I built SyncPhoto because I realized 15GB of Google Photos storage can be enough if you only back up what actually matters
I started thinking about how much of my Google Photos storage is actually made up of photos I care about.
Photos of my kids, family, friends, holidays, birthdays, random moments I want to remember years from now? Absolutely.
But screenshots? Memes? Random images downloaded from WhatsApp? Images from apps? Huge videos that I probably won't watch again?
Not so much.
And that's when I started thinking: maybe 15GB of Google Photos storage is actually a lot if you only use it for the photos that matter.
The problem is that Google Photos makes backing up everything incredibly easy. That's great, but sometimes I don't want "everything" in my Google Photos library.
So I built a small Android app called SyncPhoto to give me more control over what gets backed up to Google Photos.
The basic idea is pretty simple: Only back up the photos you actually want to keep.
By default, SyncPhoto focuses on your camera photos. You can review them and sync them to your Google Photos account. It doesn't have to upload every screenshot, meme, WhatsApp image, or random picture sitting somewhere on your phone.
You can also add additional folders if there are specific folders you do want to back up.
For example, I might want:
- Camera photos
- Photos from a GoPro folder
- Photos edited in Snapseed
- Photos from another specific folder
But I might not want:
- Screenshots
- WhatsApp images
- Downloaded images
- Temporary files
- Videos
There's also an exclude filter using wildcards, so you can do things like Screenshot_* or *.webm and keep those files out of the backup.
And this made me rethink videos too.
Do I really need to use my Google Photos storage for every large video?
For videos I want to keep but don't necessarily need mixed into my photo library, there are other options. For example, I can upload them to YouTube as private or unlisted and keep them there without using my Google Photos storage.
So for me, Google Photos can be reserved primarily for the things I really care about: photos of my kids, family, friends, trips and other memories.
If I do want to back up videos through SyncPhoto, that's supported too. You can set video limits for minimum/maximum file size and minimum/maximum duration.
That's useful because I can basically say:
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There are also some other things I wanted from it:
Background sync
Once enabled, SyncPhoto can continue syncing while the app is in the background.
Visible upload progress
Instead of wondering whether something is happening, you can see which photo is being uploaded and the progress, and you can stop the sync if you want.
Folder-level control
Camera photos are always included, but you can choose additional folders individually.
Privacy
The app is basically a bridge between your phone and your Google Photos account. I don't want to build another service that stores everyone's photos. The photos go to your own Google Photos account.
The idea behind SyncPhoto isn't really to replace Google Photos. I actually like Google Photos.
It's more like a selective backup layer for Google Photos.
I think there's an interesting assumption around the free 15GB Google storage: that it's automatically "not enough".
Maybe it isn't enough if we're uploading every screenshot, meme, WhatsApp image, downloaded picture and giant video.
But if that 15GB is reserved for the things we genuinely want to preserve, it can go surprisingly far.
I'd rather have 15GB full of photos of my kids, family and friends than 15GB full of everything that happened to be on my phone.
I built SyncPhoto for myself around that idea, and I'm curious whether anyone else has the same problem.
If you'd like to try it, it's here: https://syncphoto.me (now still under internal testing, dm me if you want test it)
I'm also very interested in feedback from people who use Google Photos heavily. What do you wish Google Photos gave you more control over when it comes to backup?
