Back up your photos to Google Drive
To upload photos from an SD card, camera, or mobile device, you can save them to Google Drive instead of your Chromebook’s hard drive. This keeps your photos safe and easy to access across devices.
Connect to your Chromebook
All you’ll need is the SD card from your camera, or your mobile device and a USB cable. Start by signing in to your Chromebook, then do one of the following:
- Insert your SD card into the slot on your Chromebook.
- To back up photos from a mobile device, connect it to the Chromebook using a USB cable. (Note: A two-pin, "charge-only" USB cable won't work.)
Back up your photos
After you’ve connected your SD card or mobile device to your Chromebook, the Files app window will open.
- Click the Cloud Import icon
.
- Your Chromebook will automatically find photos that you haven’t saved to Google Drive. The first scan may take a while as your Chromebook searches for photos.
- In the window that appears, click Back up.
- After your Chromebook is done backing up, a confirmation message will appear.
- Click the link in the message to view the photos.
Find your photos
You can find your photos in a folder called “Chrome OS Cloud Backup” in Google Drive. You can also see these photos in Google Photos.
Photos added to Google Drive will be available for all Google Photos features, including Animations and Albums. Because these photos are added to Google Drive, they’ll use storage quota, unlike photos uploaded to Google Photos.
Casey is a Chromebook expert and author of this help page. Help her improve this article by leaving feedback below.