Key Takeaways
- Google Photos is testing a new “Optimize backup for battery life” feature
- The app can currently cause significant battery drain in the background
- The feature is under development with no set release date
Jan 20 Update below: This article was originally published on Jan 17
Your smartphone works hard when shooting photos and videos, ruining your battery life and heating up your pocket. However, if you’re suffering from Google Photos battery drain, a fix is finally on the way.
Google Photos is testing a new feature that could significantly extend your battery life by preventing the app from constantly running big, power-hungry backups in the background, while still keeping your photos safe.
Google Photos Backup: Essential But Power-Hungry
The issue is more critical now than ever before: modern smartphones shoot higher-resolution photos and videos that produce much larger files than previous generations. Features like 4K video and raw photos consume vast amounts of data that your phone has to work hard to back up, especially over weak cellphone networks. Advanced functions like the Google Pixel’s Video Boost consume even more data.
Google Photos already helps you by letting you set backups to run only when connected to Wi-Fi to save data on your mobile plan, but a less-obvious impact is the effect these huge backups have on your smartphone’s battery.
How To Tell If Google Photos Is Draining Your Battery
You don’t have to guess which apps are draining your battery; your smartphone keeps track of battery usage on an app-by-app basis and can tell you exactly what’s happening. Check now and see.
Open Settings and tap Battery.
- Tap Battery Usage (or scroll down to the list of apps on iPhone).
- Find Google Photos in the list of apps.
- Look for “Background” activity. If this value is high, your Google Photos backups are likely consuming significant power.
Google’s Fix
If you want to conserve battery power, you can switch your device to power-saving mode, but this will affect all your apps. Now, a report from Android Authority reveals that Google is testing a new “Optimize backup for battery life” setting. The feature is still under development, and we don’t know the exact strategy it will use to conserve battery power at this stage, but it will likely reduce the frequency or speed at which it runs backups without the need to turn off backup entirely.
With backup turned on, Google Photos will automatically sync your photos to the cloud the moment you take them, ensuring everything on your device is safely backed up. Adding a delay would increase the risk of losing your most recent captures if something were to happen to your phone, but it would provide a useful middle ground between draining your battery and turning off backup altogether.
The Optimize backup for battery life feature isn’t live yet, but if you’re suffering from Google Photos battery drain, keep an eye out for this update. It may yet save you from battery anxiety on your next vacation.
Google Photos “Optimize backup for battery life” toggle: What We Know
According to the report, details of the leaked feature can be found in version 7.59 of the Google Photos Android app. The feature isn’t yet functional, but researchers were able to surface the toggle by manipulating the APK code.
Once surfaced, the feature describes its function as “Your device may back up less often when you’re not using the app,” suggesting that its primary purpose is to prevent Google Photos from consuming too much power as a background task.
Google Photos’ background power consumption is a long-standing issue that has drawn complaints from users experiencing high battery usage that they’ve been unable to tame with existing controls. The app’s default behavior is to aggressively back up photos and videos immediately after capture, but this can cause excessive battery drain, especially in areas with weak cellular signals.
An earlier report reveals that Google is also working on a new “Backup schedule” feature, presumably to give users greater control over when these potentially battery-draining backups are performed.
For now, you can help prevent Google Photos battery drain by setting your mobile data usage to “No data” in the app. This will prevent your device from backing up until a Wi-Fi signal is available, but it may put your photos at risk if you go for a long time without Wi-Fi access. The new Optimize backup for battery life toggle should provide a vital middle ground, allowing mobile backups to continue running while consuming less battery power.
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