Solved: Too Many Photo Choices when adding to Maps (and no favorites)

Note: Sometimes I think I’m a little slow to figure things out. I don’t expect what I am explaining here to be ‘big news” to very many people, but it’s been a game changer for me.

I had been getting very frustrated when I would go to add some photos to Maps on my Android phone . After I go out and shoot some pictures I look through them; choose the best of the similar shots and edit it and mark it with a star. I don’t usually delete the ones I don’t use right away, in case I change my mind about which ones to use and this is also why I often do a “save as” for my edit. And so I can do a before and after comparison.

So after clicking on “add photo” we get this screen and so I would start scrolling down to find the photos I wanted.

In this illustration I was looking for two storefront photos to post (Actually I would be adding them separately, but they are of businesses that are side by side and were taken at the same time, and I’m trying to illustrate the problem I was having. I was expecting to see 3 shots of the white storefront (with one of them starred) and one of the beige storefront (with a star). This what I actually saw (numbers added):

So I’m wondering what in the world is going on? I finally realized that Maps was showing me all of the photos on my phone, not just my Google Photos. I usually shoot in JPG and raw (DNG) formats. In this view it is showing both files of the same photo plus the file I created when I did a “save as”. In the case of the beige storefront it is showing my edited version, the raw file, and the original that I had put in the trash.

Now when I get to the add photo screen I click on the folder icon and then the photos icon. When I scroll down this is what I see, which is what I had been wanting all along.

I feel kind of silly that it has taken me this long to figure out what I was doing wrong, but maybe it will help someone else out.

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Thanks for sharing this tip, @Rednewt74

It might be useful for some readers to know what platform you are using. It looks like Android to me.

Tapping folders is something my fingers do automatically without me even giving it a thought.

When finding the easiest ways to upload photos I often use a computer where the folder “from mobile” is where the latest Google Photos can be found.

And often I follow the display order in the Google Photos folder to ensure I don’t skip any photos.

And when the places are outside and sufficiently far apart I use the “Share to Maps” function which often will suggest the correct pin to upload each photo to. Then uploading photos is really fast.

And contrary to you, I will delete copies and the unedited version. Which I’m not always proud of.

All the best

Morten

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Thanks for sharing your find @Rednewt74 . I’m sure it will be helpful to many.

May I suggest that you edit your post and change it to How-tos as that I think is a better fit in this case.

@MortenCopenhagen ,

Thank you for the suggestion. I have added my phone type. As to deleting unused photos as I go, I am starting to do that too. Do you keep the ones that you upload?

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@AdamGT , I have moved the post. Thank you for the suggestion.

Hi @Rednewt74

Yes, I actually keep the ones that I uploaded to Google Maps in Google Photos.

Your question made me think: Maybe it is better to save the unedited files instead. That would probably make more sense since it takes only a short time to re-edit an image and the edited images are on Google Maps. Hmmnn. Thanks for making me aware of this. But I need to figure out how this be done quickly. And keep in mind that the upload to Google Photos in storage saver mode is where the degradation occurs.

@Rednewt74 Are you aware of how to download your (and other’s) photos from Google Maps in the highest possible resolution?

Cheers

Morten

@MortenCopenhagen ,

If you edit a picture and save it, you’re supposed to be able to go back in and revert it to the original. If you edit a photo and do a save as, you won’t be able to do the revert, so that might affect your decision about which one to keep. I like marking the photos that I upload as favorite/starred, because I find it easier to keep track that way. I’m considering creating a Google Map album for the photos I upload. And then I will move them into the archive section. I found this information regarding archives and albums.

“Select all photos that you don’t want to see often and tap on the three-dot menu icon on the upper right to Archive it. When you archive a photo, you will still see them in search results and albums, but not in the stream or the main photos tab”

Currently I am saving to Google Photos in full resolution.

I’ve been spending a good bit of time recently removing poor performing photos and I had just been thinking about how to download them from Maps. I haven’t found any way to do it. I imagine it has to do with them trying to protect copyrights. I suppose you could open a photo and make it large on a 1080p computer monitor and then take a screenshot of it. Maybe somebody else knows how to download them.

Best Regards,

@Rednewt74

The “Download original” does not work consistently in my experience, but I may need to test this systematically.

Here is the tip for downloading the original quality still images:

Use a desktop computer.

Start flagging the image you want to download.

On the reporting page, the image will be shown in the highest available resolutions.

Right-click on the image and select Save as.

Then abort the flagging procedure.

Learn more in this post.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Morten

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Yes, I have found the revert feature inconsistent as well; it may be that I’m trying to revert a saved as file.

Thanks for the work around on downloading higher res photos.

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Hi @Rednewt74 ,

Unfortunately your attempt to move your post to How-tos wasn’t successful.

I just want to let you know that I will do it for you and change the topic of your post to keep Connect organized. This is the place where you can ask questions, share tips and feedback about Connect and the Local Guides program.

You can look into the helpful instructions described in this post: Edit your post - Why and How To when you next time want to edit a post of yours.

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