How unlimited google photos works - Google Pixel 2 Questions & Answers

Hi, just ordered a Pixel 2 and hoping someone can clarify some things for me:
If I copy pictures from my computer onto the phone then use Google Photos to back up said pictures, will they be max quality or will they be recognised as not being taken on the actual phone?
Or better yet, will my Google account be associated with the phone so I can just upload photos using the Photos app directly from my computer keeping the max quality?
Thanks for your help!

Did you find the answer to this? I'm also wondering.

mew1033 said:
Did you find the answer to this? I'm also wondering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been told that it's based off the EXIF data on the Pixel 2. I don't know for sure if that's true, but what I've been told when asking a similar question.

I'd talk to the 24/7 Google support that you can use in the settings.

Thanks for your responses. I could also give it a try when the phone arrives and compare the file sizes

It's only photos taken on the phone. So much for using Google photos as my main backup service

I copied all the digital pictures I've ever taken (50GB+) onto my pixel 2 and they all uploaded at original image size without taking up any space.... only took a week to do

st3v3ntehl33t said:
I copied all the digital pictures I've ever taken (50GB+) onto my pixel 2 and they all uploaded at original image size without taking up any space.... only took a week to do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If only I had the time... I've got well over 500GB of photos and videos already backed up to Google Photos and can't imagine the time it would take to transfer them this way.

Wilchie said:
It's only photos taken on the phone. So much for using Google photos as my main backup service
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can back up photos to Google photos from any amount tied to your Google account. But original size photos from pixel. Otherwise it's reduced size
Sent from my Pixel 2 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I backed up images from 10+ devices and they were all original image sizes. 14MB+ files from my Lumia 1020 are still 14MB+ files on google drive and they are taking up 0MB space. You just have to copy the folders into the dcim folder on your phone and let it back them files up.

Related

[Q] Where does VSCOCam store its photos?? It's "hiding" 1000+ of my photos!!

[Q] Where does VSCOCam store its photos?? It's "hiding" 1000+ of my photos!!
Specs:
Nexus 5 | Android 5.0.1
unrooted
Apps used to diagnose:
Mac - Android File Viewer
Android - X-plore, ES File Explorer
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the wall of text, long time lurker, first time posting at XDA here, hope to find a solution after days of trying on my own... I am HEARTBROKEN by vscocam on Android... :crying:
I've been using VSCOCam for 80% of my photos on my Nexus5 for the last year and half, I've taken thousands of photos and I want to back them up. The app works as follows:
Take photo using app > photo stored in internal app library > edit photo > export to android photo library (VSCOcam folder)
The VSCOCam folder is located inside /sdcard/DCIM/, but it only stores the exported/edited photos that you chose to export from the app. I cannot for the life of me find the "internal library" folder for the photos, I looked and looked and had no luck finding where the photos or any hints of the app dir itself... only the exported photos. When I looked around online apparently the iOS version has a backup feature for the internal app library when connected to iTunes, Android version ONLY has the "export" button within the app to act as a backup feature. Well that's not going to work because:
1. No select all (ctrl/cmd + A)function. I will not spend hours check marking and scrolling through thousands of thumbnails individually... makes me shudder thinking about it.
2. I will essentially be saving my photos twice or more on the phone, VSCOcam doesn't overwrite existing or even ask, it creates duplicates next to eachother.
3. Exported photos from the app loses all metadata... this one I could afford to lose but it'd be nice to have a date it was taken and not date it was exported.
In my desperation I even chatted with the costumer service staff of the company, no luck, no solution. Only export button. Apparently my cases is very isolated as I can't find anyone with the same problem as I do.... maybe I'm not that bright. :silly:
Even with my limited IT skills, I firmly believe There has to be a folder that stores all the jpg as they're taken by the camera. Instagram does it and so does almost every photo apps out there. I just need to locate that dir... Am I looking in the wrong places? Do I need to root? Please give me some advice on this!!
TL;DR - VSCOCam app is holding thousands of my photos, I can't find the directory that they're stored in. VSCO is telling me "there is no internal app folder." and tell me to spend hours exporting each one manually. I don't want to hate VSCOCam, it rocks, but this is breaking my heart!!!
mobscene8859 said:
Specs:
Nexus 5 | Android 5.0.1
unrooted
Apps used to diagnose:
Mac - Android File Viewer
Android - X-plore, ES File Explorer
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the wall of text, long time lurker, first time posting at XDA here, hope to find a solution after days of trying on my own... I am HEARTBROKEN by vscocam on Android... :crying:
I've been using VSCOCam for 80% of my photos on my Nexus5 for the last year and half, I've taken thousands of photos and I want to back them up. The app works as follows:
Take photo using app > photo stored in internal app library > edit photo > export to android photo library (VSCOcam folder)
The VSCOCam folder is located inside /sdcard/DCIM/, but it only stores the exported/edited photos that you chose to export from the app. I cannot for the life of me find the "internal library" folder for the photos, I looked and looked and had no luck finding where the photos or any hints of the app dir itself... only the exported photos. When I looked around online apparently the iOS version has a backup feature for the internal app library when connected to iTunes, Android version ONLY has the "export" button within the app to act as a backup feature. Well that's not going to work because:
1. No select all (ctrl/cmd + A)function. I will not spend hours check marking and scrolling through thousands of thumbnails individually... makes me shudder thinking about it.
2. I will essentially be saving my photos twice or more on the phone, VSCOcam doesn't overwrite existing or even ask, it creates duplicates next to eachother.
3. Exported photos from the app loses all metadata... this one I could afford to lose but it'd be nice to have a date it was taken and not date it was exported.
In my desperation I even chatted with the costumer service staff of the company, no luck, no solution. Only export button. Apparently my cases is very isolated as I can't find anyone with the same problem as I do.... maybe I'm not that bright. :silly:
Even with my limited IT skills, I firmly believe There has to be a folder that stores all the jpg as they're taken by the camera. Instagram does it and so does almost every photo apps out there. I just need to locate that dir... Am I looking in the wrong places? Do I need to root? Please give me some advice on this!!
TL;DR - VSCOCam app is holding thousands of my photos, I can't find the directory that they're stored in. VSCO is telling me "there is no internal app folder." and tell me to spend hours exporting each one manually. I don't want to hate VSCOCam, it rocks, but this is breaking my heart!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you will need root for this
the photos are in "/data/data/com.vsco.cam/files/images"
joanthanmajh said:
you will need root for this
the photos are in "/data/data/com.vsco.cam/files/images"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow thank you for this!!! I knew it!! :good:
I will try and root my phone tonight. I'll be following this guide.
So I guess after I root, I'm able to view the folders that were previously restricted using Android File Transfer?
mobscene8859 said:
Oh wow thank you for this!!! I knew it!! :good:
I will try and root my phone tonight. I'll be following this guide.
So I guess after I root, I'm able to view the folders that were previously restricted using Android File Transfer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont use android file transfer but you should be able to use es file explore to copy the photos to another folder that android file transfer can see
I'm rooted on android 5.1 and in ES File Explorer, cannot see com.vsco.cam in /data/data
I've searched for vsco, case insensitive, in root /
And only found the export directory!
Have they changed their storage? In effect, I can't even find the app!!
Bump!
I'm having the same problem. I really need to free up some space on my device, so I want to pull all my photos but I can't find them anywhere. LG Optimus 4X HD (P-880) with root access. I've checked the locations mentioned above, but with no luck. Any help would be awesome!
Up! I have the same problem than Falcon. I want to free some space but can't find the photos anywhere!
Bumping because I'd also like to extract photos that I've taken with VSCO. Although my problem is a little different, VSCO just crashes every time I try to open it and it only started happening the day after I started taking photos with it. The customer service couldn't help much except tell me that CM is an unofficial Android release and their app isn't optimized for it
OnePlus One
Android 6.0.1
CM13.0-20160419-SNAPSHOT-ZNH0EAO2O0-bacon
Has anybody found a descent solution for this problem?
Vsco is a great for the filters but the android-app is horrible. Why can't we just export the original photo's or at least locate them on our device.
Moto G, Android 5.1, unrooted

Photo's & backing up on PC

Hi all
I've noticed that the standard format of photo's taken on my Z5 are named the same if I empty the on-board memory of pictures, so when I come to take new ones and put them in the same folder as older photo's I'm asked if i want to replace pre-existing pictures that I've taken.
IS there a way I can get my phone to give photo's filenames with the date of the picture being taken or something?
Renz
Yes.
DSC Auto Rename
Google Play
Sent from my GT-N8020 using XDA Free mobile app

[APP] GCam Tool - Automatically move photos taken by Google Camera to gallery

I love taking portrait photos on Google Camera app. But non-Pixel users like me can only use the modded version of Google Camera and one major annoyance is that it takes portrait photos only in burst mode. You then need to open gallery, find the sub-folder which it created for burst mode, copy the portrait image and delete the rest. And you have to do this every time you take a portrait photo.
With GCam Tool, all this happens in the background. After you take a photo with Google Camera, you will find it in your camera roll when you open Gallery. You can:
Choose source and destination folders
Move portrait or regular or both photos
Delete sub-folders created by Google Camera every time
By default the app copies photos to your photo gallery. If you buy the $1 upgrade, it also deletes the files and sub-folders (thereby actually moving the photos instead of copying).
Your upgrade will help an indie developer like me survive. Please spread the word and let me know your thoughts.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apptuners.gcamtool
I will this app could move photos from the default internal storage folder used by gcam to a folder in the external SD card!
@Apptuners
really good app, does exactly what it promises. As this was something I was looking for since quite some time now, I purchased the Pro version. Keep up the good work :good:
Thank you very much for the support, Portgas D. Ace.
I just pushed an update (1.02) that adds manual batch moving feature. If you don't want the app to monitor in the background, you could just open the app once in a while, click the Batch Move option and move all files in one go to the chosen target folder.
if the possibility also to port folders with DNG(RAW) format?, because GCam also creates a separate folder
Apptuners said:
I love taking portrait photos on Google Camera app. But non-Pixel users like me can only use the modded version of Google Camera and one major annoyance is that it takes portrait photos only in burst mode. You then need to open gallery, find the sub-folder which it created for burst mode, copy the portrait image and delete the rest. And you have to do this every time you take a portrait photo.
With GCam Tool, all this happens in the background. After you take a photo with Google Camera, you will find it in your camera roll when you open Gallery. You can:
Choose source and destination folders
Delete sub-folders created by Google Camera every time
By default the app copies photos to your photo gallery. If you buy the $1 upgrade, it also deletes the files and sub-folders (thereby actually moving the photos instead of copying).
Your upgrade will help an indie developer like me survive. Please spread the word and let me know your thoughts.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apptuners.gcamtool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whenever I try to move any images from internal to SD Card, it moves zero images. I have also sent out an email to the support. I'm using Galaxy S8 btw.
Uralku said:
if the possibility also to port folders with DNG(RAW) format?, because GCam also creates a separate folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe the app already does that now.
casao01 said:
Whenever I try to move any images from internal to SD Card, it moves zero images. I have also sent out an email to the support. I'm using Galaxy S8 btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I just replied to your email. I am posting it here as well.
The app only moves (for now) images taken in Portrait Mode. Could you please try and let me know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what i was looking for from many days... thankyou so much..it works great
Hi Dev. Great work! I've been looking for that for a long time. Any chance this will work with regular (non portrait) photos? It will be great to be able to automatically move photos to sd card... A suggestion: is it doable to have an option to rename the file to whatever pattern you want before moving it? This way it could match other photos names in the gallery. Thanks again for the very useful app!
Good and helpful app and I would like to support your work.
But how do I buy the pro version?
Clicking on "upgrade" button brings up a window and then clicking on "Upgrade to pro" does nothing..?
Great app! But every reboot I'm getting a notification. Tapping on it just opens the app and then when I open the settings and back out the notification goes away. Any ideas why?
I think I'm doing something wrong because this app isn't working for me. I have the photo storage paths set, and have the option checked for it to delete sub folders. But none of the photos ever move and they stay in the burst folders.
Sorry to be that guy, but could you provide a step by step for me, or point out some kikind of error I may be making?
Thanks for your hard work. This app will be fantastic once I get it working because those burst folders drive me nuts.
Edit: maybe I'm misunderstanding part of what this app does. I went into my gallery app and the photos are all there and not in any sub folders, but when I go to my pictures through the google camera app they are still in the burst folders.
I have some issue with moving non-portrait photo into another folder. As soon as the non-portrait photo is moved. The original portrait photo is gone. I no longer see it from my camera folder and cannot see it from Google Photo.
Even worse, I did the batch moving and now all my portrait photos are gone. Is this the right behavior?
same thing with the restarts , nokia 7 plus here
Are you aware your app is no more on the store? It was the life and I even bought the pro version :c
bisio971 said:
Are you aware your app is no more on the store? It was the life and I even bought the pro version :c
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=77665451&postcount=44
To @Apptuners: paid for the app, no regrets. Even with it taken down. Don't worry
Apptuners said:
I love taking portrait photos on Google Camera app....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you manage to copy the portrait only photo to DCIM/Camera. delete the original folder and (non portrait) photo and still have google photos backup the moved photo normally?
When I do this manually with a script, google photos doesn't beackup the portrait photo and it still shows a burst of two photos, the portrait and the non portrait, with this one showing only a grey thumbnail, and it never back ups.
Can you shed some light? Do you change anything in the EXIF of the moved portrait photo?
TCattd said:
FYI https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=77665451&postcount=44
To @Apptuners: paid for the app, no regrets. Even with it taken down. Don't worry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man
fjsferreira said:
How do you manage to copy the portrait only photo to DCIM/Camera. delete the original folder and (non portrait) photo and still have google photos backup the moved photo normally?
When I do this manually with a script, google photos doesn't beackup the portrait photo and it still shows a burst of two photos, the portrait and the non portrait, with this one showing only a grey thumbnail, and it never back ups.
Can you shed some light? Do you change anything in the EXIF of the moved portrait photo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I don't modify EXIF for "photo move" feature. EXIF is modified only when selfie flipping is prevented.
As for how GCam Tool manages to do it, I believe it is all about speed. If the photos and subfolders stay long enough in the source folder, Google Photos will back up it. I don't know how fast your script is, but when you take a photo with Google Camera, GCam Tool instantly jumps into action, moves the required files and deletes the unwanted ones (and sub-folders). It all happens in like 3-4 seconds and sometimes more depending on how long it takes on your phone for Google Camera to do the HDR+ processing and save the files.
Also once the move is done, GCam Tool rebuilds the thumbnail gallery and runs MediaScanner as well to notify the system regarding file move, which could be another reason. And most people have DCIM/Camera as their target folder, which is already being monitored by Google Photos. So as soon as GCam Tool moves the files into DCIM/Camera, Google Photos backups it.
Apptuners said:
Thanks man
No I don't modify EXIF for "photo move" feature. EXIF is modified only when selfie flipping is prevented.
As for how GCam Tool manages to do it, I believe it is all about speed. If the photos and subfolders stay long enough in the source folder, Google Photos will back up it. I don't know how fast your script is, but when you take a photo with Google Camera, GCam Tool instantly jumps into action, moves the required files and deletes the unwanted ones (and sub-folders). It all happens in like 3-4 seconds and sometimes more depending on how long it takes on your phone for Google Camera to do the HDR+ processing and save the files.
Also once the move is done, GCam Tool rebuilds the thumbnail gallery and runs MediaScanner as well to notify the system regarding file move, which could be another reason. And most people have DCIM/Camera as their target folder, which is already being monitored by Google Photos. So as soon as GCam Tool moves the files into DCIM/Camera, Google Photos backups it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, so much for me to thinker. Love it! Bought your app, it's as useful as water for me
Sent from my OnePlus 5 using XDA Labs
fjsferreira said:
Thank you, so much for me to thinker. Love it! Bought your app, it's as useful as water for me
Sent from my OnePlus 5 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great. Thank you very much for the kind words.

Pixel Free upload / Sync help....

Hi.
So Ive backed up my photos for as long as I can remember, I have photos and videos going back 15 years.
I pay google each month for 100 gig of storage, what I normally do is once a month or so i get whatever photos/vids I want to keep and i upload them from my desktop into a named album.
Obviously this takes up storage space
I can see that my Pixel allows me to upload pics and vids without eating into my storage however i'm confused as to how it works.
If i backup and sync my camera folder then arrange it into albums the photos will then be deleted if i delete them off my phone, which means i only actually get 64 gig of cloud storage, that matches my phones folders./
Is there a way i can retain my photos in the cloud but remove them from my phone?
Any help appreciated.
Stret
Stretlow said:
Hi.
So Ive backed up my photos for as long as I can remember, I have photos and videos going back 15 years.
I pay google each month for 100 gig of storage, what I normally do is once a month or so i get whatever photos/vids I want to keep and i upload them from my desktop into a named album.
Obviously this takes up storage space
I can see that my Pixel allows me to upload pics and vids without eating into my storage however i'm confused as to how it works.
If i backup and sync my camera folder then arrange it into albums the photos will then be deleted if i delete them off my phone, which means i only actually get 64 gig of cloud storage, that matches my phones folders./
Is there a way i can retain my photos in the cloud but remove them from my phone?
Any help appreciated.
Stret
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is supposed to automatically backup the camera folder. In settings, google, backup,photos you should be able to select other folders you want to include.
Tulsadiver said:
It is supposed to automatically backup the camera folder. In settings, google, backup,photos you should be able to select other folders you want to include.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for responding.
What im sayin though is if im on holiday for example and fill my phone with videos which automatically upload... they get deleted if i remove them from my phone
Stretlow said:
Thanks for responding.
What im sayin though is if im on holiday for example and fill my phone with videos which automatically upload... they get deleted if i remove them from my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are saying that if you go to Google photos, all your pictures are gone?
Stretlow said:
Thanks for responding.
What im sayin though is if im on holiday for example and fill my phone with videos which automatically upload... they get deleted if i remove them from my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's several ways to do it. Look here,
robocuff said:
There's several ways to do it. Look here,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh, I thought he was deleting them from the camera folder using an explorer/ file manager app....
Got it chaps, thank you.
I've stitched a few videos together that I shot on the Pixel but edited outside of the phone and then dropped the final video back into the camera app and its still let me upload it which is great.
Thanks for the help

Google Camera - modify storage location for saving photos

Hi,
Google camera stores photos in subdirectories of DCIM/Camera using this naming convention:
IMG_<date>_time>
Can I change this by means that any photo should be stored in a single file in DCIM/Camera?
THX
c.monty said:
Hi,
Google camera stores photos in subdirectories of DCIM/Camera using this naming convention:
IMG_<date>_time>
Can I change this by means that any photo should be stored in a single file in DCIM/Camera?
THX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me and i guess all the other members are not really understanding what your issue is.
You are right with the info how Google Camera stores pictures. Also every picture is a singe file?!
When you are referring to the portrait shots (which are stored as 2 diffrent pics), yes, this is not the best solution by google, but also, no they cant be stored in a single file becasue .jpeg limitations.
peace
bejunk said:
Me and i guess all the other members are not really understanding what your issue is.
You are right with the info how Google Camera stores pictures. Also every picture is a singe file?!
When you are referring to the portrait shots (which are stored as 2 diffrent pics), yes, this is not the best solution by google, but also, no they cant be stored in a single file becasue .jpeg limitations.
peace
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually my request is this:
I don't want Google Camera to store pictures in sub-directories.
Instead all pictures should be stored in /DCIM/Camera.
However I assume this is not possible.
Therefore I want to address this question: What's the technical reason for storing pictures in sub-directories?
THX
c.monty said:
Actually my request is this:
I don't want Google Camera to store pictures in sub-directories.
Instead all pictures should be stored in /DCIM/Camera.
However I assume this is not possible.
Therefore I want to address this question: What's the technical reason for storing pictures in sub-directories?
THX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All my pictures i take with Google Camera are stored in: /DCIM/Camera/HERE
So, whats the problem?
bejunk said:
All my pictures i take with Google Camera are stored in: /DCIM/Camera/HERE
So, whats the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All my pictures I took yesterday are stored in /DCIM/Camera/IMG_20200329_<time>/, all pictures I take today are stored in /DCIM/Camera/IMG_202003230_<time>/.
Why is this?
Can I change setting to store all pictures in /DCIM/Camera/?
c.monty said:
All my pictures I took yesterday are stored in /DCIM/Camera/IMG_20200329_<time>/, all pictures I take today are stored in /DCIM/Camera/IMG_202003230_<time>/.
Why is this?
Can I change setting to store all pictures in /DCIM/Camera/?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are confusing file names with folders. All your pictures are stored in /DCIM/Camera. The "IMG_202003230_<time>" is the filename of the picture. Maybe just Open an file explorer and see yourself.
Anyway, see my attached picture. All your shots are in 1 folder.
At this point I don't even jnow if you are just trolling.
I can assure you: this is not a fake.
For your reference I have attached a screenshot that displays the content of /DCIM/Camera.
This should make it very clear:
There are only sub-directories in which the pictures taken are stored.
c.monty said:
I can assure you: this is not a fake.
For your reference I have attached a screenshot that displays the content of /DCIM/Camera.
This should make it very clear:
There are only sub-directories in which the pictures taken are stored.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, i see. But the reason those are stored in folder is because they are portrait shots. So google camera makes a folder and there it stores 1. portrait shot with background blur and 2. portrait without background blur.
I also mentioned it in one of my first answers. I mean there could be a better implematation, but i think this is ok. Theres no way storing both of these files in 1 file. This is good, because afterwards you can still decide if you want the background blur or not.
Just do normal snaps and they will be not in a folder. Just files.
Anyway, whats your trouble with this?
You can use Gcam Tool if you want the portrait photos to be moved in DCIM/Camera folder

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