Stop Google Photos from automatically uploading screenshots on Android
Why does this happen?
Are you frustrated that Google Photos automatically backs up your Android phone’s screenshots and other pictures when you told it to only back up your Camera pictures? After many attempts to fix this, I finally found one approach that works perfectly!
Traditionally, camera photos are saved in the “DCIM” folder, so Google Photos automatically uploads everything in that folder for your camera. However, on certain devices, including Samsung phones, screenshots are saved to a “Screenshots” folder inside “DCIM”. This makes Google Photos think that these screenshots are from the camera, so it automatically uploads them. Some other apps also save photos inside the “DCIM” folder, such as Facebook and the Samsung GIF creator, so they suffer from the same issue.
Set up Auto File Transfer
Start by installing the Auto File Transfer app. Open it, agree to all the permissions it needs and click the plus button in the upper-right corner to create a new auto-transfer.
You can name the transfer whatever you like. I named mine Screenshots since that’s what I want to automatically move to another folder.
For Source Folder, you’ll want to select the place where your screenshots are being saved right now, which is probably “DCIM/Screenshots”.
The Target Folder is where all of your screenshots will go from now on. It can be wherever you want, but I chose “Pictures/Screenshots”.
Use the same default settings I used for the “Option” and “Advance” sections. Make sure to add “End with” for “.nomedia” to the Ignore List. We’ll need to keep those files in the source folders.
Hide images from source folder
Download Simple File Manager on your phone. Add a “.nomedia” file into the source folder you chose above, such as “DCIM/Screenshots”. By doing this, Google Photos will no longer think that there are any photos in that folder.
Keep Auto File Transfer running in the background
This step is very important. If Auto File Transfer can’t run indefinitely in the background, you’ll have to open it periodically to restart the file transferring.
- In the Options menu of the Auto File Transfer app, ensure that the “Detection schedule” is set to “Instant (With Notification)”. This allows the app to run in the background, but also shows a persistent notification. It’s possible to hide the notification by long-pressing on the notification, clicking “Details” and then disabling the “Notification after file transferred” option.
- Whitelist Auto File Transfer from Android battery optimization. This guide will walk you through the process: How to Turn off Battery Optimization for Individual Android Apps.
Want to transfer pictures from multiple folders?
If you need to move files from more than one folder, you’ll need to buy the Premium in-app purchase for Auto File Transfer ($3.99), which will also remove the ads. You can then set up unlimited transfers by following the same steps above for each folder.
That’s it!
If you followed all of the steps above, you shouldn’t have to worry about this issue anymore.
However, there are a couple minor drawbacks to this approach:
- On some phones, this setup will make it impossible to quickly edit/share the image with pop-up shortcuts after taking a screenshot. Instead, you’ll have to find the image in your Gallery and edit/share it from there.
- You may have to reopen the Auto File Transfer app whenever you restart your phone to start up the file transferring.
Hopefully Google Photos will fix this ridiculous issue soon and a workaround won’t be necessary. Until then, I hope this guide helps you get through it!
