Great tips here...

Great tips here...

Originally shared by Michael O'Reilly

This Week In The Google+ Help Community
Everything you wanted to know about Google+ Photos on your phone but were afraid to ask!

Welcome to the Google+ Help Weekly Report, where we discuss a trending topic within the Google+ Help Community! This week I’ve noticed a lot of questions regarding deleting and restoring photos in Google+, whether you’re on your computer or your phone.

Turning Auto Backup on and off.

First of all, you should be aware that Google+ has an Auto Backup feature that works with the Google+ app on your phone to automatically copy any photos you take on the phone into your Google+ account on Google’s servers. This allows you to easily share photos you’ve taken on the phone to your Google+ circles, even if you’re accessing them through the computer, and it also provides an excellent cloud backup of all your photos to help you avoid losing them in case something happens to your phone. To use the Auto Backup, as well as see additional information about its features, follow the directions found at https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1647509?hl=en

Controlling which folders on the phone are automatically backed up.

You can control whether photos in folders other than the Camera folder should be backed up and, if so, which folders. To enable/disable Auto Backup for folders other than the Camera folder, touch the 3-dot icon in the upper right hand corner of the Photos app, select Settings, select Auto Backup, and make sure there is a check after Back up local folders. To select which local folders you want photos to be Auto Backed up from, return to the main screen of the Photos app, swipe from the left side of screen, scroll down to On Device, and select folders by using the cloud icon to the right of each folder name. If it is blue, Auto Backup is enabled for the folder. If it is gray with a line through it, Auto Backup is disabled.

Deleting local and online copies of photos in the Google+ Photos app:

If you want to delete photos entirely from Google+ on your phone and on Google’s servers, in the Google+ app, go to Everything, and then, at the bottom, go to Photos. Find the first photo you want to delete under "All" and long press the first to select it, then select any others. Touch the bin icon at the top right to delete from your phone and online.

Deleting local copies of photos in the Google+ Photos app:

If, on the other hand, you just want to delete the copies of the photos on the phone while leaving them in your Google+ account on the servers you’ll use these instruction. When in the Photos app on the phone, touch the Photo symbol at the top left to bring up the menu, then go to On Device. Find the "Camera" folder, then touch the folder name to open it up. If you delete photos from there, only the local copy will be deleted.

Restoring Photos in the Google+ Photos app:

In the Photos app on the phone, touch the Photo symbol at the top left to bring up the menu, then go to Bin (you may need to scroll down). Find the image(s) you want to restore, then long press on it. A menu bar will appear; the sideways u shaped arrow next to the bin will restore the photo. When this menu is up, you can select more photos and restore them. This will restore the photo to your phone and your backups or albums.

Restoring Auto-backup photos to your phone:

In case you’ve deleted photos from your phone but want to restore them from your Google+ account back to the phone, you will need to use your desktop or laptop. On your computer, hover over the Home button, and from the menu that appears, go to Photos. Click in the search bar and select Auto-backup. Select the first image by clicking on the checkmark on the top left of the image. You can then scroll down to the last image, hold down shift, and click the checkmark on that one to select all the photos in between. Once you’re in selection mode, with a blue bar above the photos, you can individually select and deselect other photos. Once you have all the photos you want to restore selected, then click on More in the blue bar, and then choose Download. Note that you can only download a maximum of 500 pictures at a time. When the photos have been downloaded, just transfer them to your Camera folder on your phone via USB. Please consult your phone manufacturer’s help documentation to see how that’s done.

You can also use Google Takeout to get all of your photos: https://www.google.com/settings/takeout, but this will download everything, not just the Auto-backup photos.

► Tip of the Week: Viewing your Auto Backup photos

Several users asked, and various people answered, “How do I find my photos that were backed up by Auto Backup?” Full instructions for all platforms can be found at https://support.google.com/plus/answer/4528877?hl=en but the quick answer when you’re on your computer is go to https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/search/%23AutoBackup and you’ll see all your Auto Backup photos displayed for you.

Thanks for all of your questions and insights this week. Special thanks to everyone who helped respond to these trending topics and all the other help questions this week. Make sure to check back again next week when George Cohn will help to highlight the best questions and answers on the community.

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