There's a New Way to Automatically Back Up Your Android Photos for Free

If you're an Android user looking for a way to save your photos and videos without maxing out your cloud storage space, your device may soon be able to back up automatically to your PC. As spotted by Android Authority, Google included automatic backups from Android to Windows via Quick Share in its release notes for Google Play services v26.43.

Use your PC as free local storage for photos and videos

Quick Share is a wireless file-sharing feature for Android that allows users to send photos, videos, and documents to nearby devices, including Windows computers and iPhones with AirDrop. The new automatic backup feature, which is likely to roll out gradually, uses Quick Share's functionality to transfer copies of photos and videos on your phone to your PC when nearby.

Since these backups happen locally, you don't need to rely solely on cloud storage in your Google account, nor do you need to remember to initiate transfers of photos and videos between devices. Plus, this is all free and doesn't require a separate cloud service subscription. While you can back up your media to Google Photos, as of earlier this year, more data from your Android backups count toward your Google Account storage cap unless you exclude specific types. Alternatively, you can also cobble together a decent amount of cloud storage from other providers at no extra cost, but automatic backups between Android and Windows minimize the likelihood that you'll forget to save data, and your PC provides plenty of space for free.

How Android Quick Share backs up to your PC

Once the feature is available on your device, you'll be able to initiate backups in the Quick Share for Windows app. Your Android and Windows devices must be in close proximity and signed into the same Google Account. You can toggle Automatic backups on and change the settings for what gets backed up and to where. The transfers will then occur wirelessly in the background.

As Android Authority reports, early hints at this feature suggested that Samsung phones and PCs would be excluded from automatic backups, but the release notes don't specify any further details.