I have been using Google Photos to back-up and synchronize my photos from Android and iPhone devices for years. But everything changed when I decided to invest in iPhone mobile photography, I needed to enjoy the advantages that Google Photo provided on Android on my iPad (which holds memories from my dear system who I lost years ago), iPhone SE and later iPhone 7 Plus then 8 Plus. But that was just a nightmare.
As I enjoyed photography with iPhone SE and later iPhone 7 Plus and 8 Plus, I decided to use Google Photos to back-up my photos and videos which turned about to be extremely slow, I thought It has something to do with the iPhone but later I had to face the same crappy performance with my iPad and later iPhone 7 Plus.
Currently, I have 18.330 photos on my iPhone 7 Plus that are begun on hold for Google photos for over than a year now.
As I suspected the internet connection at my house, I tried it at several locations, and again I get the same bad performance.
Later on, I bought my Android Machine Realme XT, which works with Google Photos like charm on the same connection.
I have thousands of Photos and Videos on my iPhone over the years, and Google Photos is the best solution because Apple cloud storage is just so expensive. I have my iPhone 7 Plus as a dead photography phone that I can't use it easy because there is no enough space on the storage (128GB).
I decided to dig deeper into the problem and I found that it's a global problem that affects many users of the app.
With every update for the application for iOS devices, I expect a better performance or solving the upload problem, but I get the same lousy slow upload or hang-ups.
Large unsatisfied user base
Some users reported no issues, as the photos are uploaded quickly without a problem, but dozens reported otherwise.
Google Photos on Android VS Google Photos on iOS
The performance on Android is superior to the application on iOS devices that I tested on. While Google Photos on Android upload quickly without any problem on the same networks, It gets stuck on the same photo for hours.
The search performance for the photos on the devices is also terrible for the iOS app comparing to the Android counterpart.
However, when there is a new set uploaded from my Android devices, I get a notification for an enhanced photo's suggestion, an animation or a collage. It means it's not completely a dead application.
Let me summarize the finding in a short list:
- A Lousy performance
- I Can't choose a folder or image group to upload like favorites or portrait
- Extremely slow to upload and back-up photos and videos
Conclusion
Google Photo App for iOS is the worst iPhone photography nightmare. If you are using your iPhone device for photography like I do, consider using another alternative to back up your photos.
