Google Photos offers unlimited storage to backup photos and videos if you have selected High Quality size option. Unfortunately, it is not applied to any photos and videos you may have previously uploaded to Google Drive. So, if you want to save space on Google Drive, you can move your old photos from Google Drive to Google Photos. To do so, you need to download your photos and videos to computer and then upload them to Google Photos before deleting them.
If you want to see which photos and videos are counting against your quota, sign in to your Google Drive account and hover your cursor over the MBs and percentage used located at the bottom left corner of the window. Click on the little exclamation point located next to Google Drive. You will see a list of photos, videos and files which count against your quota.
Steps to Download old Photos from Google Drive:
- Open a list of photos, videos and files which count against your quota.
- Select the photos which you want to download.
- Click "More actions" button located at the top right corner on the screen.
- Select "Download" button.
- Your browser prompts you to save .zip file, click "Save" and specify a location to download. The downloaded zip file will contain the photos from the Google Drive.
Steps to Upload Photos from Computer to Google Photos:
- Go to https://photos.google.com/apps & download "Google Photos Desktop Uploader" on your computer.
- Install "Google Photos Desktop Uploader" on your computer.
- Sign in to your Google account.
- Uncheck any unwanted desktop folders and click "Add..." button. (Instead select the Photo and Video folders in the Google Drive file)
- Choose a photo size i.e "High quality" or "Original".
- Click "Start Backup" button.
- Click "Ok" button.
- This is how you can move old photos from Google Drive to Google Photos to save space.
Quick Tip to Keep your Photos SafeMaking backups of your photos & videos is a chore you probably skip, but it really doesn't have to be hard. Here's an effortless way to backup photos - PicBackMan. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your photos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. Simply download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your photos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all photos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.