Use the search bar to filter your images – such as by location or date – then pick from the results. If you’re planning on categorizing snaps on your hard drive, it’s also a good opportunity to download batches to match your sorting criteria. From June 2021, Google will also offer a free storage management tool to help you find and delete shots that are underexposed or blurry, which should make it easier to pick through pictures to find your favorites.

While this method isn’t as simple as downloading all of your Google Photos images in one go, it allows you to save data by selecting only the shots you really want to keep. At that point, you’ll need to find an alternative or start shelling out for a Google One storage plan, starting at US$1.99 / £1.59 per month for 100GB. So if you use Google Photos as a backup for your smartphone shots, you might find that you max out the 15GB that Google gives you for free.

Here's why you shouldn't use Google Photos' high-quality mode.

Google Photos could keep free, unlimited backups on new Pixel phones.

After this date, Google will no longer offer unlimited free storage for ‘high quality' photos: any new ‘high quality' photos uploaded will count towards your account’s storage quota – as will all existing ‘original’ quality images. And if you’re heading somewhere with limited internet services, offline copies might be more reliably accessible than syncing with the cloud.Īnother important reason to consider downloading all of your shots from Google Photos is the policy change coming into force from June 1 2021. If you’re ever locked out of your Google account, you’ll still be able to access your images. Why would you want to download all your Google Photos? Although the cloud is a secure, accessible way to store your snaps, keeping a backup of your library isn’t a bad idea.

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