photos and videos! The best part is you don’t have to plug in your phone or keep the app open for it to automatically back up your photos— it just does it! Done and done, right! And you can delete the photos and videos off your phone, while your photos stay safe in your online album. AND it is super easy to download them all at once for an additional copy on your hard drive too.
Here’s how to set it up-
Step 1- Install the Google Photos app on your devices (free for both iOS and Android).
Step 2- Log in to your google account, if you don’t have one you’ll need to sign up for one (yay, again its free).
Step 3- Choose when you want your photos to automatically back up and sync. I would suggest that you turn on the ‘back up and sync” option (otherwise it wont automatically back up) and turn off “use cellular data to back up” (saving your wireless data). By un-checking the second option, the app will only back up and sync your photos and videos when you are on WiFi.
Step 4- Choose the upload size for photos and videos. For all of your smartphone photos, the "high quality" option will be more than sufficient to make prints.
Step 5- Choose if you would like notifications for special features offered by Google photos. I have mine turned off, I don’t need anymore distractions notifications on my phone.
Step 6- Take a quick tour of how to use Google photos by swiping through four screens. Once you're done with those four screens, you should see a grid of all your photos as they are beginning to be uploaded.
Step 7- Take a photo using the mobile app you normally use! As you take photos, it will automatically upload them to your google photos app! (assuming you're on wifi of course).
Once you set it up, it does all the work, hidden in the background. No more searching for iPhone cables or buying SD cards to store your photos. So simple! I love it! (And if God forbid your phone bites the dust, you wont lose all your photos because they will be backed up on the cloud already!)
The holidays are will be here before you know it! Do yourself a favor and install Google photos today so that you won’t have to worry about running out of storage this Halloween!
-Mandee