sync google photos / picasa web albums

[coloneljames]

what exactly does sync google photos mean? is is a two-way sync or only one-way web album ->phone?

i can select a photo in another folder and upload it to the web album, so i think it's an automated sync from web -> phone but am not certain. i've been lurking the google support pages but their documentation is not specific on this issue.

i've recently started using picasa web albums and just want a better understanding of how it works. thanks for your input.

 

[Small_law]

It got a little more complicated since Google+, but here's the gist. What you have uploaded to Picasa from your computer or other device should show up in the Gallery app once you sync up your photos (in settings under accounts--Google). Google recently made it so these albums are a part of Google+ as well, which can upload pictures you take with your phone via instant upload (you can turn it on in the Google+ app settings). It's a bit muddled from there. Picasa as we knew it is transitioning to be a full on part of Google+, but suffice to say what you have uPloaded to Picasa in the past will show up in the Gallery once you turn on sync photos.

 

[Android-KI]

I have been using Picasa Web Albums for a bit. If you download the Picasa software, you can upload (and sync) pictures from your computer to the Google server. You can also download the albums from the server to you computer as an "Album" so you will see the album on your local hard drive for viewing so you don't have to be on line.

You first have to tell Picasa where your photos reside on your computer. You can basically add any file folder (I don't remember the specific steps, but its fairly intuitive). Picasa will sync the photos in a particular folder on your computer to the specific web album of your choice. So if you have a file folder (call it folder "A") that houses photos you upload to Album "A" on the server, yo can have it set so anytime there is a change to folder A on your computer or Album A, it will do the same to the opposing folder. So if you delete a file from your computer, Picasa should delete the same file from the server and vice-versa. This is all predicated on the SYNC slide switch being in the "on" position. File attached.

 

[coloneljames]

appreciate the feedback. i haven't yet signed up for google+. does this mean there's some google+ account out there w/ my name and my photos from my phone?

 

[Small_law]

I don't think so. When it launched, I had to sign up for it. Not sure how it works now. Once you do sign up, if that didn't happen yet, it will pull in your albums from Picasa. The private ones will be private still, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

 

[rcpa]

appreciate the feedback. i haven't yet signed up for google+. does this mean there's some google+ account out there w/ my name and my photos from my phone?

You should sign up for Google+ even if you don't use it. As a Google+ member, you can upload an unlimited number of photos sized less than 2048x2048 and videos less than 15 minutes. When syncing photos from your phone or computer (unless you choose to change the settings), it will automatically resize the photos so their longest size is 2048. Photos from your Nexus will be resized to 2048x1536, which is approximately 3 megapixels and is still more than large enough for prints.

If you don't sign up for Google+, then any photos larger than 800x800 are counted against your storage allowance, which is 1 GB for the free account.

One thing to note, is that if you upload a whole bunch of photos on the free account, you will eventually hit a limit. It seems the limit exists to prevent spamming. For instance, I signed up two weeks ago and then started uploading a decade worth of photos. Around 11,000 photos, I hit a limit and the uploader started giving me an error. Since all of my photos were less than 2048x2048, I hadn't used any of my 1 GB allowance, yet I was still getting an exception in the uploader that implied some upload limit.

After some google searching, I found that other people who have had this problem solved it by signing up for the 25 GB upgrade. There was also a statement from google implying that it was protecting against spamming. As soon as I upgraded my storage, I was able to upload photos again, but have still not used any of my storage allowance since all my pictures are converted to 2048x1536. I figure that the credit card used to upgrade my allowance proved that I was a real user, not a spamming computer. I plan to cancel my upgrade and return back to the 1GB account since I'm not actually using any of the upgraded storage space.

 

[wraith404]

So we have Sync Google Photos, Sync Google +, and Sync Picasa Web Albums... For the sake of all that is holy (specifically meaning my battery life) do we need them all turned on? Which are redundant?

I think I'm turning them all off until I have a grip on this...

 

[Small_law]

So we have Sync Google Photos, Sync Google +, and Sync Picasa Web Albums... For the sake of all that is holy (specifically meaning my battery life) do we need them all turned on? Which are redundant?

I think I'm turning them all off until I have a grip on this...

Yeah, it's kind of odd Picasa and Google+ remain sorta of separate but kind of not. In the desktop Picasa app, it says you're uploading to Google+ now (look in the top right hand corner when your albums are syncing from the desktop Picasa application). I'm hoping that the delay in rolling out the new google plus app for android has to do with cleaning up the photo situation. iOS got an update last week and supposedly one is coming for android in the next few weeks.

 

[nintendo1889]

"sync google photos" means that it downloads your Google+ photos from your previous or other android phone(s).

 

[hgmichna]

Photos from your Nexus will be resized to 2048x1536, which is approximately 3 megapixels and is still more than large enough for prints.

Thanks for your otherwise very good information, but this remark needs a correction, even after months. Both printers and the human eye have a much higher resolution than that, unless you are talking about a passport photo.

I personally am not happy that Google modifies my photos. If they had asked me, I would not have permitted it.

If they wanted to protect viewers from downloading big image files, they could give them a reduced version along with offering the full version. That would be much wiser, but is apparently beyond the designer's horizon. If they are worrying about their storage space, they could allot a certain space and leave it to me how I use it. A perfect solution, giving everybody concerned exactly what he wants, but perfect solutions are rarely appreciated these days.

 

[asherrd]

3 megapixels is roughly the quality of a basic film camera photo around 4 inches by 6 inches. You can't see any loss of information in a photo that size unless you go looking for it. Now if you print 2048x1536 to a poster board, you will of course see many faults. But to say 2048x1536 isn't large enough for prints is silly.

 

[JenB2004]

Just stumbled across this website: Picasa Web Albums and Google+ - Picasa and Picasa Web Albums Help. I'm looking for the same answer as the original question posted b/c since I got my new phone, an LG Mach, which constantly drops out of my pocket b/c it's so heavy, my micro-SD card got busted and I lost all my photos again (says my "SD card is blank or has unsupported file system") I've never uploaded my photos from my phones (I previously had Samsung Epic) and this is the third time I'm losing entire galleries. I need to learn how to sync photos. I have "sync Google photos" checked in settings, but seeing in a reply it's only download, I think I've lost another gallery before I format the SD card again. Anyways, the website I stumbled across says, "When you sign up for Google+, you can see and share all of your Picasa Web albums in Google+" and "Google+ is the new home for your photos." I never originally signed up for a Google+ account either so I'm doing that now. I don't think one is created for you.

 

[android5511]

I'd suggest finding an alternative. I made the mistake of trying Picasa. The sync function is awful. I have one folder with sync enabled. It has 20 photos in it. When it syncs, it syncs 35 photos online. The 20 photos, plus 15 random videos from various places in Picasa. I've confirmed there's no other folders or files set to sync and refreshed and erased online albums and tried again. Same thing. Way, way, way more difficult than it needs to be. I'm looking for something else.

 

[bbyd0peyx]

Hi, I just restored my pictures in Google plus but the pictures won't sync to the gallery app no matter what I try. Do you mind explaining exactly what I should do? I already synced the pictures from Google plus pictures and picasa but it won't upload to gallery and weird thing is that of the pictures were saved on my sd card and those are gone too. Please help. Thank you

 

[nintendo1889]

Hi, I just restored my pictures in Google plus but the pictures won't sync to the gallery app no matter what I try. Do you mind explaining exactly what I should do? I already synced the pictures from Google plus pictures and picasa but it won't upload to gallery and weird thing is that of the pictures were saved on my sd card and those are gone too. Please help. Thank you

Unfortunately, I think they want google- minus to be the photo gallery now.

Sent from my LG Motion 4G using Tapatalk.

 

[nintendo1889]

Hi, I just restored my pictures in Google plus but the pictures won't sync to the gallery app no matter what I try. Do you mind explaining exactly what I should do? I already synced the pictures from Google plus pictures and picasa but it won't upload to gallery and weird thing is that of the pictures were saved on my sd card and those are gone too. Please help. Thank you

That's strange, another idea might be to use the Google plus gallery - it's just called Photos and has a colorful icon that looks like a paper/origami flower. It will display local photo folders and G+ synced photos.