Big changes just rolled out to Google Photos. The service, which has since 2015 offered free photo uploads, will now count every pic y'all upload confronting your Google account storage cap. You can save photos as original quality or "high," but they both take up infinite. Unless y'all've still got a showtime-gen Pixel. Google pledged to offering gratuitous photo backups for life on that phone, and it's holding to that. Here'south how yous can use the 2016 Pixel to proceed the free upload gravy railroad train running.

Step ane, of course, is to make sure you've got the necessary hardware. If yous've got a circa-2016 Pixel or Pixel XL hiding in your cupboard, great. If not, you can snag a used device for $100 or less around the internet. It'due south fine if the device has seen some wear and tear—it'll nevertheless upload photos just fine.

While the upload limits for other phones are changing, the unlimited upload guarantee remains in identify for the OG Pixels. So, any images you lot snap with that onetime just yet surprisingly capable camera will upload in original quality without eating into your storage. Simply you don't want to bear a v-year-erstwhile phone, correct? We simply need to movement photos from the phone on which they were taken over to the OG Pixel. When those pics upload, Google Photos treats them as if they were taken on the Pixel (i.e. they don't count against your cap).

Yous can move files manually between phones if you like needlessly tedious things, but setting up a folder sync utility means the Pixel can merely live in a drawer someplace. There are numerous means to sync files, merely I'k using an app called Resilio Sync. There'due south a similar app called FolderSync that lots of people use for similar tasks, merely I've found Resilio to exist faster and easier to set up. Y'all could as well configure and run an FTP server on your Pixel if y'all're the DIY sort.

You can connect your devices in Resilio by creating a share of the Camera folder on your non-Pixel, and and so scanning the resulting QR code on the Pixel. I like that the customer codes only work for a few days unless you increase that limit yourself, and you can restrict access to sure WiFi networks. The files will sync over to a new sub-directory on the Pixel when the phones can run into each other, but it defaults to selective sync. Plough that off, and all new files should automatically sync as they're taken. There are a ton of advanced options to further customize the app, too.

With folder synchronization gear up, yous can open up Google Photos on the Pixel, and information technology will ask if you lot want to sync the newly discovered binder. Confirm, and all those images volition become correct up to the deject for free. We've tested this with a fresh Google account and can confirm photos and videos taken on a Milky way S21 Ultra are uploading from the Pixel in original quality and taking upwardly nix space. It's possible Google will change its heed and kill this workaround, simply we can only speculate on that.

Honestly, it's a lot easier to just pay Google a few bucks for more storage, but this is the simplest way to leverage the Pixel loophole: new phone to erstwhile phone to cloud. Straight app-to-app connections are always at the mercy of Android'due south background app handling, which can be aggressive on some phones. The Pixel tin can search for a connectedness endlessly because information technology tin can remain plugged in. However, yous might take to give the app on your new phone a kick every now and then so it doesn't lose background admission. That's a small price to pay for unlimited photo storage.

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About The Writer

Ryan Whitwam (7186 Manufactures Published)

Ryan is a tech/science writer, skeptic, lover of all things electronic, and Android fan. In his spare time he reads golden-historic period sci-fi and sleeps, merely rarely at the same time. His wife tolerates him equally few would. He'southward the writer of a sci-fi novel chosen The Kleptomaniacal City, which is bachelor on Amazon and Google Play.

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