For years, Google Photos offered unlimited cloud storage for your memories, but that era ended in June 2021. Since then, free users have been limited to just 15 GB shared across Google Photos, Drive and Gmail. However, there’s a clever workaround that lets you keep uploading your photos and videos without paying for extra space—and it’s completely legal and surprisingly simple.
How to unlock more Google Photos storage with linked accounts
The trick lies in linking multiple Google accounts and using the shared library feature. By creating a secondary Google account, you can upload photos and videos into that account’s storage. Then, from your main account, you access this content through the shared library tool.
To do this, go to Google Photos settings, click on Shared and then on Partner sharing. Choose your main account as the collaborator, and once linked, anything uploaded from your secondary account will be visible on your primary one. This process doesn’t consume the storage of your main account, giving you an extra 15 GB per linked profile.
Even though this method doesn’t technically bring back unlimited storage, you can repeat the process with as many new accounts as you like. Each brings 15 GB more that you can dedicate solely to photo and video backups. And yes, you can manage all your memories from one single Google Photos app.
Other free and unlimited cloud alternatives
If this trick isn’t ideal, consider Amazon Photos. With a Prime subscription, you get unlimited photo storage and 5 GB for videos. Another option is O2 or Movistar Cloud, which includes generous storage for customers of certain mobile or internet plans.