I broke my phone and don't know the password. I always use biometrics. I don't have access to the phone or the number for a code to be sent from Google any longer either. All I know is the email address of the Google account signed in on the phone. I really need to access my photos on that account. I don't have the phone anymore. I have to try on a device that the account was never on. I enter the email and repeatedly fail at guessing the password. I do remember the phone number though.

I wanted to do a factory reset. I made a backup of my device using "Setting" → "Accounts and backup" → "Google drive" → "Back up data" → "Back up now" → under "Photos and videos" I checked "Backup photos and videos from this device to your Google Account" checkbox. After one hour the backup completed. I did factory reset, chose to restore from backup and selected the backup file. Now everything got restored except the Gallery photos. Those photos appear in Google Photos. I have around 950 photos. How do I download all of them *at once*, so that they become available in my Gallery app?

I set up my phone to automatically back up WhatsApp media to Google Photos. Now I want to print one of my conversations as a book using a service like Zapptales . The problem is, that all media, that has already been backed up, is no longer available: > Sorry, this media file doesn't exist on your SD card. However, the photos and videos are all still available on Google Photos. Is there a way to restore certain or all WhatsApp media from there back to my device?

Currently, my camera folder is by default synced to my personal Google account. I would like to back up my WhatsApp Media folder to another account. However, Google Photos settings don't let it do so. They can be backed up to the same account. A method I found after searching is creating another User profile. I am using Redmi Note 10 Pro and have options to create a Second Space, but the crux is that the Second Space starts from no WiFi settings, no apps downloaded, and nothing is set up. Even when I try 'Move data' to move WhatsApp (for both the spaces), all it does is install a fresh WhatsApp. Moving the WhatsApp media folder to the Second Space might be an option. But it's not practical. 1. I want to continue using WhatsApp in the first space itself. So, I would have to transfer manually now and then. 2. The option for 'Move Data' in my device shows only app settings to move. There is no option to move files and folders. Moreover, I am not very sure that a Second Space can really solve this problem. Would backup from Second Space go on when I'm using the first space? I won't be able to spend a lot of time on Second Space, making the backup option yet ineffective. A solution to this problem would be greatly appreciated.

I'm nowhere near an Android dev, but I thought I'd fudged a solution by creating a Tasker routine to remove all .nomedia files within the user filesystem, via bash script. It didn't work as well as I thought it would. The only solution (hack) I can think of is to use Tasker to reset the inbuilt media scanner that Photos seems to work off of. Be interested as to how to include such a command as part of the Tasker routine I already have. I think this might be widely applcable to anyone who uses Google Photos to backup, for instance, WhatsApp pics, as the Sent folder is provided with one of these such .nomedia files, which I believe to be a big hole in the standard Android apparatus.

A couple of years ago I learned that I could use the Google Photos app right on my cheap Chinese Android phone to stabilize videos before uploading/sharing them. But as of the rollover of the calendar from Dec 31 2024 to Jan 1 2025 I can no longer do that. The app shows all my videos and photos on my phone's internal storage and microSD card right up until the fireworks on New Year's Eve, but shows nothing shot in 2025. All other apps show all my photos and videos. But they don't have video stabilization features. Does somebody know if there was a change to Google Photos timed for January 1st? Is anyone else seeing this?

I use Syncthing and restic to back up photos, so I don't need or want to use Google Backup. When I open Google Photos, it periodically prompts me to turn on backup. If I say "no", the prompt comes back after a few days. Is there any way to permanently decline Google Backup?

I am using a Samsung A33. I have backup turned on in Google Photos (V7.11) and it has duly created a backup of all my photos on Google Drive. I recently deleted a large number of unwanted photo files from my phone, but it seems that Photos does not sync with the backup by also removing them from Google Drive. Can someone tell me how I can make this happen, as these deleted files no longer need to be backed up? (NB, I did not delete the files using Google Photos, but rather by connecting my phone to my PC and deleting the files. Perhaps this was a mistake.)

It is a flaw in my opinion that Google Photos backup to Drive won't pick up items in folders with a .nomedia file in them. For example, WhatsApp sent images or videos. I've got a bash shell command to find and delete .nomedia files anywhere in my user-accessible part of the filesystem, of the form:

/ -name .nomedia -type f -delete

I've tried to set up a daily run job executing this command using Tasker, but I simply cannot get it to work.

I have connected an external SD card via a USB connector to my phone in order to have more space for recording video. However, Google Photos does not seem to recognize it - it does not show up in Device Folders, and I cannot figure out how to make it show up. In this [support thread](https://support.google.com/photos/thread/120725?msgid=121716) from last year it is stated that "if the device is running Android 6.0 and above then the external SD card may be merged into internal memory and in this case it will backup all of your photos including your SD card." I am running Android 9, and 9 > 6, so this should work. When I check if the SD card is merged with internal it is marked as "Portable storage," meaning that the SD card is set as external storage. However, it goes on to say that "you should have received a pop-up notification when the external SD card was detected. The notification gives you 2 options: Eject or Setup." The notification does not give me the option to "Setup", instead it only gives me the option to "Explore". That brings up some kind of file explorer from which I cannot find any options to merge storage. It goes in to say that you can "choose which folders on your phone to back up" by "Select Settings > Back up & sync. Touch "Choose folders to back up..." and select the folders you want to back up." But in the "Back up & sync" part of Google Photos, there is no "Choose folders to back up..." The closest I can see if "Back up device folders" which takes me to a list of already discovered folders, which does not include the SD card. How do I get Photos to recognize the external USB drive?

Between two dates of my choosing, I need to find out the total size occupied by all media (photos, videos, screenshots, etc.) in Google Photos. For example, I want to find out what is the total size of all media (photos, videos, screenshots, etc.) between 4 Jul 2024 and 2 Aug 2024.

I really like my Pixel 6 but this behavior I'm going to describe drives me to distraction. When I copy pictures to the phone from my digital camera, the apps such as Files and Photos refuse to acknowledge the changes for a very long time, like overnight. Here's an example: Screenshot showing 5 photos copied to the phone using Ghost Commander at 3:13 Screenshot showing that **10 minutes later**, Files still shows obsolete contents of the folder (pictures I deleted before I copied in the new ones) But it is not this way with every app! When I take a screenshot (as I did for this question) they show up immediately in Files. No waiting! The pictures will reliably show up in Files the next day. I thought that I could force a "refresh" by restarting the phone, but that does not always work (it has worked 2 out of 3 tries). It kind of looks like Google apps send a signal that "hey, there are new photos" that Ghost Commander doesn't. And the phone does some kind of system wide search overnight. I expected that you could "swipe to refresh" or something, but it seems not. Is there a reliable way to force Files and Photos to refresh their knowledge of what is in a folder?

My Canon camera sets MPF in its EXIF data on and if there is a way to stop it, I can not find it. This results in Google Photos saving the pictures in Original quality even though Storage Saver option is on - a known problem with Google Photos as discussed here . At home I copy the camera pictures to my Linux PC and run a script to remove the MPF setting from a whole directory of photos in one shot. This allows the pictures to be backed up to Google Photos in Storage Saver as desired. On travel, I back the camera photos up to my Pixel 6 phone using an OTG cable. I would like to have a way to remove the MPF setting similarly to what I do at home so that I could upload to Google Photos from my phone without blowing up my storage. I have tried the app *EXIF/XMP Tool* and it does successfully remove the MPF setting. But in this app, I must open each photo one at at time and do the operation. If you take hundreds of pictures in a day, this is not workable. I seek a "batch" solution. Is there a way on an Android phone to "batch modify" EXIF/MPF settings from many photos at once?

When I edit photos using Google Photos, the edited pics are stored in a folder DCIM/PhotosEditor. But the thumbnails for these pics that are displayed in other apps, such as Instagram and X-Plore and Files, show the old, unmodified versions. The new edited versions are displayed when I click on such a wrong thumbnail, but not before. I have a Samsung Galaxy S10e with Android 12. I have searched how to clear the thumbnail cache, but the instructions usually refer to a .thumbnails folder, which doesn't seem to exist on my system (showing hidden files is enabled of course.) How can I fix the thumbnails of my edited photos?

Album X is supposed to be a "best of" album. However, I keep on noticing very good photos that I previously missed, and am adding them to Album X in an ad-hoc manor. It would be better to add all photos not already in Album X to Album Y so that I can go through them again as a group and promote more to Album X as necessary. Is there a way to automate the process of adding the thousands of photos in Camera which are not already in Album X to Album Y? NB, as an alternative to automatically adding all photos to Album Y which are not already in Album X: Is there a way to view all the photos in Camera alongside some kind of identifier of whether they are also in Album X? Even that would make the sorting process much easier.

I know google photos is giving unlimited storage (for 16MP photos and 1020p videos). I have uploaded around 5000 photos and videos, but I cannot find the storage I have used.

Is there a way to mark that a local copy of an album should be preserved (on an android phone)? If not what is the easiest way to download the album locally? (3rd party tools?) Is there any other photo backing up service that does have this functionality?

You take 10 photos and only one is good. But in Google Photos, all 10 are automatically uploaded. I don't want to maintain two places: my phone and the Google Photos Cloud. How can I make it so that I only check Google Photos and the pictures or videos that I delete there are also automatically deleted from my smartphone (and without prompting)?

The storage on my Android 11 phone (Fairphone 3) was running out so I mounted a Lexar micro SD card to increase storage. I now realise this was a mistake but not knowing any better I formatted it as internal storage as that is essentially what I needed. Now any photos I take will not show up in Gallery, Photos or Drive and neither can I see them on the SD card - so they're essentially not being taken. Taking a picture within Whatsapp is possible but then impossible to send because the file format isn't "valid". (And when I manually eject the card, the camera won't work at all.) I've come as far as thinking I need to format the SD card to portable to fix this? Essentially I want to undo ever putting it in there, I'd rather take low storage. BUT while there are no major picture or document files on the card, I noticed the WhatsApp Databases and Backup files and I'm worried that formatting will wipe my WhatsApp account. It's also backing up to Drive but when I try and do a manual back-up without the SD card in (thinking I can then uninstal/reinstal Whatsapp and load the most recent Drive backup after formatting + losing the SD storage) it tells me "Backup skipped because internal storage not available". So could someone please confirm: - Do I need to FORMAT my SD card to fix the Photos issue? - Will I lose my WhatsApp chats if I format because it deletes the Databases? - If so, is the only way to save it to secure a Drive backup, format the SD card, then uninstal/reinstal WhatsApp and load the Drive backup? Thanks!! TL;DR how do I get out of an internal formatted SD storage situation without losing my WhatsApp history?

I take a lot of pictures of one person and this person always wants me to share them. Google Photos is really good at identifying these pictures and so I was wondering if there was a way that Google Photos could share these photos with them "in real time" i.e. some way that when I took a new photo of this person they would automatically be able to see it.