This is another argument that we need more phone OS options, not just Android and iPhone. (Graphene isn't really a proper option yet).
How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
81–90 of 189 posts
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#82This exact issue was the final straw for me ditching google photos! I had previously been using syncthing to sync & backup the photos, same as other files on my phone and laptop. I now use Immich [1] (mentioned elsewhere in this thread but without the proper link), having purchased a single-payment lifetime family licence. There is, as I understand it, no benefit to me to purchase it. After a month of use it was clea…
You know what I wish I could ditch but cannot due to their firm grip on it, Google Wallet. Every other time I open it, it shows a pop-up asking "Can we use your payment data to show you more relevant ads?" which is annoying but what's more aggravating is the choices: "Yes", "Remind me Later".
This should be deemed as illegal - this isn't a consent choice but coercion resulting from the tiredness of being constantly harassed
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s even worse than that! There is no delete all feature ! So if you have 100k photos and make the mistake of saying yes to Google Photos just once , it will fill up all your storage space, block your email until you pay for extra storage, then force you to delete all your photos manually, one page at a time, before you can stop using it. I think that trap is the sleaziest thing I’ve seen Google do.
Mobster tactics from google. Nice. Just remember that Google always kills its products, and they are an advertising company. I'm joking, I hope, but Google ain't what it used to be.
Which part was meant to be a joke?
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#84Older people (seen it at 65+) will just click the nag without knowing what the button does and end up beaming up all photos to google cloud with no ability to disable the nag (it keeps showing up after a while) even when dismissed. If you are concerned about your data privacy, you may want to check on what photos of say your kids your parents are beaming up to google without their or your knowledge.
I like this example of brigading
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is worse than that. It fills up your accounts cloud storage, where your Google docs, sheets, drive files etc are stored. Once full you are caught in their trap: pay a monthly fee to the mafia or delete your data! This flow is intentional and they have set up everything to bring you there. The Photo-Backup popup (and arguably the whole photo feature) helps to shovel users more quickly to the end of the monetization…
Eventually all those valuable pics they take will be lost if GP is disabled and phone is lost or screen damaged. And someone will complain - you can't even have sensible defaults. I understand you perhaps have hatred for google but hosting immich or ente is not for everyone. It is far easier for average Jose to pay for GP or some cloud. Unless you plan to setup at least some free cloud don't bother to lecture others
Please don't let it become acceptable to be yelled in the face every few minutes of the day by ads, commercials, notifications and other attacks on our perpetually overstimulated brains, most of which we have no control over at all.
To have a healthy relationship with technology requires holding manufacturers and service providers responsible for our mental health.
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is worse than that. It fills up your accounts cloud storage, where your Google docs, sheets, drive files etc are stored. Once full you are caught in their trap: pay a monthly fee to the mafia or delete your data! This flow is intentional and they have set up everything to bring you there. The Photo-Backup popup (and arguably the whole photo feature) helps to shovel users more quickly to the end of the monetization…
It’s even worse than that! There is no delete all feature ! So if you have 100k photos and make the mistake of saying yes to Google Photos just once , it will fill up all your storage space, block your email until you pay for extra storage, then force you to delete all your photos manually, one page at a time, before you can stop using it. I think that trap is the sleaziest thing I’ve seen Google do.
They actually did build a way to undo enabling backup that removed all the photos added from the enabled device. I guess that's a tacit acknowledgement that people are likely to enable this accidentally.
I remember there being a mini scandal about this feature being limited to 3 uses or something, but can't seem to find the story right now.
https://support.google.com/photos/thread/405321957?hl=en&msg...
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is worse than that. It fills up your accounts cloud storage, where your Google docs, sheets, drive files etc are stored. Once full you are caught in their trap: pay a monthly fee to the mafia or delete your data! This flow is intentional and they have set up everything to bring you there. The Photo-Backup popup (and arguably the whole photo feature) helps to shovel users more quickly to the end of the monetization…
It’s even worse than that! There is no delete all feature ! So if you have 100k photos and make the mistake of saying yes to Google Photos just once , it will fill up all your storage space, block your email until you pay for extra storage, then force you to delete all your photos manually, one page at a time, before you can stop using it. I think that trap is the sleaziest thing I’ve seen Google do.
I wrote some JavaScript and paste it in my console to automate this when I left Google Photos. The “data avarice” is astounding.
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#88I don't get it. I'm also a paying customer and I have never seen this prompt. My google photos album goes back to 2006.
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#89Another +1 for migrating to Immich.
Somebody in my family who generally doesn't pay that much attention to prompts and modals was repeatedly telling me their Gmail doesn't work because it's full and - surprize - it was because Google Photos was harassing them with the backup prompt, which in a hurry, they just re-activated every time I turned it off.
After a while and much convincing (and changing Immich to be the default gallery app), we're pretty happy. Immich has been very good, it's fast enough to not be bothering, and running it on TrueNAS has been quite hands-off. I have a mirrored 6TB drive and do off-site backups to a Hetzner storage box.
Previously we were using OneDrive and the Photos archiving was horribly slow for everything but the most recent months. It was literally unusable beyond a certain date, with the UI locking up, tabs crashing, huge amounts of memory consumed by the open tab, etc. The mobile app was only marginally better, but still very slow. Immich doesn't have this problem. I scroll back years of photos and they load almost instantly from HDDs.
Re: How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)
#90One of the answers points the right steps to disable the Google account (and the annoying popup) in the Photos app: - click on the account icon - choose switch account and pick use this application without an account
That does not work for all use cases.
For me, I want to use Google Photos exclusively to see my past backups but never back anything up again.