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Google Photos Storage and Pixel Phones

1,025 147 May 24, 2021 at 11:55 AM
Since unlimited Google Photos storage is ending soon, I am thinking about what to do.

Past and present Pixel phones apparently still keep unlimited storage (at various levels of quality). The OG Pixel is the only one that will be able to keep original quality, though.

I have thought about getting a cheap/used Pixel, which will do all uploads to Google Photos. The photos/videos will be copied over from my other phones/cameras somehow. However, I saw a Google forum post saying that the photos/videos need to have been taken by the Pixel itself and must not be edited by other apps for the unlimited storage. Is this true? Official google page seems to only say the content need to be uploaded from a Pixel.

https://support.google.com/photos...=1#storage
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DeeDon
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Joined Aug 2005
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EyeBaller
05-24-2021 at 12:55 PM.
05-24-2021 at 12:55 PM.
Quote from DeeDon :
Since unlimited Google Photos storage is ending soon, I am thinking about what to do.

Past and present Pixel phones apparently still keep unlimited storage (at various levels of quality). The OG Pixel is the only one that will be able to keep original quality, though.

I have thought about getting a cheap/used Pixel, which will do all uploads to Google Photos. The photos/videos will be copied over from my other phones/cameras somehow. However, I saw a Google forum post saying that the photos/videos need to have been taken by the Pixel itself and must not be edited by other apps for the unlimited storage. Is this true?
I believe they check metadata so verify the image was taken on the pixel. I mean it's $20/year for 100gb. Which is a decent amount of storage, even the $100/yr for 2TB is pretty reasonable. I don't think it's worth the hassle of a workaround.
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dayv
05-25-2021 at 05:38 AM.
05-25-2021 at 05:38 AM.
if you have prime, amazon photo is unlimited storage in original quality. only caveat is that video count against the 5gb general cloud storage.
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DeeDon
05-25-2021 at 12:06 PM.
05-25-2021 at 12:06 PM.
Quote from dayv :
if you have prime, amazon photo is unlimited storage in original quality. only caveat is that video count against the 5gb general cloud storage.
Yes, I am aware of Amazon Prime, and I use it to store photos. My concern is really more about videos (I have a ton of home videos to back up and expect even more in the future). I also understand the Google One cost is not much per year....but the goal is to keep those back-ups in Google Photos for as long as possible, which means the total subscription cost will only keep growing over time. That's why I am pondering if spending money on a Pixel will be less costly in the long run.

Since I plan to get another phone anyway, my original post was really to help me decide whether to spend less on an older Pixel, or spend more on a newer Pixel model. For example, If copying photos/videos from other devices over to an OG Pixel XL is enough to get me unlimited storage, I will get that for storage and a Galaxy A71 5G for daily use, for example, since I am still not convinced the newer Pixels are worth the price they are selling for. However, if the copying method will not work for unlimited storage, I may compromise and get a used Pixel 4 XL instead, for example.
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Last edited by DeeDon May 25, 2021 at 12:18 PM.
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handyguy
05-25-2021 at 06:46 PM.
05-25-2021 at 06:46 PM.
There was a tech article somewhere that mentioned a sync app so you could do this. I can't find it.
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DeeDon
05-29-2021 at 11:53 AM.
05-29-2021 at 11:53 AM.
Quote from handyguy :
There was a tech article somewhere that mentioned a sync app so you could do this. I can't find it.
Yes, I saw a Reddit post about SyncThing, but I don't think I need anything that elaborate at the moment. But, what I like about using an OG Pixel for this is the ability to back up photos/videos in original quality (i.e., more than 16MP or 1080P). The risk, of course, is that it is a 5 year old phone, and could die sooner than I'd like. Although, I still have an 8 year old Samsung phone in the drawer that still runs (although very slow by today's standards).
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EyeBaller
06-04-2021 at 05:54 AM.
06-04-2021 at 05:54 AM.
https://www.androidpolice.com/202...ixel-free/

They seem to suggest it works..
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