Google Photos power users are about to lose a major backup feature

Google Photos is easily one of the best ways to back up your photos and videos to the cloud. One of the reasons behind its popularity is that it's available across multiple platforms. Besides your phone, you can back up your media to Google Photos from your PC using the Google Drive desktop app. Unfortunately, Google will discontinue this functionality next month.

The Google Drive desktop app also includes Google Photos integration. You point the Google Drive desktop app to a folder on your PC, and it will automatically upload all media content to Google Photos. This functionality is especially useful for power users who back up photos from DSLRs and other cameras to Google Photos and maintain a large library.

However, Google will retire this functionality from the Google Drive desktop app next month. In an email sent to users who rely on the Google Photos sync feature (via Reddit), the company says it will remove the ability to add new folders for backup to Google Photos through the Drive desktop app starting June 15, 2026. This is also when users will receive an in-app notification to move to Google Photos.

Your existing folders will continue to sync with Google Photos until August 10, 2026. After that date, the Google Drive desktop app will no longer back up media to Photos.

Use the Google Photos web app instead

Google points affected users to set up the "Back up folders" functionality on the Google Photos website. However, this requires the website to be open for the sync to work in the background. Another option is to install the Google Photos web app, which supports background sync.

Regular users will mostly not be affected by this change. But if you use Google Photos as the hub for backing up all photos and videos that you shoot across devices, this might be a problem. The Google Photos web app depends on the browser remaining active. Depending on your browser and power-saving settings, uploads may pause when the app is closed or suspended in the background.

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Essentially, Google is replacing a fully functional solution with one that may be less reliable. If this will negatively impact your workflow, consider using Syncthing to create a more dependable backup and sync solution.