As photos and videos get sent to the frame, its a good idea to back up what you have on PhotoSpring to an external source. This will store photos for safe keeping and also allow you to share them as you desire. PhotoSpring has partnered with Google to provide backup storage of your photos and videos onto a Google Account.

Please keep the following in mind:

• Your photos will be stored using the Original Quality tier. This will count against your Google storage quota and if you exceed your quota photos will stop uploading.  To avoid this you may periodically make Google convert original quality photos to the free High Quality photos tier - which will recover the storage that is currently counting against your quota. This will not affect the quality of photos you backup from your frame. However any photos you already have on Google will be converted to High Quality (which might be lower than the current photo quality). Please note -photos backed up after June 2021 will be counted against your quota regardless of using High or Original quality per a change in Google policy. Photos backed up prior to June 2021 in High Quality are grandfathered in and don't count against your quota,
• Videos will be stored in up to 1080p and will count against your quota. 

Here's what Google says about the High Quality tier:

Setting up a connection with Google Photos

First, tap on the frame's Menu Button. The menu button can be found on the Photo Info Screen and the Playlist Screen. When you tap on the Menu Button a dropdown menu will appear. Tap on the Cloud Accounts menu item as shown below:

This will open up a the Manage Cloud Accounts page as shown below. To create a connection with Google Photos tap on the Add Account button as shown below:

The next screen gives you the option of syncing with Google Photos or backing up to Google Photos. Note: You can back or sync with Google Photos, but you cannot do both at the same time.

Tap the Backup button.

The next screen shows you what you can expect when backing up to Google Photos. After reading the synopsis tap on Next to continue.

Next, you will then be asked to log in to your Google account using another device like your computer or smartphone. You can either:

• Scan the QR code with your phone or
• From a browser go to photospring.com/gift and enter the 5 digit numerical code shown. Note - Do not use the 12345 code show in the example below. It's just an example.

After successfully logging into your Google Account you must further authorize PhotoSpring to view/write to your Google Photos library. Tap on Allow to authorize PhotoSpring to access your Google Photos Library:

Once you authorize PhotoSpring to view your Google Photos Library you should then see a popup appear kicking off the process of backup. You can tap Dismiss to get rid of this popup at any time.

Icon representing your Google account in the Cloud Account Management screen will appear and indicate it is backing up to your account.

Managing your Google Photos backup

You can manage the connection with your Google Photos account by going to the Cloud Account Management Screen.

To get there, first tap on the frame's Menu Button. This can be found in the upper right corner of either the Photo Info Screen or the Playlist Screen. When you tap on the Menu Button a dropdown menu will appear. Tap on the Cloud Accounts menu item as shown below:

This will open up an Accounts Management page as shown below. Select the account you want to manage:

The will take you to a screen that will allow you to manage the connection. 

There are three things you can do with your account as follows:

Pause and Resume Backup

You can prevent the frame from backing up to your Google Photos account by going into the Cloud Account Management Screen and switching the backup switch shown below from on to off.  No photos will be backed up when off. However when you flip the switch to on, any photos that have not been backed up will being to backup.

Forcing a Backup

The frame will periodically look for new photos/videos to backup to Google. If you want to force it to backup now, tap the Backup Now button.

Removing the Connection with Your Account

You can also delete the connection between your frame and your Google Photos Library. Disconnecting from Google will NOT remove the photos already backed up to Google. But it will prevent you from backing up more photos until you log in again.

Before disconnecting from Google the frame will ask you to confirm.  Note - even though you are disconnecting from Google, the photos already backed up will remain on Google. 

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