Google has spoilt us with free online backups of our personal photos and videos on the Photos app. However, starting June 1, it is going to free us from the habit by capping the free storage. Users will continue to have 15GB of free space but the unlimited backup of photos in “High Quality” will now start counting towards it instead of being absolutely free. One needs to now pay once the storage is over.
And there’s the catch – one needs to pay only once the storage space has reached its limits. While avid mobile photographers will now need to add this to their monthly expenses, casual photographers like you and me can play it smart to keep using it for free. In fact, with a little storage management, you can continue to use Google Photos for free without paying the monthly fees.
Here are some tips and tricks to keep using Google Photos backup for free.
How to use Google Photos for free backup after June 1, 2021
As part of the updated terms and conditions, Google will stop offering unlimited backup of “High Quality” photos on its servers. Users will still be able to upload their photos on Google Photos for free as long as the storage indicator does not show 15GB.
And that’s the key – as long you don’t reach 15GB. Here are some tips to manage your storage better, unless you want to pay for more.
Turn off auto backup
This is the most crucial one. Photos by default takes a backup of all images on your device, including those “artsy” WhatsApp forwards. The best way to keep that in check is by switching off the auto-upload features. This way, you can head over to Google once a month and manually choose the photos you want to be backed up.
Keep only the important stuff
It is advised that you only backup the photos that are necessary. One can ignore WhatsApp memes, photo scans, and document scans, unless they are crucial. Additionally, you can delete duplicate photos.
Clear Gmail spam
Emails on Gmail may seem to take only a few Kilobytes of space but a collection of all those promotionals and OTP emails over a few months take up GBs of space. It is a healthy practice to sit on Gmail and clear out the junk. This can alone give an average of 2-3GB space extra, depending your email frequency.
Regularly maintain Google Drive
Similar to the Gmail, Google Drive files also consume a lot of space. Ideally, one should only store the essentials and keep everything else out of it. Large files can be downloaded on the device to keep it free, unless it is necessary.
Google Docs maintenance
If you use Google Docs to do write or store documents, you should clear the older ones in order to liberate more space. The same stands of Sheets, especially the ones with collaborations that are inactive.
