Two days ago I cleaned up my mobile phone and Google Photos: deleted photos of no historical/personal value, archived certain photos to Google Archive, and the remaining items were removed from my phone with the Google function/option to remove photos from phone after they have been backed up to Google Photos.
I also discovered that the phone archive is unique to your phone, and has a capacity limit. That is, it replicates what has been moved to the Archive folder in Google Photos up to it’s limit when you get a warning the archive is full, and any photos archived after that on Google Photos still appear in the regular camera folder on the mobile device. So I emptied the Archive on my phone, which did not affect the photos archived in Google Photos, and deleted the marooned photos archived in Photos but left in the camera folder on my mobile.
Shortly after doing this, my Local Guides points count went down about 2,000 points! And it was obvious that it was the photo activity that did it. My photo contribution stats have decreased by almost 300 photos, and there is still a discrepancy in the number of photos listed in my stats pages. It seems the 360 degree photos I took are the most affected, but it’s exceptionally difficult to tell what did what.
I thought that once photos were loaded up to Google Maps it was final unless you deleted the photo in Google Maps. That is, your contributions after submittal were then independent of the device (your phone) you took them on and Google Photos. I never expected that messing around with old photos on your phone would wipe out your Local Guides points!!!
So my questions to the community are:
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Can anyone explain if there are in fact certain types of photos that when uploaded to Google Maps are dependent on being maintained (kept) on the device that took/uploaded them? Perhaps in the Street View app?
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If the answer to 1) is not dependent on the uploading device (e.g. they should be independent), then how do I get my points back?
This is very depressing. It would also mean that Google is using personal storage for persistence in their products. But perhaps there is an explanation about the way photo contributions work that makes sense and explain this. Your answers and help would be most appreciated.
***Note - you cannot publish until you select a Topic. The only choices are Photography, Travel, Food and Drink, Local Stories, Meet-ups and How-tos. None of them seem relevant to this type of question other than Help Desk - which is not a Topic - and you can ONLY select ONE Topic!!! My apologies if you think this is posted in the wrong topic!
Charlie
