How to move photos and videos to cloud storage

Photos are manageable. Video is the real problem. A few minutes of 4K footage can eat more space than months of screenshots, and cloud backup only helps after you remove the local copies from the phone.

Start with Google Photos

Google Photos is still the easiest option for most Android users. It is built into many phones, works well on Pixel, and keeps the photo library searchable across devices.

Open Google Photos, tap your profile picture, then go to Photos settings > Backup. Turn Backup on and choose the quality you want.

Original quality keeps media in the same resolution and quality you shot it in. It counts against your Google Account storage.

Storage saver, formerly called High quality, uses slightly reduced quality. Google says photos larger than 16 MP are resized to 16 MP, and videos above 1080p are resized to 1080p. Storage saver also counts against your Google Account storage for new uploads. Files backed up in Storage saver before June 1, 2021 are the old exception and don’t count.

Each Google Account includes up to 15 GB shared across Google Photos, Gmail, and Google Drive. More storage starts at 100 GB through Google One, but prices and plan names vary by country, so don’t hard-code a price in your head.

Check device folders before you assume everything is backed up

Google Photos doesn’t always back up every folder you care about. The camera folder is the obvious one, but screenshots, WhatsApp images, downloaded images, screen recordings, and edited photos may live in separate folders.

Open Photos settings > Backup > Back up device folders. Turn on the folders you want. Leave noisy folders off if they are full of memes, temporary downloads, or chat images you don’t want mixed into your photo archive.

This is one of those settings people skip. Then they delete local files and discover the screenshots or WhatsApp folder was never backed up. Painful, avoidable mistake.

Free up phone storage after backup

Backup alone doesn’t free phone storage. It creates a cloud copy.

To remove only the local copies that Google Photos has backed up, open Google Photos, tap your profile picture, then choose Free up space on this device. Google Photos will show how much space it can reclaim before deleting local copies.

Don’t confuse that with deleting photos from the main Google Photos library. If you delete a backed-up photo inside Google Photos, it goes to trash and is removed from your cloud library too. Backed-up deleted photos stay in Google Photos trash for 60 days. Unbacked items deleted from an Android 11 or newer device stay in trash for 30 days when the app uses that trash flow.

That option is the safer button when your goal is to keep the cloud copy and remove the phone copy.

Google Drive is for files, not automatic camera backup

Google Drive can store camera media too, but it is manual. You upload files, put them in folders, and manage them like documents.

That makes Drive useful for selected albums, exported video projects, work folders, or files you want organized outside the Google Photos library. It is not as good for automatic phone cleanup because there is no Google Photos-style local cleanup flow tied to the camera roll.

For most people, Drive is a second tool, not the main photo backup system.

OneDrive is strong if you use Windows

OneDrive gives free accounts 5 GB of cloud storage, and Microsoft 365 plans commonly include 1 TB per user. The Android app can back up the camera roll automatically.

In OneDrive, tap your account image, then Settings > Camera backup. Check the backup account, whether videos are included, whether uploads can use mobile data, and whether backup only runs while charging.

OneDrive is a good fit if your main computer is a Windows PC. Photos appear in OneDrive on the desktop, which makes sorting and archiving easier than doing everything on a phone screen.

Samsung users should watch one current wrinkle: Microsoft says Samsung Gallery will stop syncing directly with OneDrive after September 30, 2026. Existing OneDrive photos won’t be deleted, but Samsung users who want OneDrive backup should use OneDrive’s own camera roll backup rather than relying on Gallery sync.

Dropbox works, but the free tier is small

Dropbox Basic starts with 2 GB. That is fine for documents and a small set of photos, but it is tiny for phone video.

Camera uploads are available in the Dropbox mobile app. On Android, open Dropbox, tap Account > Settings > Camera uploads, and turn photo backup on. Dropbox also lets you control mobile data use, which matters if the first upload includes years of photos.

Dropbox makes more sense if you already pay for it, share folders with other people, or use it heavily on a computer. If you’re starting from zero and only want phone photo backup, Google Photos or OneDrive usually fits better.

Before deleting local copies, check three things

First, confirm the backup finished. Open the cloud app and look for the newest camera items. Don’t trust a vague “syncing” icon while you’re on a weak network.

Second, check quality. If you shot a 4K video and backed it up in Storage saver, the cloud copy may be 1080p. That can be perfectly fine for family clips. It is not fine if the phone has the only full-quality copy of a project you care about.

Third, make sure you can get back into the account. Cloud storage is only as useful as your access to it. Use a strong password, keep recovery information current, and turn on two-factor authentication.

For anything irreplaceable, keep a second backup. A laptop, external SSD, NAS, or another cloud provider all count. Cloud storage is convenient, but one account should not be the only home for the best photos of your life.

How much space do you need?

It depends on how much video you shoot. A photo-heavy user can live with 100 GB for a long time. Someone who records kids’ sports, concerts, travel clips, or 4K video every week can burn through that quickly.

Instead of guessing, check your current camera folder size in Files or Settings > Storage. Then look at how much you added in the last month. That tells you more than any generic storage estimate.