Launched at the Google I/O 2015 event, Google Photos is a hassle-free way to automatically sync and back up photos and videos from your phone onto the cloud. Now the Nashville Business Journal editor David Arnott has discovered that the Photos app keeps uploading your photos to the cloud even when you have uninstalled the app.
How to switch off Google Photos backup sync feature
Arnott found that hundreds of images taken with his Android phone were uploaded online after he had deleted the app five weeks earlier. So what’s happening here? Well, users might think that deleting an app is the same thing as switching off or opting out of a service. Most apps and services are quite easy to sign up and use. But opting out of a service is not equally easy, at least not in this case.
It means deleting the Google Photos app is not the same thing as turning off the Photos backup sync feature. So uninstalling the app will not stop Google from uploading and saving your smartphone’s photos in the cloud. If you want to turn off the Photos backup syncing feature on your Android device, go to Google Settings, select Google Photos backup and switch it off.
Google working to fix the issue
When Arnott contacted Google about the issue, the Internet giant said the “backup was as intended.” Users must turn off syncing in the settings in Google Play Services, reports TechCrunch. When the Photos app was migrated out of Google Plus, its settings were “centralized” with the smartphone’s settings app. What happened to David Arnott could happen to anyone.
A Google spokeswoman told TechCrunch that some users have deleted the Photos app without realizing that backup as a service on their device is still enabled. The search engine giant said it was working to give users an easy way to disable the backup when they uninstall the Photos app.
Google Photos app automatically categorizes your photos and videos based on time, location, and people in the images. It lets you quickly search through a plethora of images and videos with a Google Search bar.
