I have only just become aware that unknown to me Google has been backing up everything on my mobile phone. I got an email saying that unless I purchase additional storage my gmail account will be blocked. Now assuming this isn't a scam can Google do this? I do my own back ups to a hard drive and half what is on the phone is garbage anyway. I periodically delete the photos I don't need. Like the price offer in Costco that I copied as a reminder.

I been deleted stuff like mad from Google, all the emails have been deleted but I can only delete photos individually. I can't see any global delete function. So I don't have to spend the next few days individually deleting backed up photos one at a time is the a global delete everything command.

just turn backup off, I don't use it

19 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

I have only just become aware that unknown to me Google has been backing up everything on my mobile phone. I got an email saying that unless I purchase additional storage my gmail account will be blocked. Now assuming this isn't a scam can Google do this? I do my own back ups to a hard drive and half what is on the phone is garbage anyway. I periodically delete the photos I don't need. Like the price offer in Costco that I copied as a reminder.

I been deleted stuff like mad from Google, all the emails have been deleted but I can only delete photos individually. I can't see any global delete function. So I don't have to spend the next few days individually deleting backed up photos one at a time is the a global delete everything command.

My advice would be -- as much as possible -- get the hell away from Google. I made that transition about 10 years ago.

4 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

just turn backup off, I don't use it

Is that on the phone or in the Google account?

Just got a message saying all 15GB is full. God knows why, only 2 days ago I deleted 2GB or more of photos plus all the emails.

If you have a lot of photos stored you can free up a lot of space by compressing them. Open photos, go to settings and click on "manage storage". Then go to "recover storage" and click that. Makes a big difference!

5 minutes ago, Ricohoc said:

My advice would be -- as much as possible -- get the hell away from Google. I made that transition about 10 years ago.

To be honest I only thought I had signed up for a gmail address.

2 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Is that on the phone or in the Google account?

Just got a message saying all 15GB is full. God knows why, only 2 days ago I deleted 2GB or more of photos plus all the emails.

Ask Gemini how to turn it off and what to do. It usually pops up in Google Photos asks me to back up and i always say no

4 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

I have only just become aware that unknown to me Google has been backing up everything on my mobile phone.

They seem to like to turn things back on during an 'update'

also use vague terms to mislead someone into backing up things to their servers instead of your own.

This can also happen when your phone OS gets updates its a right pain.

Before removing stuff from google's servers make sure you have a backup on your own server/hard drive/SSD drive.

There is no requirement for you to use google's storage but they do set a limit on the 'free' amount of storage they allow 'free' amount

is inclusive of all the things they offer like e-mail,photos, calendar,drive etc etc etc..once you get below the limit they have set for your 'free' storage they will not block you.

I personally try my damnedest not to save stuff to Google's servers

as they keep it all forever, use it for marketing, AI training and government surveillance.

The hoops they make you jump through to turn all the stuff off is

amazing especially on the phones ..they bury those settings deep down and hard to find. ☹️ ☠️

2 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

To be honest I only thought I had signed up for a gmail address.

Ha ha you signed up for much more than that !!!!

5 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

If you have a lot of photos stored you can free up a lot of space by compressing them. Open photos, go to settings and click on "manage storage". Then go to "recover storage" and click that. Makes a big difference!

(Note you have to access this on a pc, not on your phone).

1 minute ago, Upnotover said:

If you have a lot of photos stored you can free up a lot of space by compressing them. Open photos, go to settings and click on "manage storage". Then go to "recover storage" and click that. Makes a big difference!

Important photos I take on the digital camera backed up on the computer and a back up hard drive. I do a periodic back up of the phone to hard drive and a bit of a clear out. At least with a Samsung that option is available.

2 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Important photos I take on the digital camera backed up on the computer and a back up hard drive. I do a periodic back up of the phone to hard drive and a bit of a clear out. At least with a Samsung that option is available.

I do the same but like you had accumulated almost 15GB of photos on Google by not turning off the automatic backup (which is very easy to turn off). By using the recover storage option I now have only 3.7GB of photos. And as I don't add any new ones it will not increase.

25 minutes ago, Geoff914 said:

Is that on the phone or in the Google account?

turn it off on the phone.