Google Photos Uploading Your Pics, Even If You Don’t Want It To

Since 2013, Google allows single interface for all key setting related to Google account and this can be used to switch off photo back up even after the Photos app is uninstalled. David Arnott in the video above removes the Google Photos app from his phone. While Google Photos offers a lot of conveniences and fun features, it does naturally require you to store your photos on Google’s turf.

Now this is one puzzling situation. However, uninstalling the app from a mobile device would not resultantly halt a photo sync. How come photos were backed up even if there was no Google Photos app installed? It doesn’t make any sense but that’s what happened to his account. Before Google Photos was launched, Android users could tell the OS to automatically backup photos by heading over to the Google Settings app. Apparently, the setting for automatic photo backup were not migrated to the Google Photos app, which is what causes the confusion. As you could lose signal, and having the music downloaded means you can still listen to it. With Google’s new ad-supported stations, it’s a great source for music on a road trip.

If you have the application installed, you may disable the synchronization by opening the Photos application on the device, tapping on the menu icon, selecting Settings, and on the next page “Back up & sync”. If anyone did not like Google Photos and thought that uninstalling the app would stop the back-up of the photos, then they were wrong.

However, if you find that Google Photos isn’t working out for you, you can always uninstall it and try something else. When he contacted Google, he was told that ‘The backup was intended.’.

Don’t be surprised if your Android smartphone continues to upload your photos to Google without your knowledge, even if you have uninstalled the Photos app. While disabling or making changes in the settings shouldn’t be a problem for a user, Google could at least already give that option when user is about to uninstall the app. We’re hoping the next update will fix this issue.