I’ve been typing review and answering questions on mac, finish the review and switch to iphone to Edit review, add photos from phone. really hope the feature will be reinstated soon.
I’m now on a MacBook.
I was not able to select photos from Google Photos when trying to add a photo to Google Maps.
This is impacting me as well. It’s very frustrating as part of the reason I commit to the Google ecosystem so heavily is its interconnectivity.
Hi - has this been fixed now? Just tried to do a review today and it’s still not working. I prefer doing my Google reviews on my deskptop instead of my phone, which I can easily connect to my Google photos. Hope this has been escalated, thanks.
Hello @anon93509991 and first let me welcome you to Connect.
Unfortunately it has not yet been fixed. I had no issues in writing a review couple of days ago on desktop.
For photos, I have to add through my mobile.
This is terrible way to upload new photos. I’ve already uploaded them to the Google Photos. Why should I upload them once again?
I am a very active Google Maps contributor and Level 8 Local Guide with 39,508 points, 386 reviews, and 4,829 photos.
For years, I had a very convenient workflow when writing Google Maps reviews on my Windows PC. While writing a review, I could click to add photos and select the pictures directly from my Google Photos account. Since my phone automatically backs up my pictures to Google Photos, this made it easy to write a review on my desktop computer and attach the appropriate photos without having to move files around.
That functionality no longer appears to be available to me.
Now, when I am writing a review on Google Maps on my PC and click Add photos, Google Maps immediately opens the Windows file picker on my computer’s hard drive. I am no longer given an option to browse or select pictures directly from Google Photos.
The result is a very cumbersome process:
- Open Google Photos.
- Find the photos I want to use.
- Download them from Google Photos to my PC.
- Return to Google Maps.
- Click Add Photos.
- Find the downloaded files on my PC.
- Upload those same photos back to Google through Maps.
- Delete the unnecessary downloaded copies from my PC afterward.
This is particularly inconvenient for an active Local Guide. With 4,829 photos already contributed, I regularly add photos along with my reviews. The previous Google Photos integration made contributing from a desktop computer quick and efficient.
This has been happening for quite some time, so it does not appear to be a temporary problem. I have also seen the suggestion to clear the Google Maps cache, but the behavior appears to be the current upload interface rather than a failure to load something.
My main questions are:
1. Was the ability to select photos directly from Google Photos intentionally removed from the Google Maps desktop review interface?
2. If it has not been removed, how can I restore or access the Google Photos option when adding pictures to a review?
3. If it was intentionally removed, could Google consider restoring it? It was an extremely useful feature for Local Guides who take photos on their phones but prefer to write detailed reviews on a desktop computer.
The photos are already stored in my Google account. Having to download them from one Google service to my computer simply so I can upload them back to another Google service adds several unnecessary steps to every review.
Hello @gghowell1966 welcome to the Local Guides Connect community!
Unfortunately, this has been changed several weeks ago. Please have a look at this discussion: No longer able to select photos from Google Photos?
Thanks for reporting this.
Google policy makes it very unlikely that we will know if it was a bug it an intended change.
I have moved your topic to the ongoing discussion mentioned by @WilfriedB .
Thank you for confirming that this is a change to the default process and not an issue with my computer.
I would strongly encourage the Google Maps team to restore the ability to select photos directly from Google Photos when writing a review on desktop.
The previous process was fast and seamless. The new process requires downloading photos from Google Photos to the computer, then uploading those same photos back to Google Maps. For active Local Guides who regularly contribute reviews and photos, this adds a lot of unnecessary steps.
Since the photos are already stored in Google Photos under the same Google account, restoring the direct connection would make contributing to Maps much easier.
Thank you for passing this feedback along to the Maps team.
There have been instances where I write a post on desktop, save it as a Draft, then open it on mobile to add other info such as photos or screenshots.