Workarounds for Google Photos Uploader on Linux

Basic information of Google Photos

Google Photos is one of the best photo cloud storage options in the market. In the past, it offers unlimited storage for free as long as you upload files in high-quality mode. That means it will downscale the photos to 16MP versions, and reduce any 4K videos it finds to Full HD 1080p quality. Although this unlimited storage service ended on June 1, 2021, Google Photos has attracted massive users around the world.

In addition, Google Photos offer three ways for users to upload photos or videos. App for Android and iOS mobile devices, desktop uploader (Backup and Sync) for Windows PC and Mac laptop, and website for almost all devices. Therefore, users can back up their photos to the cloud service and access them from all of their devices.

Can I upload photos to Google Photos on Linux?

Of course, you can upload photos to Google Photos on Linux. As mentioned above, Google Photos offers a web app that you can use on almost all devices. You can upload, share, download photos via this web app as long as you have a browser and an account of Google Photos.

However, it is hard to achieve Google Photos Backup and Sync on Linux. Despite long-festering promises by Google to provide a non-browser-based client for Linux users, there is no official Google Photos desktop uploader for Linux users to upload and sync photos until now. 

But don’t be upset, if you are a Linux user and want to achieve auto Google Photos Linux upload instead of uploading through its web browser, you still have a workaround to sync photos to Google photos on Linux. please read on to learn more detailed information.

How to upload photos to Google Photos on Linux?

Google Drive web app is the alternative to Google Photos desktop uploader on Linux and users can upload and manage files through the Google Photos web browser. If you don't know how to use it, you can follow the steps below:

1. Go to photos.google.com to visit your Google Photos. If you're not already signed in, enter your Google account information to sign in.

2. Click Upload in the upper right corner of the page and you can choose to upload photos and videos from your Windows PC or files from an external drive hard drive connected to your computer.

✎Note: If you need to download photos from Google Photos to a Windows computer, hover over the photos and click the checkmark that appears. Select all the photos you want to download, and then click more icons at the top right to select Download.

How to sync photos to Google Photos on Linux?

As we all know, is possible to sync a folder with Google Drive in Linux, but, is it possible to sync pics and videos with Google Photos? However, Google Photos and Google Drive are no longer linked, and you can't enable the Google Photos folder in your Google Drive or sync Google Drive and Google Photos to browse all your photos and videos.

If you still want to backup photos to Google Photos on Linux automatically, you can use the Google Photos API to build a simple web application (you can run it at home) to easily back up your Google Photos account and media to various destinations (including Google Drive).

Conclusion

Google Photos web app is the Google Photos uploader on Linux. Following the steps above, you can upload photos to Google Photos manually. Although it is hard to sync or auto backup photos to Google Photos on Linux, you can try to set up a Google Photos API.