{"id":142610,"date":"2019-06-20T17:26:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=142610"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:47:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:47:01","slug":"google-drive-photos-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-drive-photos-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Google is changing how you move photos from Google Drive to Google Photos: This is all you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google Drive, and its composite parts like Docs and Sheets, has revolutionized office teamwork. Google Photos has made it easier than ever before to back up your photos.&nbsp;These two programs have always been interchangeable, with photos in Drive showing in Google Photos and vice versa. This is all about to change, however.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-142612\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/05\/move_photos_from_Google_Drive_to_Google_Photos_ygu8vb.jpg\" alt=\"sync between Google Photos and Google Drive\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.google\/products\/photos\/simplifying-google-photos-and-google-drive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google has announced<\/a> that both apps will no longer automatically sync with each other. Now you have to <strong>move photos from Google Drive to Google Photos<\/strong>&nbsp;yourself.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s have a look in greater detail at what this means.<\/p>\n<h3>Why is Google changing the relationship between Drive and Photos?<\/h3>\n<p>Google is saying that user feedback is the main reason it is making the change. Apparently, users have said that the link between the two services is confusing, so it is moving to simplify the relationship between Drive and Photos.<\/p>\n<h3>What does the change mean?<\/h3>\n<p>Starting in July, new photos and videos added to Google Photos will not show up automatically in Google Drive and new Drive photos and videos will not show up automatically in Google Photos.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of auto-syncing between the two apps, Google is introducing a new feature to Google Photos called <strong>\u201cUpload from Drive,\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;which will give users the chance to select photos from their Google Drive to be added to their Google Photos collection. Google has also pointed out that this will include \u201cShared with Me\u201d photos.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-related-articles-white\">\r\n<p class=\"sc-related-articles-white__title\">More from Softonic<\/p>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"The best ways to collaborate in Google Docs \u25ba\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/the-best-ways-to-collaborate-in-google-docs\/\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/09\/google-docs-192.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__text\">\r\n        <p>The best ways to collaborate in Google Docs \u25ba<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"How to create an easy budget in Google Sheets \u25ba\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/how-to-create-an-easy-budget-in-google-spreadsheets\/\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/google-sheets-192.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__text\">\r\n        <p>How to create an easy budget in Google Sheets \u25ba<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"Tips and tricks for writing a novel in Google Docs \u25ba\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/tips-and-tricks-for-writing-a-novel-in-google-drive\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/12\/woman-worker-writer-192.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__text\">\r\n        <p>Tips and tricks for writing a novel in Google Docs \u25ba<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"Things you didn\u2019t know you could do with Google Drive \u25ba\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-with-google-drive\/\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/google-drive-192.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__text\">\r\n        <p>Things you didn\u2019t know you could do with Google Drive \u25ba<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The big thing you need to note about this change is that as these photos won\u2019t automatically sync with your Google Photos account, <strong>they\u2019ll count towards your storage quotas on BOTH apps if you choose to sync them.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>What about photos and videos already synced?<\/h3>\n<p>Google has pointed out that all photos and videos synced before this change is implemented will remain so. Your Drive photos will stay in Google Photos and if you have a \u201cGoogle Photos\u201d folder in Drive, it will stay there but won\u2019t update automatically.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-142613 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/Google-Drive-Photos-folder.jpg\" alt=\"Photos folder in Google Drive\" width=\"700\" height=\"483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/Google-Drive-Photos-folder.jpg 700w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/Google-Drive-Photos-folder-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Has anything stayed the same?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, Backup and Sync for Windows and Mac will work the same as it always has and if used to upload photos to both services in Original Quality, the space will only count once towards your storage quota.<\/p>\n<p>Google claims confusion is behind the big change. This makes some sense when you consider Photos as a chronological feed showing all the pictures you\u2019ve taken using your smartphone camera or uploaded manually. Any photos automatically added through synchronization with Drive could cause confusion. Now, however, users will know when Drive photos will have been added to Photos as they\u2019ll have imported them themselves.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-starred-link\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-starred-link__img\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/image\/upload\/v1557775679\/editorial\/google_photos.webp\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-title\">\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-starred-link__title\">Guide to Google Photos<\/p>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__button\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/your-guide-to-google-photos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\">Read Now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/your-guide-to-google-photos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everything you need to know about the new relationship between Google Drive and Google Photos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":142614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2560,1068,1046,1064,1039],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-142610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectiongoogle-drive","tag-google","tag-google-drive","tag-google-photos","tag-multimedia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325833,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142610\/revisions\/325833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142610"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=142610"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=142610"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=142610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}