Google Photos removes ability to disable video backups over mobile data
Google Photos has long offered an option to upload photos and videos over mobile data. However, to ensure you don’t burn through your monthly data allowance, there’s an option to backup videos only over Wi-Fi. In India and some other countries where available Wi-Fi connections are not as prevalent, this feature is missing, with users instead having the ability to set a daily limit on mobile data usage. Now, it looks like Google has erroneously rolled out the same settings for Android users worldwide.
As spotted by9to5Google, if you head over toGoogle Photos > Photos settings > Backup & sync, you’ll find the option to set a daily backup limit when on mobile data. The available allowances include No data, 5MB, 10MB, 30MB, and Unlimited. There’s also another separate toggle for backing up your photos and videos while on roaming. However, the ability to specifically disable video backups while on mobile data has been removed.
The rollout could be a mistake from Google, as the Photossupport pagestill refers to the previous settings. The iOS version of Google Photos also continues to display the option to enable/disable video backups on mobile data. Additionally, the daily data limits are very low by US and European standards, and users can’t increase this manually, which further points to this being a fumble from Google.
Limits on daily mobile data usage are helpful in countries like Brazil, Thailand, India, and Nigeria, where users have a relatively small data allowance and don’t have access to a Wi-Fi network on a regular basis. This is not a cause of concern in developed countries, and some users prefer having their photos backed up immediately over mobile data. Since videos are considerably larger, it usually makes more sense to back them up only when on Wi-Fi. Here’s hoping Google brings this option back soon.
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