Google Photos website starts showing the backup quality of every image

Abner Li | Jul 19 2022 - 8:00 pm PT

The tweaks and small additions to Google Photos continues with the Info pane on the web getting a rather useful “Backed up” section.

Since 2020, photos.google.com has included “Uploaded from” and “Shared by” image information that’s not found on the Android or iOS apps. The latest web-only section is called “Backed up” and it joins day/date, location, device, EXIF, and file data.

It starts by listing what quality – “Original quality” or “Storage saver” – a picture was uploaded to Google Photos as. This section will note if “this item doesn’t take up space in your account storage” due to the old High quality option or because you used an early Pixel phone.

Otherwise, Photos will list the backup size, which has been moved from the Info pane’s third section. In fact, Google no longer shows file size for content that doesn’t consume storage space.

Update: This information can also be found in the iOS client, but in a more limited capacity. “Backed up” on the iPhone/iPad client just notes Original quality or Storage saver, with no other details available.

When Google made its storage policy change last year, Photos added tools to let users better manage their cloud quota. This addition is very much a continuation of that and joins the “Manage storage” page with media type (Large photos & videos, Screenshots, and Blurry photos) breakdowns.

This Google Photos “Backed up” info is not widely rolled out today. We’ve spotted it on some, but not all accounts.