How to backup photos in Android

Whether you’re a passionate mobile photographer (yes, that’s a thing), or you just take snaps occasionally, there’s no denying taking photos plays an important part in your daily smartphone use.

Thanks to the ever-advancing technology, the quality of photos you take with your smartphone has significantly gone up. That gives us amazing shots, you wouldn’t believe were taken with a smartphone just a few years back. But the quality comes with a cost, and you’re paying it with storage space. It’s normal for pictures today to take up to tens of megabytes of your storage. And no matter how much storage space your phone has, you’ll eventually run out of it.

That’s where backing up your photos to a cloud comes to rescue. Not only that you’ll free up an enormous chunk of the storage space, but you’ll also protect your photos from being accidentally deleted. And the fact that you can access your pictures from any synced device only counts as a plus.

Since you’re using an Android phone, backing up your photos has never been easier. If you’re a fan of Google products, you can go with Google Photos, which is the simplest and most convenient way of keeping your photos in check. Especially if your phone comes with Google Photos pre-installed.

If you prefer some other cloud storage service, like Dropbox, no problem! Backing up your photos is still fairly simple. These are all cloud storage services, so the principle basically stays the same.

Use Google Photos

The best way to use Google Photos is to enable automatic upload. That will allow you to completely forget about backing up your pictures and videos, as each photo or video you take will be automatically uploaded to the cloud within seconds.

All you have to do to enable this feature is to open Google Photos. If you don’t have Google Photos installed on your phone, download it from the Play Store. As soon as you open the app, it will ask you to enable Backup & sync. Just confirm, and you’re good to go. Now, each photo/video you take with your camera will be automatically uploaded to Google Photos.

There are a few additional settings you can tweak. For example, you can choose the quality of uploaded photos. Google provides unlimited storage for High-quality photo uploads. You can also choose to upload photos in the original size. For this option, you have a limited storage space of 12GB. You don’t need to sacrifice storage space for the quality here, because even if you opt for High-quality uploads instead of the original size, the difference is almost unnoticeable, so you don’t have to worry about losing the quality of your photos.

The default settings only work for the photos you take with your camera. However, if you want to back up other photos, like screenshots or downloads, just enable the sync for these folders as well, and you’re good to go. To do that, just open Google Photos, go to Albums, tap the folder you want to back up, and enable Back up & sync.

That’s about it. All your photos are backed up now, and safe from accidental deletion. And you’ll have much more storage space, as well.

I’d recommend you to go with Google Photos for all your backups. But since it all comes down to personal preference, you can do the same thing with other cloud storage services, if you like. It’s up to you.

Note: This article is a part of our Google Photos coverage. If you want to learn more Google Photos tips and tricks, or you have a certain problem with this app, visit our Google Photos Hub for more content.

Use Dropbox

If you use Dropbox as your go-to cloud storage, backing up photos and videos is as easy as in Google Photos. All you have to do is to open the Dropbox app, go to Photos, and tap Enable camera uploads.

Now, each time you take a photo with your camera, it will automatically be uploaded to Dropbox. Screenshots also fall into this category, as Dropbox will sync all your screenshots, as well. This, however, doesn’t work for other photos, like downloads, as you’ll have to upload those manually. If you want to upload videos, just go to Settings > Camera uploads, and enable Upload video.

Just keep in mind that, unlike Google Photos, Dropbox doesn’t offer an unlimited storage option. You have 2GB of free storage, while additional storage space must be purchased. So, keep the limit in mind.

That’s about it. As I already mentioned, you don’t have to use Google Photos or Dropbox for backing up your photos. I just mentioned these two, because they’re the most popular options. But just about any cloud storage service will do.

If you have any questions regarding backing up your photos using other services, feel free to ask in the comments below.