google photos

dipsomaniac

i pay $1.99 per month for 100gb of google storage. i have used 90gb of photo storage at original size

the problem is that googles next level is 1tb of storage for $9.99. it has taken 15 years of photos/videos to get to 90gb so it would take a further 50 years (allowing for increased file sizes) to fill 1tb

most of the photos/videos have been taken on a phone or canon camera. i was thinking of changing google photos setting to high quality for unlimited free storage but don't know how the quality would suffer.

anyone changed there setting in google photos to recover storage and notice a big different in quality?

any other suggestion welcome

kwikbreaks

Take a look at JpegMini - http://www.jpegmini.com/

It isn't freeware but I was impressed enough at its performance to buy it - considerably smaller with no noticeable degredation.

kwikbreaks

Actually looking on reading about google photos you may well not need that that. I got it to compress jpegs on my websites where that really is important but it looks like setting HD on ggogle photos doesn't compress anything it just set limits on what you can host for free...

Google Photos provides free unlimited storage when you opt for their “high quality” setting (which means photos up to an ample 16-megapixel limit and HD videos up to 1080p).

http://www.howtogeek.com/225333/18-things-you-may-not-have-known-google-photos-can-do/

Or maybe you do ???

Google itself in the settings says "High quality (free unlimited storage) Great visual quality at reduced file size"
I guess the answer may well be suck it and see.

rich68

The high quality setting in google photos will compress your photos even if they are below 16MP. However, the quality is still very good so you are unlikely to notice. Any photos bigger than 16MP will also be resized down to 16MP.

The best thing to do is change the setting to high quality and upload a new photo to try it out for yourself (and you can then download the photo to see how much smaller the file size is compared to the original). This won't change any existing photos, you'll need to click the "recover storage" option to do that once you are happy that the quality is adequate for you.

warehouse

OP, if it's taken 15 years to get to 90GB then by the time you get really close to the 100GB mark I expect Google's limit for the $1.99 service will have jumped by another 50GB+.

Hold tight, but in the meantime the free photo service by them that compresses your photos is also very worthwhile anyway for easy viewing. I've been very impressed by it.

fiendishlyclever

Sign up for Google's local guide service, reach 200 points and get free storage. They've dropped the amount since I got mine (I got 1Tb for two years free)

Free storage is only a temporary solution. I did compress my photos to free up space before I got the free storage but I don't look at them often enough to notice a difference in quality.

flashg67

Not the neatest solution, but I have a number of cloud accounts - Google, Amazon, Dropbox etc and spread stuff about to keep under storage limits