A yellow photo folder beside a blue laptop, with an arrow pointing toward a cloud holding a matching photo.

Google Photos Stopped Backing Up Your Computer Folder. Here’s How the New Backup Actually Works

by
A blue email inbox packed with envelopes beside a separate message marked RETURNED.

Google Drive can still be running on your computer while your newest pictures go nowhere near Google Photos. If your folder backup stopped around August 2026, check what changed before you try to reinstall anything.

Google ended Google Photos backup through Drive for desktop on August 10, 2026. Photos already backed up stay in Google Photos. To keep new ones coming, you need to select your folders again in Google Photos.

Google had stopped letting you add new Photos backup folders in Drive for desktop on June 15. Google’s notice gives both dates.

The new setup can back up new pictures on its own, as long as you keep Google Photos running. Check a new picture to make sure it works. Your old photos being there doesn’t prove that new ones are arriving.

Select the folder again in Google Photos

Use an up-to-date Chrome or Edge. Folder backup needs a browser built on Chromium, the software these two browsers share. Follow Google’s computer backup steps:

  1. Open photos.google.com in the account you want to use.
  2. Choose Create and add photos (the upper-right plus button).
  3. Choose Back up folders under Add photos.
  4. Select your folder; grant Allow or Allow on every visit.

Choose the folder where you put new pictures. An old import folder and the folder you use today may have much the same name. Look inside it before you pick it.

Mac users: This feature doesn’t support Apple Photos Library. Google suggests its iPhone or iPad app instead, but that only helps with pictures also on that phone or tablet.

For photos stored only in Apple Photos on your Mac, a documented workaround is to export files to a normal folder first:

  • To keep the way a picture looks with your edits, select it in Apple Photos and choose File → Export → Export [number] Photos. Choose JPEG, click Export, and pick a folder to save it in.
  • To save the file as it was first imported, without your edits, choose File → Export → Export Unmodified Original instead. Apple’s export guide explains both choices.

Select that saved folder in Google Photos using the steps above. New pictures added to Apple Photos need another export; Google watches the exported folder, not the Apple Photos Library. This copies photo files, so keep a separate library backup for albums and edit history.

Yes, Google Photos has to stay running

Keep the Photos tab open or the Photos web app running. Google explicitly requires this for automatic backup.

You don’t have to pick every new photo by hand. But leaving Drive for desktop running won’t do the job.

Android Authority reported on this change in May, including the need to keep the Photos tab or web app open.

If you tend to close browser tabs, you may prefer the Photos web app. In Chrome, visit Photos and open the browser’s three-dot menu. Choose Cast, save, and share → Install page as app….

Some sites also show an install button in the address bar. Chrome’s web-app guide explains how to turn on Launch at startup through chrome://apps.

An installed app isn’t proof that backup is running. After a restart, open Photos and check a new file again. This setup needs more care than the old one if you expect uploads to happen without a thought.

Prove it with a picture that wasn’t there before

An old trip photo proves that an earlier upload worked. It tells you nothing about the folder you just chose.

Put one new JPEG you can spot at a glance into the folder—a normal-size photo, not a tiny crop or icon. Choose a picture that hasn’t reached Google Photos through your phone. Google says items must be larger than 256 × 256 pixels.

Keep Photos running and give it time to upload. A large folder may take a while; there’s no fixed wait that proves it has failed.

Find that picture at photos.google.com. Open it, click Info at the upper right, and check Backed up for its status and size.

File upload may show where it came from. If that field is missing, that alone doesn’t mean backup failed. Google explains both checks.

Google’s help page for phone backup also makes a useful point: photos you see on the website have been backed up. Seeing a picture only in your phone’s photo app isn’t the same check.

Try a new picture after your next computer restart, too. One file proves the setup can work; it doesn’t check your whole library. Before you delete source files, check older batches too and keep another copy of photos you couldn’t replace.

What about everything already in the folder?

You don’t need to empty a previously backed-up folder before selecting it. Nor should you delete your Google Photos library to give the new uploader a clean start.

Google checks the folder, skips files already backed up that haven’t changed, and uploads new ones. Files you later edited or deleted can upload too. Its folder-backup help lists those exceptions.

Here’s what that means when you check your pictures:

  • A new picture is a useful test. Pick one that’s new to this account.
  • A photo already backed up that hasn’t changed may be the copy that was there all along. Finding it doesn’t prove the new setup uploaded anything.
  • An edited picture may upload again. Google doesn’t spell out what happens to each version, so don’t assume the new one will replace the old one.
  • A photo you deleted before may come back when you select a folder that still holds it. Google lists deleted files as an exception, but doesn’t spell out which copy was deleted or when.

“Duplicate” can mean two copies of one file, or pictures that look almost alike after a crop or export. Google’s rule for skipping files isn’t a promise to spot every near-match.

Don’t use deletion to fix the switch. If you remove a source file before you check its upload, you have less to fall back on if backup failed.

Deleting through Google Photos can also remove the photo from phones and tablets with Photos installed and backup on. Read Google’s deletion help before you use the trash button to clear out extra copies.

And if the source file is still in a backed-up folder, Google’s wording leaves open that a copy deleted in Photos could upload again. That’s a gap in the help text, not a tested account of what will happen.

If “Back up folders” is missing—or nothing arrives

Nothing seems to be happening: Look at the top of your library at photos.google.com. With backup on and enough storage, Google shows Preparing backup, Backing up photos, Backup complete, or Backup paused. Click the status for more detail, then check your new test picture as shown above.

No folder-backup option, or “Browser not supported”: Update Chrome or Edge and try there. That’s Google’s advice. Being able to browse your pictures doesn’t mean your browser can back up folders.

The folder is selected, but your test picture is missing: Check that you’re in the right account and chose the right folder. Make sure Photos still has access to that folder and is running. Test one new file before you keep adding your whole library.

Some files arrive and others don’t: Check the file type and size against Google’s computer upload limits. Photos can be up to 200 MB or 200 megapixels; videos can be up to 10 GB. Items must be larger than 256 × 256 pixels, so tiny crops and icons aren’t good test files.

Check free space in your Google Account as well. Photos, Drive and Gmail share that storage.

You need a particular picture uploaded while troubleshooting: Use Import photos from the plus menu. Treat that as a one-time upload, then retest automatic backup separately.

Drive for desktop still syncs files to Drive, but a Drive copy isn’t a Google Photos copy.

One of Google’s help pages points to adding photos from Drive into Photos to keep backups going. That’s a manual choice of files you repeat when you want to add more. It doesn’t set up a folder for Photos to watch.

That extra Photos copy also counts toward storage. Later changes in either service stay within that service.

After you add a batch, check a new picture on the website. The old app icon can’t tell you whether today’s photos reached the right account. A new photo marked as backed up can.

Does your test photo show up, or does Photos get stuck at one of the backup steps?

Sources

Leave a Comment