Android 12 will prevent screenshots being automatically uploaded on Google Photos
Google Photos users with Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo smartphones have been struggling with a niggling issue since forever – their phones have been backing up their screenshots along with their camera shots with no option to switch it off. According to people from XDA Developers, who dug around the Android 12 beta, Google will finally require that all devices that want to run Android 12 must save the screengrabs in a different folder so they don’t mix with the actual photos.
Up until now, major manufacturers pushed the screenshots into the DCIM subfolder (which stands for Digital Camera Images). Since Google Photos’ backup service uploads every image in the DCIM photo, it would upload everything, including screenshots.
According to XDA Developers, in the preliminary revision of the Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) of Android 12, there’s text saying makers must save screenshots to Pictures > Screenshots, instead of the DCIM folder, which will be reserved for photos, taken with the camera app.
People that do want their screenshots backed up can simply opt-in with selecting the new folder to be backed up, of course. The option is still in the Settings of the Google Photos app, under Back up & sync > Back up device folders, where one can select other folders to be saved in the cloud.
