Turn off Screenshots from backing up

[Robin621k]

I consider myself pretty savvy tech wise, for the life of me I can't figure out how to turn off screenshots from backing up to Google Photos.

Any ideas?

[LongHiker]

@Robin621k You could try saving them to a different location which Google Photos doesn't have access to. 

1. Open phone settings
2. Click on Advanced features
3. Click on Screenshots and screen recordings
4. Click on "Save screenshots in" and select a new folder. 

[Robin621k]

I don't want them saved at all. Google used to let you turn off screenshots, I guess they want you to clog up your space with screenshots. I clean out screenshots all the time on my phone. The are usually for the purpose of helping people on tlhis forum. I forget to delete them when I use them to help people.

[LongHiker · Accepted solution]

@Robin621k If you follow my instructions to save to a folder not available to Google Photos then it shouldn't be saved to Google Photos. 

[Robin621k]

Yay!

[realaud]

I have taken to going into Google Photos immediately after uploading the screenshots to a post and then deleting the screenshots just taken.  Sometimes I wait til the end of the day and just delete the days' worth of screen shots.  What @LongHiker is suggesting, is that you save them to a location other than the DCIM folder and that way a) they won't clutter up Google and b) you can just delete them from gallery or file manager when you feel like it.

[Robin621k]

I just did this!

[Tom6068]

Google photos will always show what your device has in images, but that does not mean they are backed up (one can tell if they are not backed up because they will not have the function to download the images, but they will have the ability to delete the image using Google photos if one wants) I do not know if they are visible in another directory..

Moving the screenshot folder is one way as suggested by @LongHiker , but there is another:

Turn off Google Photos automatic backup that can be accomplished with the photos app itself...

Open Google Photos, click on user icon/Photo settings/Back up and toggle it off. You can still save images to Photos by opening on the image and using the upload to Google photos function (as well as to other functions/apps). That can be done by clicking the "Share" icon, then choosing Google photos and upload it there.

[realaud]

If one has Google backup turned on, the photos are instantly backed up to Google.  You can see this by going to photos.google.com.  The only way they are not backed up to Google if Google backup is on is if you are out of storage space in Google.  Google only looks for photos in the DCIM folder, so if one does not want photos backed up, they should change their save location to somewhere else.

[Tom6068]

No that is not true. Google photos operates separately from the overall Google backup if one turns the photos backup as described by going to the Google photos settings.