How to stop syncing to Google Photos on Android and iPhone

As you probably know, you can photo and video folders you want to upload to Google Photos but the Camera photos sync automatically. Now, you might be wondering how to stop Camera photos from uploading to Google Photos and there’s definitely a way to do it. Just not all that obvious. You can learn how to stop syncing to Google Photos on your iPhone or Android below.

Table of contents:

1. Choose folders in the Photos settings
2. Disable Sync in Library
3. Disable Back up & sync in Photos settings

How to stop Camera photos from uploading to Google Photos?

You can stop uploading Camera photos to Google Photos in Library or by disabling the Back up & sync option completely.

Have in mind that after the latter, none of the photos and videos from internal storage will be backed up.

1. Choose folders in the Photos settings

The first way to tweak this is to choose folders in Photos settings. While this should show you the various photo and video folders on your internal storage, it won’t show the default DCIM Camera folder. But, it’s definitely the most straightforward way to tweak which folders you want to sync to Google Photos and which you don’t.

Here’s how to choose the device folders you want or don’t want to back up to Google Photos:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Tap on your Profile and open Photos settings.
3. Tap Back up & sync.
4. Select Back up device folders.
5. Toggle ON or OFF folders you want or don’t want to back up to Google Photos.

2. Disable Sync in Library

Now, you can disable sync and back up for Camera photos in Library. There you can see all local folders and, upon further inspection, you can choose to disable them. This might be a more preferable way as you can see actual photos and videos that are uploaded or not to Google Photos. And this is the way to disable Camera photos from syncing.

Here’s how to disable sync in Library on Google Photos:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Select the Library tab from the bottom.
3. Under the Photos on device section, open Camera.
4. Toggle the Back up & sync option off if you don’t want your camera photos to be uploaded.
5. You can do the same for other folders.

3. Disable Back up & sync in Photos settings

Finally, you can disable the Google Photos Back up & sync feature in Photos settings. This will stop all folders from syncing with Google Photos. To do so, just navigate to Google Photos > Profile pic > Photos settings > Back up & sync and disable the Back up & sync feature.

And, with that, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and, if you have any additional questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below. We look forward to hearing from you. Also, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in January 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.