Okay... I have had my MacBook for a while now and it is pretty full... but I keep it under control. Since I updated to Sierra, once a month (the 17th) I get a message that my storage is full... my buffer of space that I leave is completely gone. On the day I get this, I also suddenly have a new folder in my photos folder called Google Photos Backup. I delete it and all is well for another month before we do it all over again. I can't for the life of me figure out how or why this backup is being made! Why would Google be making a backup ON my computer of photos I backed up FROM my computer to Google? And why is this happening since upgrading to Sierra... just coincidence? Every google search I've tried leads me to info on how to backup TO google photos, not anything about this backup to my computer. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm so confused!
Maybe work backwards from the directions to have google photos back up on your computer? https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop&hl=en Did you ever install the Back Up and Sync desktop app? Maybe when updating the operating system, maybe it erases the choice you made, and makes the one that would possibly be helpful? When I read, it said it updated this year, and maybe it changed to default? I'm not sure otherwise... I haven't used Google Photos. Sorry!
Thanks Jenn @jk703 - I think I figured it out now. It was under preferences and a box to uncheck under backup sources (which makes no sense to me). It was backing up to my computer everything that came from an external device.... so photos from my phone and those straight from my memory card as I was downloading photos to my computer.
Glad you figured it out! I don't use Google Photos either. My phone auto adds some photos to it - like ones I add to reviews and online places. But I don't actively use it. I wonder if it doesn't differentiate between sources? So, it just backs up photos? I think of my non-scrappy friends and how many of them manage to lose photos because they don't backup, so maybe it's supposed to be a fail safe? (Just thinking outloud....)
That's so weird, but I'm glad you figured it out. I just started using Google photos as an extra backup this summer because my sister is obsessed with it and always wants me to add my photos to her albums. On my phone it just automatically backs up now, not full resolution, but high resolution so I can have unlimited storage. It's pretty cool for sharing photos, but it's definitely only an extra for me.
I think you're right... I think the majority of people do not transfer/backup their photos to their computers, so this is a way for them to back up to their computers as well. And to be honest, I know some people who back up to google photos (I set my in-laws and father up with google photos) don't know how to transfer photos to their computer directly. That's me... after having my one EHD crash (which my husband had recovered for our anniversary) and thinking that all of those photos were gone forever, I back up to a couple of free options "just in case". I back up to google and Shutterfly... I don't ever look at google... but I look at my Shutterfly photos all of the time. I really do love their timeline set up... it makes it so easy for me to scroll through when looking for photos to scrap. It's how I find 90% of the photos I scrap for non-PL pages.
Interesting, haven't added many photos to shutterfly in a couple years (since going digital). I might have to look at them again for more than an occasional photobook.
You should check them out again... they redid their photo organization a year or so ago. I just order a few photo books a year... but I back-up all of my photos there. I find it so easy to scroll though all 122,000 (yikes!) of my photos on there. Once I find one I want to scrap with, I can pull it up from either my computer or EHD... or, more likely than not, I'll just hit the download button and download a full resolution copy to scrap with.
This is what sent me to Lightroom! Too many photos to manage! That's a really cool use for Shutterfly. Last time I was looking at it, it wasn't in the right date order, so it felt messy to me. I'm going to check it out again.
Wow that's a lot of photos. I have no idea how many I have... Thanks @tkradtke! I will check out shutterfly again.
Another update: It wasn't Google photos fault after all (although it was a contributing factor)... I now think it's Photos fault. It was backing up full resolution copies of everything in my cloud onto my mac.... which the majority of this stuff was already on my mac, so it was doubling up. Trying to clean it all up now.
