Google Photos now always backs up RAW images and shows in main grid

Abner Li | Oct 19 2023 - 8:42 am PT

As we spotted at the start of this year, Google Photos is making a sizable change to how it handles RAW imagery and backup on Android. Rolling out now, this greatly elevates the format but could have some downsides.

On a Pixel 8 that previously captured RAW images in the Camera app, Google Photos this morning displayed the following banner: “New RAW photos will appear in the Photos view and will now be backed up.”

Taking a RAW now automatically uploads the picture to Google Photos backup and shows it in the main “Photos” tab/grid. It’s badged “RAW” in the top-right corner and opening that image reveals a switcher at the bottom that lets you also view the JPEG. Treated as a “Burst,” looking at the JPEG lets you “Export this photo” or “Keep this photo only,” while RAW offers “Set as main photo” and “Keep this photo only.”

RAW files are quite large and Google uploading to the cloud by default could easily affect mobile data caps. (However, Google today is not uploading your previous on-device RAWs.) There’s no obvious way with existing backup settings to restrict RAW uploads.

It can also impact Google One storage limits. Personally, I’ve always transferred the RAW photos I’ve taken via USB as I’ve kept backup off for that folder.

Meanwhile, that “Raw” folder (on Pixel) found in the Library tab > Photos on device carousel is no longer in use. New RAW images are not shown there. At a glance, there’s no obvious way to view just RAW captures in Google Photos.

Meanwhile, this comes as Google Photos recently added the ability to set a default RAW editor. Photos settings > Apps & devices > Raw editor shows apps like Photos (which will convert to JPEG before editing), (Pixel) Markup, Gallery (Go), and Snapseed.

We’ve reached out to Google to explain this RAW backup change in Photos on Android.