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This exact issue was the final straw for me ditching google photos! I had previously been using syncthing to sync & backup the photos, same as other files on my phone and laptop.

I now use Immich [1] (mentioned elsewhere in this thread but without the proper link), having purchased a single-payment lifetime family licence. There is, as I understand it, no benefit to me to purchase it. After a month of use it was clear this was going to stay in use for quite a while, and the author(s) have done a fantastic job. So feel free to give it a shot, alongside google photos app on your phone, and see how you feel.

It's not for everyone though, as I have an old computer at home running as a 'server' that can host immich. There's a certain nerd level requirement (that this forum should be full of) to get it set up. For users though? It's so far seamless -- my partner uses the app on her phone and likes it just fine. The backup works for her and there's a single button to click to clear space on her phone that just deletes things immich knows are on our home server already. Very useful.

I still open google photos app to edit videos occasionally -- it's better at that, and I do still use the google built in 'camera' app, so I'm kind of using google photos while I take pictures if that makes sense.

[1] https://immich.app/

Older people (seen it at 65+) will just click the nag without knowing what the button does and end up beaming up all photos to google cloud with no ability to disable the nag (it keeps showing up after a while) even when dismissed. If you are concerned about your data privacy, you may want to check on what photos of say your kids your parents are beaming up to google without their or your knowledge.

I use Ente photos [0] without logging in, just as a local gallery. Since their backup solution is E2EE, it does everything on-device – face/object search, map view, memories

[0] https://ente.com

One of the answers points the right steps to disable the Google account (and the annoying popup) in the Photos app:

- click on the account icon

- choose switch account and pick use this application without an account

Ah, bigcorp with the Pick-Up Artist model of consent: keep asking until they relent.

I find Google Photos asks me once every update. I got a Pixel 9 with 1 year of free Gemini Pro (or whatever version it is, their offering almost feels like Windows 7 Home Enterprise Ultimate), but because of their nagging about the backup I loathe to give them money to subscribe to Gemini beyond that.

I have a Google Pixel 1 I got from eBay, with "lifetime free photos backup", sitting plugged in on a shelf. Every evening my main phone syncs photos I take on it to my NAS, and another app copies the images from the NAS to that Pixel phone, which then backs it up to Google Photos... it's my finger to Google for being the enshittfiying assholes they are

And when you get at ~90% of space full is even worse! I stopped backing up photos to Google and use my local Immich instance (+ B2 remote backup) but I still haven't cleaned up the old ones from GPhotos/GDrive and it nags me in every possible way to buy more space!

I have it off. Although not backed up I see the image sorta AI scanned where, for a moment it outlines, segments people for a brief moment. Anyone notice this and what is going on?

In short, uninstall google photos. It has a bunch of other undesirable behaviours, the prompts are just one irritation.

On web I use an adblocker to block annoying google popups, including the Gemini one in gmail.

Immich is an amazing alternative. People should give it a chance. One click install: https://malmo.network/store/immich

I checked on my phone. I don't have Google Photos so maybe I uninstalled it or the phone came without it. It's a Samsung so it has Samsung Gallery but I'm not logged in into a Samsung account. Photos are local. I installed Aves Gallery [1] and that's my main photo app. Backups are through Syncthing which of course is not a mass market app, but I'm a software developer and being able to use niche alternatives is one of our privileges.

[1] https://github.com/deckerst/aves

The answer in the thread (which is quite hard to find) is to use the Google Photos app without an account.

The app has some very nice features that are locked behind account access though.

I have a similar question: how do I stop Google photos asking me to update every time I open it?

"You're missing out

Update your Google photos app for the newest features"

... I have zero interest in updating. I'm not missing out on anything... other than being able to browse my photos without this annoying message getting in the way.

This is another argument that we need more phone OS options, not just Android and iPhone. (Graphene isn't really a proper option yet).

One benefit of having a Samsung, you can uninstall google photos and still be able to use your camera.

I wonder why google locked it..

For pixel owners: the Google photos app cannot be uninstalled, but you can disable it using adb.

Use the website and block the popup with uBlock Origin. Using websites will always have better UX than apps, despite what devs will tell you, even on mobile devices.

solution: self host immich