Google won’t sync images between Drive and Photos anymore

Whether this will be a real nuisance for you (or not) will mostly depend on your dedication to the Google ecosystem. Google has decided to change the way Photos and Drive work together because apparently its users are confused by the platforms and their functions. But are they really?

Drive and Photos currently share your videos and photos between each other via syncing. If you upload an image to Photos, it’ll automatically sync to Drive. If you delete or edit an image in either, it’ll update on the other platform. From 10 July, when you upload files to Drive or Photos, they won’t automatically sync to the other service. Likewise, when you delete a photo or video from Drive, it won’t be removed from Photos and vice versa.

Pick your pics

Now if you are at least mildly invested in the Google ecosystem, you’ll be annoyed by this update. It’s one of the features we use to access files from different devices seamlessly. Google seems to have a different idea about what its users want.  This change is designed to help prevent accidental deletion of items across products. “This change is designed to help prevent accidental deletion of items across products,” Google says in a blog post. See? We totally called it. 

Google continues by explaining that you’ll be able to import files from Drive into Photos using the ‘Upload from Drive’ option. However, there doesn’t seem to be a similar way to move files in the opposite direction.

“Since photos and videos will no longer sync across both products, items copied in Original Quality will count towards your storage quota in both Drive and Photos.” So, you’ll take up duplicate storage space if you decide to use both platforms to store the same images (in standard quality). Uploads in high quality won’t count towards your account storage quota, as has been the case to date.

It’s an odd move from Google, but it does make sense if the company is trying to keep the services separate. The changes will roll out from 10 July, so better get your cloud-affairs in order before then.

Source: Google Blog