Photos autosyncing to Google Drive, and I don't know why

drvier8

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Just noticed today that photos I take on my Droid Maxx (and photos I copy to the Pictures folder) are syncing to a Google Drive folder called Android Photos. If i delete the folder in GDrive, and take a picture, the folder gets added back and picture is there. Happens no matter what camera app I use. Google+ autobackup is turned off (and the pictures don't show up in Google+).

Where is this being controlled? I can't find the settings anywhere. It may be a great feature, but I'd like to know what app is doing it and if there is any control over it.

Anyone else?
 

eyet

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Go to Settings. Tap Google in the accounts section. Tap your Google email address. Uncheck whatever you don't want to sync.

In my experience these settings often change on their own after Google app updates.

Posted via Android Central App
 

drvier8

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Thanks. I tried that. On my Nexus 10, there is a Google Photo option in that checklist. On my Maxx, the option is not even there to uncheck. However, checked or uncheck, photos from the Nexus are not syncing to Google Drive. So it is something on the Maxx.

I have Google+ completely disabled on the Maxx, so it is not syncing through that.


This would actually be a cool feature if I could control it (turn it on/off, set the folder to sync to, etc.)
 

doogald

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Do you have any third party camera apps?

I believe that you can also go into your google account settings on a pc browser and see which devices and apps are authorized to access Google Drive. That may point you to a third party app.

I have a Maxx, I have photos on it, but I don't have a folder on Google Drive called Android photos, so I think your problem must be a third party app issue.

I'd start checking here: https://www.google.com/settings/security
 

drvier8

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Did a factory reset. Doesn't seem to be doing it now. Will watch to see if any app I install starts it up again.
 

doogald

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You can still check Google's account settings site to see which apps are authorized to access your account. The permissions don't go away until you revoke them, and will still be there after a factory reset (you'll likely see your phone listed more than once). If one of those apps looks suspiciously like a photo upload app, then you can look into it further.
 

drvier8

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I did check that and revoked just about everything before I did the reset. I had used Folder Sync in the past (uninstalled months ago) to sync to a different google drive folder. I had deactivated the folder pair but perhaps it left some vestige setting that was giving something permissions.

Thank you, I didn't know about that page (to see what apps had permission).
 

drvier8

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:eek: Ok... here's my mea culpa post.

I had an IFTTT recipe set up to sync. I installed IFTTT months ago, set up a few recipes, and quickly forgot about it...

I must say, as a backup photo system, it's a good one. Even if you delete the folder on Google Drive, it puts it right back on.
 

doogald

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By the way, I may start looking into using IFTTT for photo sync. I was using Dropbox auto-sync and didn't really look at what was happening, but I finally realized that Dropbox renames the photos to a date and time stamp. That kind of sucks, because I am using multiple devices to sync, one of which is my iPad, and was using the camera connector kit to grab photos from my cameras' SD cards to upload from the iPad, and it's completely screwed up my naming system.

At least on the iPad, Google+ photo sync does the same damned thing. There's no option to turn it off. (I haven't really looked into Maxx photos on G+ because, well, most of my Maxx photos kind of stink anyway.)

There's an app called Dropsync I'm using now on the Maxx that maintains the file name to Dropbox, but maybe IFTTT will be a better long-term solution? Thanks for mentioning it, as accidentally as your mention was...
 

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