Google Photos doesn't have to be one of those things that you set up and forget. Despite its initial simplicity, Google Photos is full of settings and features you can configure to make the app work better for you. With these hacks, you can manage a massive photo library, reduce cloud storage, hide pictures of your ex, and disable AI in search. Use Storage saver mode to upload more photos without running out of cloud storageIf you feel like you’re going to run out of cloud storage space, and you don’t care about backing up photos and videos at the best quality possible, try Google’s Storage saver mode. When backing up, it automatically scales down photos and videos to help you save cloud storage space at a respectable quality level. Photos get scaled down to 16MP, and videos stay at 1080p. This only works for new uploads, though, so the sooner you enable this feature, the better off you’ll be. Go to Settings > Backup > Photo and Video Quality and switch to Storage Saver.Use Hide Faces to stop Google Photos from resurfacing photos of your ex Credit: Khamosh Pathak Google Photos' Memories feature surfaces old photos and videos, and stitches them together in slideshows and videos. But this can also backfire if it shows you photos of people (say, an ex) you'd rather not see randomly in notifications when you're trying to work. Memories is thankfully highly customizable. You can tell Google Photos to show you more photos of your partner, kids, or pets, and ask it to show fewer photos of specific people. You can even block people from ever surfacing in suggestions. Go to Photos settings > Preferences > Memories > Hide Faces. Then, choose the faces that you want to block. Use this setting to automatically back up Locked photos to the cloudYou can use the Locked Folder in Google Photos to save sensitive photos or documents in a secure folder. Only a PIN or biometrics can get you through. But by default, the Locked Folder contents are local-only. Even if your entire Google Photos library is backed up, you might lose all that secured media if you lose your phone.There is a hidden setting that does let you back up and sync locked photos securely. Even after they are synced to the cloud and other devices, they will continue to stay in the Locked Folder. If it's not already set up, go to the Collections tab, swipe all the way to the bottom, and choose Locked Folder. During setup, you can enable the cloud backup feature. Alternatively, open the Locked Folder, tap the Cloud icon on the top toolbar, and enable Back up Locked Folder.Save space by compressing already uploaded photos and videos Credit: Khamosh Pathak The days of unlimited media backup on Google Photos are long gone. If you’re on the free 15GB Google plan, you might run out of storage entirely by backing up your entire photo library—which then leads to interruptions in services like Gmail and Google Drive. If you want to make do with the free storage that you have (or you don’t want to upgrade to a more expensive plan), try "Recover Storage" first. It sifts through the photos and videos that you've already uploaded and compresses them to the same quality as the Storage Saver mode I talked about above. For this to work, you'll need to visit the Google Photos website. From the sidebar, choose Storage, and click Learn More under Recover Storage. Tick the I Understand checkbox and click Compress existing photos & videos to get started.Use this setting to make sure you’re backing up all important folders Credit: Khamosh Pathak Google Photos on Android can go beyond backing up your camera roll. Because Google Photos has direct access to the Android file system, it can upload photos and videos from any folder. This includes the Downloads folder for Chrome, or WhatsApp’s media folder. That said, you should audit exactly which folders are being uploaded. You might want it to upload photos from the Downloads folder, but exclude WhatsApp media (which is already uploaded to Google Drive, if you have online backup enabled). From Photos Settings, go to Backup Settings > Default backup > Device folders, choose the folders you want to back up, and deselect ones you want to skip.Use the Storage Management feature to clean up blurry photos, large videos, and screenshots Credit: Khamosh Pathak Google Photos has a storage management tool that can help you get rid of photos and videos that are unnecessarily taking up too much space on your plan. From Photos settings, go to Backup > Manage storage. This opens up the Google One storage management screen where you can get rid of large attachments and files as well. But what I find more interesting is the Google Photos option in the "Clean up by service" section. Here, Google will intelligently suggest photos and videos to delete, categorized in tabs on top. This includes large video files, duplicate photos, screenshots that you don’t need, and more. Choose the photos you want to delete, and then tap Delete at the top.Delete from the Bin to make sure photos are completely erasedIf you’re purging your Google Photos library to reclaim some space, you might be stumped. You just deleted a bunch of photos and videos, but your cloud storage numbers haven't dropped. That’s because deleting a photo or video doesn’t actually remove it from your account, at least not yet. Google stores media for up to 30 days, in case you want to retrieve it later on. To completely get rid of deleted media, scroll to the bottom, find the Collections section, and choose Trash (or Bin). Here, tap the three-dot menu button, choose Empty Bin, and confirm using the Delete Permanently option.Bring back classic search by disabling "Ask Photos" Credit: Khamosh Pathak Google is trying to stuff AI editing features and Gemini into the Google Photos app. Most of it lives in the Create tab, which is easy enough to ignore. But Ask Photos is not. When you go to Search, it now integrates AI search directly into the results. This means that quickly searching for photos of a location, person, or a stored album takes a bit more time, and it might get influenced by an AI suggestion. Thankfully, there is a toggle that removes all the AI features from Search. Go to Photos Settings > Preferences > Gemini features in Photos and disable the Ask Photos feature. And while you’re here, you can choose to disable all Gemini features in Google Photos as well.Schedule incremental Google Takeout exports to securely back up data locally Credit: Khamosh Pathak Google offers a service called Google Takeout, where you can download an offline copy of all the data that Google has, including all your emails, files, and photos. Offline backups should be a part of every cohesive backup strategy, which makes Takeout a useful feature. But there’s always been an issue with Takeout: Every time you make a request, the feature downloads all the data, even if you only wanted to see what was new.Now, Google has introduced incremental exports. This means that only data created since the last export will be downloaded. Go to the Google Takeout website, sign in with your account, and only select Google Photos from the list. Then, choose the albums and media to export and hit Next. In the Frequency section, choose the Export every month for 1 year, or the Export every 2 months for 1 year option. Make sure to switch to the Only new and updated items option to turn on the incremental feature.Switch to Amazon Photos for automatic desktop uploadIf you’re paying for the $20 per month Google AI Pro plan, you get 5TB of cloud storage space included in the price. This is great for backing up your photo library and all the files on your computer. If you’re a photo or video professional, or you just like backing up photos via your Mac (after editing them), Google used to have a perfect solution with its Google Photos desktop backup. It would monitor a folder and automatically upload new items to the cloud. Sadly, that feature is no longer available.If you want the feature, switch to Amazon Photos on your computer instead. The dedicated desktop app uploads photos and videos from any folder, in the background. If you have Amazon Prime, you can upload unlimited photos for free, as well as 5GB of videos.