Cloud or online storage is now becoming a trend when it comes to creating backup files from mobile devices. One of the widely used cloud storage is iCloud and Google Drive. This post will walk you through the steps of using Google Drive to upload photos from an iPhone. It’s by far one of the best alternatives to iCloud.
Storing your iPhone backup to Google Drive will let you easily retrieve critical data and restore them to your iOS device. Read on to learn how to get started in using Google Drive for storing your iPhone photos.
Manually uploading photos from iPhone to Google Drive
You may opt to upload photos manually or automatically from your iPhone to Google Drive. Manually uploading denotes the need for you to back up individual photos from your iOS device when needed. Automatic uploading of photos also means syncing your iPhone photos to your Google Drive account so any new changes made to your device photos are automatically saved on Google Drive.
To manually upload photos to Google Drive on an iPhone, simply follow these steps:
- To get started, download and install Google Drive app on your iPhone by going to the App Store.
- Then launch the app and log into your Google account. Launching Google Drive is done by tapping on the Drive icon from the iPhone home screen. Then a list of folders will then appear.
- Tap to select the folder you want to use. Alternatively, tap the Plus (+) icon located at the bottom-right corner and then create a new folder where you can store your photos.
- Next, tap the blue-and-white (+) button on the screen.
- Select Upload from the given options. Doing so will let you upload files from your iPhone to Drive.
- When prompted, choose the file type you want to upload. In this case, select Photos and Videos to open our photo albums where you can select image files to upload.
- If you haven’t uploaded photos from your iPhone before, you will be asked to allow the Drive app to access your photos. To continue, simply tap the OK button.
- Select a photo album to open from your iPhone like Camera Rolls, Recently Added, Selfies, etc.
- Tap to select all the pictures you want to upload. When the picture is selected, it will be marked with a blue check.
When you’re done selecting photos, tap the Upload button on the top-right edge of the screen. Doing so will instigate uploading of all the selected images to Google Drive.
Automatically uploading photos to Google Drive from an iPhone
If you want your photos to be automatically added to Google Drive, then you can use the back up and sync service of Google Drive. Using this service allows you photos and videos to be saved to your Google Photos library, privately unless you share them. Any changes you make to your photos or videos will also be mirrored on every synced device. This means that when you edit or save a photo on your iPhone, the recent changes will also look the same on your Google Photos library. To enable and use back up and sync on your iPhone, simply follow these steps:
- Launch the Google Photos app on your iPhone. If you haven’t installed the app yet, then do so by heading to the App Store and then download Google Photos app for iOS.
- Then sign into your Google Account.
- Next, tap the Menu icon at the top. The icon is represented by three horizontal lines.
- Choose Settings from the menu options.
- Then tap Back up & sync.
- Toggle the Back up & sync switch to turn the feature ON.
- If you see a messaging prompting to allow the app to access your iPhone photos, grant permission or access to Google Photos on your iPhone with these steps:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Privacy.
- Select Photos.
- Then toggle the switch to turn Google Photos on.
Alternatively, you can open Google Drive app on your iPhone then turn on auto backup for photos in Google Drive by going to Settings-> Photos-> then turn on the Auto Backup switch.
To check if all your photos from the iPhone are automatically backed up, open the Google Photos app, sign in to your Google Account and then tap Photos. On the upper part of the screen, you will see if your photos are backed up or still waiting to back up.
If necessary, you can change your back up settings by logging into your Google Account, select the account name under Backup account, and then tap the Upload size option.
To learn more about upload size, contact Google Support for more details.
I hope that this how-to post has helped you one way or another. Please help us spread the word by sharing this post to your friends or people who may also have similar problems. Thanks for reading!