I know it's discontinued, but the reason I ask is because people all over the Internet are saying it auto backups photos without permission, can someone explain what it does on an android and whether it does things without permission? A picasa app came pre installed on my phone. Can someone explain what it does?
Welcome to Android Central! Which phone do you have?
Picasa was acquired by Google a long time ago and essentially converted to Google Photos. The name Picasa still lingers on some phones, though -- it's primarily seen in the stock Gallery app (not the Google Photos app), and represents photos in your Google Photos cloud albums (which previously would've been called Picasaweb).
The phone won't backup your photos without your permission. You can turn on or off the auto backup in the Google Photos settings: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en
If you don't want to see the photos in your stock Gallery app, you can turn off the sync for those photos. Go to Settings>Accounts, select your Samsung account (since this is usually on Samsung phones), and uncheck Gallery or Picasa. But keep in mind that these photos don't take up any significant space on your local storage, since they're in the cloud. The phone will probably store a thumbnail of the photos, which does take up a very small amount of storage (but if you have thousands of thumbnails stored, that can add up).
Picasa was acquired by Google a long time ago and essentially converted to Google Photos. The name Picasa still lingers on some phones, though -- it's primarily seen in the stock Gallery app (not the Google Photos app), and represents photos in your Google Photos cloud albums (which previously would've been called Picasaweb).
The phone won't backup your photos without your permission. You can turn on or off the auto backup in the Google Photos settings: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en
If you don't want to see the photos in your stock Gallery app, you can turn off the sync for those photos. Go to Settings>Accounts, select your Samsung account (since this is usually on Samsung phones), and uncheck Gallery or Picasa. But keep in mind that these photos don't take up any significant space on your local storage, since they're in the cloud. The phone will probably store a thumbnail of the photos, which does take up a very small amount of storage (but if you have thousands of thumbnails stored, that can add up).
ManiacJoe
Trusted Member
Google+ is a social media app and account. It has nothing to do with Google Photos.
Google Photos is attached to your Google account, which is normally associated with your GMail email address.
Google Photos may be pre-installed on your phone. If not, you can download it if you desire. Either way, you will need to go into the settings and turn on any uploads to the Cloud.
Google Photos is attached to your Google account, which is normally associated with your GMail email address.
Google Photos may be pre-installed on your phone. If not, you can download it if you desire. Either way, you will need to go into the settings and turn on any uploads to the Cloud.
What about when it was Google plus photos? What did Picasa have to do with that? if I didn't have a Google Plus account am I correct in saying the Picasa Web Album auto backups wouldn't be there?
Also, thank you for explaining the current Google Photos, I didn't understand that either xD
Also, thank you for explaining the current Google Photos, I didn't understand that either xD
Google Photos used to be intertwined with Google+, but they separated them a couple of years ago or so.
If you have a Google account, I believe you automatically have a Google+ account. But if you never used the app, then I don't think it would have automatically backed up photos for you. Since your phone has something called Picasa, it's possible that the phone came with some native way of syncing your photos with Picasa (and therefore Google Photos), but that's hard for me to tell without actually looking through your phone.
Are there photos in your Google Photos cloud library that you know were uploaded from your phone without your permission? If you never uploaded anything, then there shouldn't be any photos visible when you go to photos.google.com on your desktop browser.
If you have a Google account, I believe you automatically have a Google+ account. But if you never used the app, then I don't think it would have automatically backed up photos for you. Since your phone has something called Picasa, it's possible that the phone came with some native way of syncing your photos with Picasa (and therefore Google Photos), but that's hard for me to tell without actually looking through your phone.
Are there photos in your Google Photos cloud library that you know were uploaded from your phone without your permission? If you never uploaded anything, then there shouldn't be any photos visible when you go to photos.google.com on your desktop browser.
Aha, I found out it just gives me the option to share photos from the album to Picasa from the album app, so when I click share, Picasa is an option.
The reason I ask anyway is because my old email is completely lost from the phone and so I'm just making sure that no photos were uploaded from any picasa syncs or anything else like that in the past. I never opened Google plus either so that shouldn't do any auto backup. So unfortunately I can't go to my Google photos cloud library as I don't know the email but I'm GUESSING without opening any apps, nothing would be backed up? Is that correct?
The reason I ask anyway is because my old email is completely lost from the phone and so I'm just making sure that no photos were uploaded from any picasa syncs or anything else like that in the past. I never opened Google plus either so that shouldn't do any auto backup. So unfortunately I can't go to my Google photos cloud library as I don't know the email but I'm GUESSING without opening any apps, nothing would be backed up? Is that correct?
You're correct -- photos in a different Google account's cloud photo library would not sync with the phone if that Google account isn't also synced with the phone.
Last question, I promise. This has been so helpful. Shifting onto the new Google Photos, if I opened that, whilst logged into my email address, would it immediately bombard me with a question of whether I wanted to auto backup? Or is that completely up to me to go into settings and do it manually. Thanks a bunch for all the help!
You will probably see a tip suggesting to set it up when you first open the Google Photos app, but you can easily ignore or dismiss that, and then set up backup at your own leisure.
Glad I could help! A few other tips about Google Photos:
1. The main Photos screen for the app will show you all of your photos, both in the cloud and on your phone.
2. If you tap the Menu button and then Device Folders, this will limit the display to locally saved photos (and break it down into the separate directories that they're stored in).
3. If you want to remove a photo from the cloud and from everywhere else, go to the main Photos screen, select the photo, and tap the garbage can icon.
4. If you only want to remove the photo from local storage (and keep it in the cloud), select the photo, tap the Menu button, and then Delete Device Copy.
5. You can also do a mass deletion of locally saved photos that have already been backed up to your Google Photos cloud. Tap the Menu button, then Free Up Space.
6. If you moved a photo to the Trash and want it back, tap Menu>Trash, select the photo (if it's still there), then Restore it. (This can't be done for device copies that were deleted, though.)
1. The main Photos screen for the app will show you all of your photos, both in the cloud and on your phone.
2. If you tap the Menu button and then Device Folders, this will limit the display to locally saved photos (and break it down into the separate directories that they're stored in).
3. If you want to remove a photo from the cloud and from everywhere else, go to the main Photos screen, select the photo, and tap the garbage can icon.
4. If you only want to remove the photo from local storage (and keep it in the cloud), select the photo, tap the Menu button, and then Delete Device Copy.
5. You can also do a mass deletion of locally saved photos that have already been backed up to your Google Photos cloud. Tap the Menu button, then Free Up Space.
6. If you moved a photo to the Trash and want it back, tap Menu>Trash, select the photo (if it's still there), then Restore it. (This can't be done for device copies that were deleted, though.)
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Question
Trending Posts
-
[Chatter] "Where everybody knows your name ..."
- Started by zero neck
- Replies: 53K
-
Question Verizon unlocked, international dual sim
- Started by Michael Palyszeski
- Replies: 2
-
-
-
S24 pictures... show us how they look!- Started by Walter Wagenleithner
- Replies: 388
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram