That was the right way to do things in order to keep changes from being “destructive,” but it also means that short of Google uploading your Picasa database too, there’s no way to include it in your Google Photos collection. Because Picasa stores all of that information within in its own database, it isn’t embedded in your physical photo files. Virtually all of the blood, sweat, and tears you’ve invested into tasks such as photo editing and captioning are ignored in the upload process. Easy, but not painlessĪs easy as it is to get your photos into the cloud, it comes with a hefty price for Picasa users. It will eat into your total amount of available storage for your Google account. If you prefer, you can choose an uncompressed option, which lets you upload RAW files without any alterations. Did we mention that Google gives Photos users an unlimited amount of room on its servers? As long as your photos are under 16 megapixels in size, the compression that Photos performs should be virtually unnoticeable. It will take hours (or days) for all of your photos to make it to the cloud, but it happens in the background and doesn’t require any intervention on your part. To begin using Google Photos, simply download the Google Photos Backup tool, tell it where to look for your photos, and then let it do its thing. The company refers to it as “switching,” because that’s exactly how you have to think about it.

That’s because - with the exception of the Web Albums feature described above - Google hasn’t created a migration path from one product to the other. There’s a reason why Google doesn’t use the term “migrate” when encouraging Picasa users to embrace Google Photos. Google has been silent on exactly when or how this could happen, though. You may also find that Picasa functions which require web connectivity, like the Order Prints or Publish to Blogger features, may fail to work at some point. You can view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums from the Photos interface, but as of May 1, you cannot create, organize, or edit them. If you’re curious what that will look like, simply log in to Google Photos with the Google account you used to create the web Album - and voila - they’re already there. If you’ve been taking advantage of Picasa’s free web Albums feature, as of the only way to access them is through Google Photos. If you go this route, my advice is to re-download the latest version of Picasa (3.9) for Mac or Windows right now and keep the installer somewhere safe - you never know when you may need to reinstall it and who knows how easy it will be to find later. If you want to keep using Picasa, you can absolutely do so. No, your photos won’t suddenly disappear and neither will the software itself. However, if you already have the software installed, it will continue to work. That means no more versions will be released, no bug fixes will be issued, and no support will be offered.

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