HOW TO | Upload unlimited items to Google Photos
1 Get the free app
You’ll need a Google account (free, accounts.google. com/signup) and Google Photos Backup (free, photos. google.com/apps). Copy the app to your Mac’s Applications folder, open it and sign in to your Google account. You’ll then be prompted to choose a photo source.
2 Choose what to scan
You can direct the app to scan cameras and storage cards, folders (including the Desktop and Pictures) and your iPhoto library, and upload pictures automatically. The high quality option provides unlimited storage, or you can choose Original, which counts against your account’s storage limits.
3 Start the upload
When you click ‘Start backup’, the app will upload pictures in the background. The process can be paused from the menu bar, and you can jump to your Google Photos account page from there. When the app is running, it will watch your chosen locations and upload new photos it finds.
4 Hack your Photos library
The library format used by Apple’s Photos app is not yet directly supported by Google, but it’s easy to incorporate into your backups. Go to your Pictures folder, right-click the library and choose Show Package Contents. Here, the Masters folder holds the originals of items imported into the app.
5 Link in the Masters folder
Click Google Photo Backup’s menu bar icon and pick Preferences. In the window that opens, click Add to specify another folder that Google Photo Backup should watch. Drag the Masters folder mentioned in step 4 into the window that Google’s app just opened and then click Choose.
6 View your photos
Google Photos Backup will watch your specified folders and upload any new photos added to them. Click its menu bar icon and choose ‘Go to Google Photos’ to confirm things have uploaded to Google’s servers. Your photos can be viewed wherever you can sign in to photos.google.com.
7 Edit pictures online
Google Photos’ web app even lets you edit pictures. Select one and you can perform similar edits to those you might make in iPhoto or the Photos app on your Mac. You can post your pictures to Google+, Facebook and Twitter, and copy a link to share by other means, such as email.
8 Manage your catalogue
Google Photos’ web app also lets you organise images into albums, add titles and descriptions, and search them. It’s possible to upload pictures from any computer by dragging files directly onto the website – handy to ensure you have an online backup if your Mac is unavailable when travelling.