Google Photos will no longer offer unlimited storage on certain video formats

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If you’ve used an Android phone in the last three years, you’re probably pretty familiar with Google Photos. The offer of truly unlimited storage for your precious moments is awesome, even if sometimes Google compresses them a little bit. Still, unlimited storage is unlimited. Until it’s not.

Now, Google is introducing a minor change to the video storage part of Google Photos’ terms. Going forward, unsupported formats like RAW and VOB won’t be treated as unlimited storage anymore.

This change likely won’t affect most users, unless you’ve been using Google Photos to back up your DVD collection to the cloud. I mean, seriously, VOB? If you want to store all your anamorphic DVDs in the cloud, check out Google One‘s storage plans. Or you could store them locally on a NAS, and use Plex to pipe them to wherever you are.

There is still plenty of actual unlimited storage available

Most video formats are still considered as unlimited storage, as long as they’re 1080p and below for resolution. That includes:

.mpg, .mod, .mmv, .tod, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .divx, .mov, .m4v, .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .m2t, .m2ts, .mts, and .mkv files

You can still upload image RAW files from most major manufacturers cameras, it’s only video formats that have the change.

Screenshot: Joe Rice-Jones/KnowTechie

Google Photos is worth it

I’ve been a Google Photos user since the beginning, with a succession of Google devices. Starting with a Nexus 6P, I’ve also had a Pixel XL and my current Pixel 2. I take a ton of photos/screenshots daily, and thanks to the truly unlimited storage of Google Photos I’ve only racked up 0.11GB in all that time.

That’s crazy compared to the 4.5GB of (mostly) gifs in my Onedrive Photos folder that I started using around the same time.

Does this change to Google Photos affect you? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.