Key Takeaways
- Google Photos is giving users more control over storage space by allowing them to choose whether to back up large, raw files.
- Shooting in raw mode offers significant benefits for photographers, including greater editing flexibility and future-proofing of images.
- The update restores functionality that existed prior to a controversial policy change, giving users more control over their photo backups.
Google is finally addressing a long-standing frustration for photographers, potentially reversing a decision that mixes large raw files into automatic photo backups.
An unreleased feature discovered by Android Authority contributor AssembleDebug, will allow Google Photos to back up JPEG images without automatically including any associated raw files.
Google Photos Raw File Backup Is Changing
The new feature, found in the latest version of the Google Photos Android app, allows users to save raw files to a separate location outside of the main camera folder. This separation lets users control raw file backups independently, choosing whether to include or exclude them from their online Google Photos library.
Google’s Pixel camera app used to save JPEG and raw files separately by default, but around two years ago, the company changed this behaviour, deciding instead to lump them all together, prompting outcry from many enthusiast photographers.
Why Google’s Raw Decision Angered Photographers
Smartphones typically save all photos in the /DCIM/Camera folder (although this varies by manufacturer). However, some, like Google Pixels, use this folder for both JPEGs and raw files, forcing users to back up both file types, even if they only want to preserve the JPEGs.
Currently, Google Photos allows you to select which device folders to back up, but the main camera folder is always included, resulting in the backup of any raw files stored within it. The new test feature introduces a toggle switch that enables users to exclude raw files from the backup if they are stored outside the main camera folder.
This latest change builds on a previous discovery of some alternative help text within the Pixel Camera app. When enabling RAW + JPEG mode in the Pixel Camera’s settings, the help text currently reads:
“RAW files preserve details and offer more controls while editing. They take up more storage space. RAW photos will be backed up by default if automatic backup is enabled in Google Photos.”
However, the alternate version ends with the words:
“RAW photos will not be backed up by default.”
This alternate text implies that users will be able to change Google Photos’ default behaviour and prevent raw files from being backed up, as used to be the case before Google’s policy change.
Why Raw Files Matter for Photographers
Shooting in raw mode preserves all the data captured by the camera, offering maximum flexibility for editing. Unlike JPEGs, raw files let photographers adjust parameters like white balance, dynamic range and noise reduction without losing quality. Keeping the raw files also lets you revisit your photos in the future, by which time raw processing software may well have improved.
The primary drawback of shooting in raw is the significantly larger file size, often ten times that of a JPEG. They also require significant processing to look their best. To make matters worse, Google Photos lacks a dedicated search filter for raw files, requiring users to search by file extension, such as .dng or .cr2, instead.
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