The Google Photos app has started automatically backing up all RAW images, reports 9to5Google. On a Pixel 8 that previously captured RAW pictures with the Pixel Camera app, the publication spotted Google Photos displaying a banner saying, “New RAW photos will appear in the Photos view and will now be backed up.” The existing RAW images on the device won’t be uploaded automatically.
When you click a RAW photo, a JPEG version is also captured and uploaded automatically to Google Photos. That’s not ideal if you take a lot of pictures in RAW since RAW files are larger than JPEG and could fill up your Google One storage quickly. Not to mention, it will also consume more data for upload.
The source also reports that the uploaded image appears in the main “Photos” tab in the Google Photos app with the “RAW” label in its top-right corner. The JPEG file is considered a part of the “Burst,” and a switcher appears at the bottom when you open a RAW file, allowing you to switch between JPEG and RAW.
When you are viewing the RAW file, you get “Set as main photo” and “Keep this photo only” options, while JPEG shows “Export this photo” or “Keep this photo only.”
If you have limited Google One storage available, shooting only in JPEG is advisable since there’s no easy way to restrict automatic RAW image uploads to Google Photos.
