Google Photos Backup File Size Smaller than Photos app for Portrait Mode Pics

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Google Photos Backup File Size Smaller than Photos app for Portrait Mode Pics

I have the new iPhone 15 Pro, and I'm syncing my photos to Google Photos (set to save as "Original Quality") as well as iCloud for backups. I've noticed, however, that photos I take in portrait mode sync to Google Photos at a much lower file size than what the Photos app reports.

I think I've determined what is happening. When I export a portrait-mode photo using the "Unmodified Original" option, I get a folder with two HEIF files. One is much larger but with no depth information. The smaller file has the faux depth-of-field applied. That smaller file seems to be the one that gets synced to Google Photos.

I can't help but feel like I must be losing information by syncing only the smaller of the two files to Google Photos. I tried manually uploading the larger file to Google Photos, but it did not retain any of the depth-of-field info (i.e., I was unable to edit the depth-of-field). It also created a duplicate photos rather than packaging it nicely like the Photos app does.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Is this new with how the iPhone 15s are handling depth of field?

iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 17

Posted on Dec 2, 2023 7:00 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,996 points

Dec 3, 2023 12:48 AM in response to teriyaki_x

At a guess what you have there is an original fie, and an edited version (hence the presence of the sidecar files). Why Google is choosing to import one over the other is a question best asked on their forums I would think.

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Answer 2

teriyaki_x Author

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8 points

Dec 6, 2023 12:46 PM in response to Yer_Man

So every time a portrait-mode photo is taken, it automatically creates an "edited" version with the OS's guess on depth-of-field? What's weird is that the edited shot is so much smaller in file size than the original. This also makes syncing to other platforms much more difficult. You're then essentially stuck either paying for additional iCloud storage space to save the ever-increasingly large files, or you must archive locally to the Photos app. Backing up from your iPhone to any other service is going to not truly back up the full-resolution image but a much smaller "edited" copy.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,996 points

Dec 6, 2023 3:00 PM in response to teriyaki_x

You're inferring a lot there about other online services. Have you asked Google why they do what they do? What did they say?

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Google Photos Backup File Size Smaller than Photos app for Portrait Mode Pics

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