How to Never Lose Photos in Android

Photos are everywhere, taken every time and shared all the time. They are an integral part of our lives now. Just around a few years ago, good camera in mobile phones were rare. Photos take with phones did not always turn out that great. They were good for that viewing in that phone only.

Now the scenario has changed with more Mega Pixels and refining technologies added to cameras in phones. They work just as well like a decent digital camera now. The photos come out awesome and we carry with ourselves this device all the time. That means more photos are taken every other day.

The problem with digital photos and files is that it is very easy to lose them. Whether it is electronic failures like storage units being corrupt, whether it is accidentally deleting or whether it is by losing our phones; photos are quite easy to lose. We lose those photos, never to see them again.

But this can be made a problem of the past as we have advanced technologies like cloud storage and automatic backups. Normally, we don’t even have to lift a finger to perform backups of our files and specially photos anymore. This feature is on every Android device.

The feature that I am talking about is none other than Google Photos Backup feature available on Android devices. Remember the first time you used your phone, you had to login or create a Google account. That account is coming to great use now.

To check whether you have this automatic backup option turned on or off, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down to Accounts and click on Google.
3. Click on your Google account.
4. Scroll down to Google Photos.
5. See whether the option is checked off or on.

* If the option is checked, then you have automatic backup of your photos activated and if the option is turned off, you have automatic backup of your photos deactivated. Click to suit your needs.

But there is one problem with this option turned on. Your photos from your Picasa, Blogspot or other accounts will also be cached to your gallery. That means your phone will display those online photos in your gallery. Your gallery will be populated with photos that you have long forgotten about. If you don’t want that you should follow the steps described in this other post.

There is, however, another method to backup your photos to Google servers without getting your gallery filled with photos from your past. The option is using the app Google+ Photos which is an extention of the app Google+. Download the Google+ app if you have not and this app comes with it. You will find it in your app drawer.

To backup photos via Google+ Photos app follow these steps:

1. Open the Google+ Photos app from your app drawer.
2. Click on the option menu (three vertical dots or dashes).
3. Click on Settings.
4. Click on Auto Backup.
5. Turn the option to On.

* You will also be able to customize different options like photo sizes to backup, backing up photos via Wi-Fi only, backing up while charging only and so on.

This way, your photos will be backed up to your Google+ photos. Don’t worry, they are always set to private unless you decide to share them manually every time. They will always be there and Google just seems to provide enough storage to last you forever. If you want, it is also easier to share your photos to Google+ this way. You even get push notifications when your phone is done uploading.

An Alternative Method

If you do not prefer backing up your photos to Google Photos or Google+ Photos for whatever reason, there are other ways. The other good way is by using the official app for Dropbox. If you do not know then Dropbox is a very popular cloud storage service that provides backup and online storage solutions for your files.

1. To backup photos via Dropbox:
2. Download the Dropbox app.
3. Log in using your username and password.
4. Click on options of the Dropbox app (three vertical dots or dashes).
5. Under the heading “Camera Upload”, click on “Turn on Camera Upload” to enable automatic backup of your photos. In this you can also configure to use Wi-Fi only to backup so that you do not run out of mobile data.

This is about it, Google Photos/Google+ Photos or Dropbox are two very reliable services that you can use to backup your photos. You will never lose your photos, ever. You will even be able to delete old photos from your phone to free up some space. Be satisfied that your photos will always be safe in reliable online servers no matter what you do to the photos in your phone’s gallery. Of course, you can delete those if you do not need them. You can even use both services if you want backup of your backup.