What is Google Photos Free Up Storage Space feature
Google Photos is probably the most feature-rich gallery app. But what really makes it a standout app from its competitors is its backup functionality. But this same functionality could be confusing for some. Indeed, there are many “ifs” and “buts” involved in the treatment. Additionally, if you have backed up photos, you will see a Free Up Storage dialog. Will using this feature permanently delete saved images from your device? Or is there a way to view them again? We will try to answer all of these and many more in this guide. Let’s start. Also see the guide to delete images from Google Photos, but not from the device.
What is the free storage feature of Google Photo?
Google Photos makes it easy to back up all the photos, videos and images stored on your device. This has many advantages, for starters. You can easily access these files from anywhere on any device, only the associated Google account is required. In addition, since these files are already stored on the cloud, you can easily delete them from your device, thus saving considerable storage space. But should you really do it? We will look at that in a moment.
As Google backs up all media files, its free storage function will come into play. It will show you how much storage space you could save by deleting these files from your device. In other words, it also indicates the size of the images and videos that have just been uploaded to the clouds.
Disadvantages of this feature
If you continue and use this function, all locally stored media files (for which the backup functionality has been activated) will be deleted from your device. But it also has certain drawbacks. For example, you couldn’t view these images and videos from other gallery apps, except Google Photos.
And even in the Photos app, you can view them when an Internet connection is active. So if you are offline there is virtually no way to access these media files from anywhere. At most, you can simply view thumbnails of these files, if they have been stored in your device’s cache.
And wait, there is one more thing worth discussing. Many of you may be using Free Up storage space with the high quality backup option rather than the original quality (as it offers unlimited storage). Well, if that’s the case, you will only be able to see the slightly compressed version of the images. Indeed, the original quality images will already be deleted via the Photos free storage space feature. And those on which you could act will be present on the clouds in a compressed format.
How to access images stored on the clouds
You can download any image and video stored on the cloud at any time and on any device. Even without download, you can view all these images directly from Google Photos as well as. But how is this possible, since the images have been deleted from our device? Well, these are not the original images but rather a cached copy. To download them, tap the overflow icon and select the Save to device option.
Free Photos Storage Functionality: Round
If you’re not worried about storage, it’s best to manually delete photos rather than using the Free up photo storage feature. In this way, you can only delete images and videos deemed unimportant to you while keeping the original in all its splendor. To do this, open the desired photo, press the overflow icon and select “Delete from device”.
What is your opinion on that? Are you going to continue using the free Photos storage feature because it automatically does the work for you? Let us know your opinions on this, in the comments section below.