Google Photos Now Backs Up Your Pictures From Your PC, But With A Big Catch

If you have a shared working environment, or like to just like to play safe and backup important folders on your desktop to Google, then your only solution till now was to download the Google Drive app. But there is no need to do it anymore as you can directly back up your PC folders from the Google Photos website.

Yes, you can now directly backup folders on your PC using the Google Photos website. The feature is rolling out for everyone and here’s how it works:

1. Head over to Google Photos (website) and log in to your account.
2. Click on the Upload button at the top right.
3. From the overflow menu, select Back up folders.
4. Next, select the folder you want to back up.
5. Now pick the upload quality, then click on Continue.
6. Google Photos will start backing up said folder to your Google account.

This makes the whole process of backing up your desktop files pretty seamless. However, there are two major flaws with this implementation. Firstly, it can only back up files when you open the website. You can have it running in a different tab. But you can’t be sure if or when the browser closes it automatically to save power and memory.

The next and biggest issue is regarding its availability. The “Folder Backup” option only shows up when you visit the website using Google Chrome. Yep, it even doesn’t work in other Chromium based browsers like Brave and Microsoft Edge. I know Apple users will be disappointed since it doesn’t work on Safari either. That’s the sad reality.

See, I don’t have many files on my desktop to begin with, as most of my memories are on my phone. But if the need occurs, I am glad that there is an option to easily back up images no matter which platform I am now. But Chrome’s vanilla UI is too bland for me, so I wish this feature would soon roll out to other devices. What are your thoughts about this feature? Do you back up folders on your computer frequently? Let us know in the comments below.