Google Photos / drivesync and albums
Discussion
On my laptop (windows 10), I have hundreds of photos all arranged into folders. The folder names are effectively albums.. for example I have individual folders for family / friends / cars etc.
I want to automatically sync all the photos with google photos & ideally want google photos to create 'albums' with the same name as each folder that syncs with the laptop. Is this possible?
I have Google drivesync working and it does sync the photos with Google photos however it just uploads hundreds of photos and I can't seem to get it to create albums automatically
The reason I am trying to do this: lets say I want to find a holiday snap from several years ago. On my laptop I can do this by looking for the folder with the correct name such as 'Zermatt Jan 2019' which contains all the photos from that trip. The closest I can get to this so far on google photos is to go to 'explore' and click on a location however this covers every time I have been there and not a specific trip.
If I cant achieve what I am looking to do - is there a better way of doing it?
I want to automatically sync all the photos with google photos & ideally want google photos to create 'albums' with the same name as each folder that syncs with the laptop. Is this possible?
I have Google drivesync working and it does sync the photos with Google photos however it just uploads hundreds of photos and I can't seem to get it to create albums automatically
The reason I am trying to do this: lets say I want to find a holiday snap from several years ago. On my laptop I can do this by looking for the folder with the correct name such as 'Zermatt Jan 2019' which contains all the photos from that trip. The closest I can get to this so far on google photos is to go to 'explore' and click on a location however this covers every time I have been there and not a specific trip.
If I cant achieve what I am looking to do - is there a better way of doing it?
It won't create albums automatically.
What I would be inclined to do is rename all the photos using a bulk renamer tool - this then should allow the google photos search engine to select the right photos when entered.
Either that or manual upload (which is what I ended up doing for all our 30k+ of images, albuming them as I went - its a laborious process though even with a 2-300mb upload speed.
What I would be inclined to do is rename all the photos using a bulk renamer tool - this then should allow the google photos search engine to select the right photos when entered.
Either that or manual upload (which is what I ended up doing for all our 30k+ of images, albuming them as I went - its a laborious process though even with a 2-300mb upload speed.
Thanks the file renaming is a good call I think... I hadn't realised you could still search on the original file name. I will likely be continuosly adding photos to some of the albums so I'd like to use backup and sync to keep the laptop and google photos in sync rather than doing it manually. I'll do a bit of research 
G Photos is great for this type of cataloguing and album management once you are using it everyday, but your scenario of having a back catalogue where many photos don't have metadata is going to involve some degree of manual intervention to get setup.
The easiest way to get started with your back catalogue is to upload one folder at a time. Once all the pics are uploaded you'll be prompted to either add that upload to a new album or just leave the photos to appear in the main photostream.
Adding the photos a folder at a time obviously allows you to name each album as you go.
You mention it's 100s of photos, so it wouldn't take long to do, as opposed to 1000s or 10000s.
If sitting at the PC is a chore you could always share the Windows drive as a network share on your WiFi network and use a phone or tablet when you are doing other stuff around the house and upload from that portable device.
The easiest way to get started with your back catalogue is to upload one folder at a time. Once all the pics are uploaded you'll be prompted to either add that upload to a new album or just leave the photos to appear in the main photostream.
Adding the photos a folder at a time obviously allows you to name each album as you go.
You mention it's 100s of photos, so it wouldn't take long to do, as opposed to 1000s or 10000s.
If sitting at the PC is a chore you could always share the Windows drive as a network share on your WiFi network and use a phone or tablet when you are doing other stuff around the house and upload from that portable device.
If you have lots of folders www.picbackman.com works really well and removes all the hassle. I was in similar position, I don't bother with the new photos as they are all GPS stamped and let the facial recongition in GP sort.
jollysoutherner said:
If you have lots of folders www.picbackman.com works really well and removes all the hassle.
thanks that looks interesting - will take a closer lookGassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff