Back up photos & videos

You can automatically save your photos and videos to your Google Account when you turn on backup. You can access your saved photos and videos from any device you’re signed into, but only you can find them unless you choose to share them. You can back up photos and videos to only one Google Account at a time. Learn how to fix backup issues.

Important: It can take a while to complete a backup, depending on your internet connection, size of your uploads, and other conditions.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial.
4. Tap Photos settings Backup.
5. Turn Backup on or off.

Turn Backup on or off

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial.
4. The progress of your backup is measured by how many items remain to upload.
   • When your items finish backing up, your status reads "Backup complete."
   • If your backup status is off, your status reads "Backup is off."

Manually back up photos & videos

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Photos app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. Select with a long press the photos or videos you want to back up.
4. At the bottom, select Back up .

Tip: Learn more about the benefits of backup.

Check a photo or video's backup status

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Photos app .
2. Tap a photo or video.
3. Tap More .
4. Scroll to “Details.”
5. If the photo is backed up, the backup status and size displays beneath Backed up .
   • Tip: You can change the backup quality at any time. Learn how to choose the backup quality of your photos and videos.

Check a photo or video’s backup status from your Photos view

You can find a photo or video's backup status from your photos view. How you check an item's backup status depends on whether your backup is turned on or off.

If backup is on for at least one of the Google Accounts you’re logged into in Google Photos, you can check a photo’s backup status:

• Empty thumbnail: Item is backed up.
• Uploading : Item is in the process of being backed up.
• In Queue or Paused : Item isn’t currently backing up but it will eventually.
• Cloud slash : Item isn’t backed up, and backup isn’t pending.
• Permanent failure : Item permanently failed.

Tip: Items that were recently backed up only show Cloud check for 3 seconds. After that, the backed up photo shows an empty thumbnail.

Change your backup settings

Learn what happens when you back up your photos

If you have backup turned on:

• Never lose a memory: Any photos you take from a device with backup turned on are saved to your Google Account.

If you’ve backed up your content manually or automatically:

• Automatic sync: You can access any photos you take and any edits you make to them on any device you sign in to. If you edit and save a photo on your phone, the photo looks the same on Google Photos.
• Fast and powerful search: You can search your photos by the people in them when you turn on Face Groups. You can also search by places and things in the photos. No tagging is required.
• Automatic creations: With automatically created highlight videos, collages, animations, and panoramas, you can bring your photos to life.

Remove backed up photos & videos from Google Photos

1. On your Android device, in the Google Photos app, turn off backup.
   • Turn off backup on devices where you want the photo or video to stay.
2. On your computer or in your mobile browser, go to photos.google.com/login.
3. Delete your selected backed up photos and videos.
4. On your Android device, wait a few minutes and make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi.
5. Close and reopen the Google Photos app.
   • Deleted photos may still be in your Photos view. These photos are only local copies.
   • To check the backup status of the photo, tap the photo More Scroll to "Details."

To ensure that your photo or video isn't backed up to Google Photos again and your local copy isn't deleted, leave backup off.

Learn what happens when you delete photos & videos.