What is the best way to back up your photos and videos? Google One is convenient, but it locks you into a subscription. Privately hosted backup options like Immich offer total control, but they're troublesome to set up and use.

Many years ago, I used Picasa to store and manage my photos (I still use it as a secondary option). The problem is that getting my photos from my phone to my computer was a slow and frustrating manual process. Fortunately, an upcoming tool should change all that.

Current PC backup options are inconvenient or slow

Google's upcoming Quick Share feature should fix all that

Linking Android phones to Windows PCs is nothing new. Windows' Phone Link app has existed for years and offers a handy way to see your phone's messages, calls, and files from your PC.

However, while Phone Link has been convenient for viewing photos, it's never been a great way to back them up.

To back up photos through Phone Link, I have to drag and drop each new photo into a new folder. I use this feature a few times a month to bring individual photos from my phone, but I don't rely on it all the time.

Then there's Quick Share. Google offers a Quick Share app for Windows that is remarkably easy to use.

Like Phone Link, it's a great way to pull individual images from my phone quickly. I can save files to any folder I want and initialize Quick Share when my computer starts so it's always ready to receive files.

Both methods are useful, but they're terrible as a backup. That's why I'm excited about Google's upcoming automatic backup feature.

I have plenty of space on my PC; I want to use it

Using existing tools to solve problems

A big part of why I've never used a service like Immich is that I don't want to set up a separate NAS, and my computer isn't always on. So if I want to pull up an old memory from my phone while out, I can't.

However, it is useful as a secondary backup. Everything gets thrown into the local backup, while Google Photos stores the most important photos and videos.

Immich and its ilk are too much for this purpose. I don't need a locally stored Google Photos analogue, just a convenient place to store and sort my photos. Something like … Windows File Explorer.

A glance at my Google Photos storage shows my photos and videos use 70GB. I currently have 150GB of space left on my PC's 1TB hard drive. Perfect.

When backed up, I can instruct Picasa to scan these folders for new files. It sounds perfect.

I wish Picasa wasn't abandonware. It's a perfect example of a brilliant app that Google killed off to force us to use its other services. But hey, it still works great, and I love using it.

Automatic backups must support basic organizational features

Otherwise, automatic backups will become too messy to use

Using the Windows Quick Share app to automatically back up my photos sounds perfect. There are thousands of photos I don't need easy access to but don't want to lose.

However, I'll need Quick Share to include better organizational features. Currently, photos can only be saved in a single folder.

I want my photos to be sorted into a basic folder tree of years and months. That's all I need to find what I'm looking for.

If Google adds automatic backups to Windows PCs but keeps the single folder structure, I won't use the feature.

But I hope it does, as it sounds like the perfect way to back up my photos. I keep my phone on a wireless charger next to my PC while I'm working; there's no better time to back up my photos.

I can then stop backing up everything to Google Photos (screenshots are my biggest plague) and save money on a Google One subscription.

Will I be able to reduce my Google Photos storage below the 15GB limit for the free tier? Possibly. But I certainly won't need the 5TB of storage I currently have access to.

I love a new feature that improves something I already do

I use my Windows PC to manage, view, and edit photos. The problem has been consistently backing up to it.

This upcoming Quick Share feature will solve this problem. While I need Google to upgrade the Quick Share app's organizational features first, it sounds like the perfect solution to my backup woes.

Best of all? It'll and, ironically, reduce my reliance on Google's apps.