[Technology] Help - Samsung Phone/Cloud and Google Photos changes

Ok, I admit it. I struggle from time to time with phone tech. I probably should have headed up with Omsung Phine!. But despite a lot of Googling, the pages seem geared to a level of understanding I don't have. My problem is two occurrences at the same time.

Received a message saying 'End of Samsung Cloud Features Notice' saying that from 30th June, Gallery Sync and Drive Storage for My Files will no longer be supported and my data will be deleted.

These features will now be supported by MicroSoft OneDrive. To minimise inconvenience, I can migrate my existing gallery Sync and Drive Data conveniently until 31st March and continue with my service experience. It gives instructions how to do this or download my data to my phone prior to deletion.

However, I don't have any idea if I use any of these features or where to find if I have any data.

Google Photos have muddied the waters with their own changes also kicking off from 30th June. They tell me Google Photos Is the home for 4 trillion photos and videos including mine, so I presume that's where my photo's are stored, although I thought they were in my phone storage somehow. Mrs Earle and I have several years of photos on phones, but I don't know if they are still on the phone storage if they are backed up or if the Samsung changes will wipe our photos.

It's a worry because phone tech has passed me by and I don't want to lose anything important.

Anyone else with the same set of circumstances, or the knowledge, have a couple of layman tips for idiots like me who struggle to understand the definitions of what they have?

I really don't understand the crossover between the changes or the impact on my day to day usage and storage, so any help would be appreciated thanks.

Firstly I'd check whether your photos have already synced to Google Photos - just open the app and scroll down the list.

If not:

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/12/01/samsung-cloud-ending/

"There are two ways you can back up your data since Samsung Cloud is ending.

You can migrate it to OneDrive easily by opening the Samsung Gallery app setting and tapping ‘Switch to OneDrive’. Then, follow the prompts on screen.

Alternatively you can simply download your ending Samsung Cloud data or files to a mobile device or PC, before then uploading them to OneDrive manually."


If you want to get your photos into Google Photos rather than (or as well as) OneDrive, I'd suggest using a PC with Google Chrome logged into your Google account. Firstly download the photos from Samsung Cloud (https://support.samsungcloud.com/#/login) then open Google Photos from Chrome and drag/drop into there. You can do it on your phone, but a laptop will be easier to navigate.

You are not alone Mr Steve, all these notifications/updates might as well be written in Bulgarian as far as my depth of knowledge on the subject is concerned! My Grandson has to translate it all for me and then sort my phone out (Blagodarya ti Bojidar)!

schmunk said:

Firstly I'd check whether your photos have already synced to Google Photos - just open the app and scroll down the list.

If not:

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/12/01/samsung-cloud-ending/

"There are two ways you can back up your data since Samsung Cloud is ending.

You can migrate it to OneDrive easily by opening the Samsung Gallery app setting and tapping ‘Switch to OneDrive’. Then, follow the prompts on screen.

Alternatively you can simply download your ending Samsung Cloud data or files to a mobile device or PC, before then uploading them to OneDrive manually."


If you want to get your photos into Google Photos rather than (or as well as) OneDrive, I'd suggest using a PC with Google Chrome logged into your Google account. Firstly download the photos from Samsung Cloud (https://support.samsungcloud.com/#/login) then open Google Photos from Chrome and drag/drop into there. You can do it on your phone, but a laptop will be easier to navigate.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Very helpful.I've opened the App and they are there. I didn't realise if I tapped on my icon at top right of the screen that it would show a menu. It has a tick in a cloud for backup complete. But a lower box has a tick in it which says free up 2.52GB. It also says 'These items have already been backed up to your Google account. Seems contradictory.

Presumably once it's in the cloud for Google Photos, they are safe from Samsung deletion. I'm not sure where to check what data will be deleted when Samsung Cloud goes.

Super Steve Earle said:

Thanks. Very helpful.I've opened the App and they are there. I didn't realise if I tapped on my icon at top right of the screen that it would show a menu. It has a tick in a cloud for backup complete. But a lower box has a tick in it which says free up 2.52GB. It also says 'These items have already been backed up to your Google account. Seems contradictory.

Presumably once it's in the cloud for Google Photos, they are safe from Samsung deletion. I'm not sure where to check what data will be deleted when Samsung Cloud goes.

Click to expand...

The "Free up xxx" deletes the files from your phone, because they're already backed up in the cloud (Google Photos). It's safe to do, but means you'll need to have internet access to view them again (to download / view online). There's no need to delete unless you're running short of space on your phone.

The Samsung deletion won't affect anything already backed up in Google Photos but I'd recommend doing a full download of the Samsung files to a laptop so you can check them through at your leisure and decide to back up anything elsewhere if needed.