I have a Nexus 5. I am in the Photos app, looking at the camera roll. I want to move/copy some photos to a new album, so I enter bulk-selection mode. When I select certain photos, the 'Copy to album' link disappears. Why does this copy icon disappear for some photos?
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4 Answers
This is really annoying but it only lets you copy photos after they have been uploaded to the Google server. Some of the photos you are trying to copy to an album maybe in a directory on your phone that is not set to upload. In the newer versions of the Photos app, it allows you to backup folders outside of the camera folder. If you share the picture it will automatically upload it and then will allow you to copy it to an album. Otherwise, you need to set the local folder to auto backup.
The "Copy to Album" icon disappears when you select a video as part of photos. So apparently you cannot copy videos to a new album on the phone.
This makes sense because copying creates a new file which takes up as much space as the original file. Videos can take up anywhere from 100Mbs to 1000Mbs. Since both the space on the phones and the free space offered by Google on Google+ is limited, this may easily use up your available space. Whether this is the reason or not, the fact stays true: the Google+ Photos app does not support copying videos to new albums.
If you want to copy photos just skip the videos (with the "play" overlay) when selecting multiple files.
If you still want to copy the videos, you can do so on the web at https://plus.google.com/photos.
Also, instead of copying videos and photos you could move them to new albums, that way you don't have multiple copies and leave more free space for other videos. Both Copy and Move options are available on the Web interface on top of the photo when you view individual photos/videos or select multiple ones on the grid.
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Thanks very much for your response. I am not selecting videos at all - they are definitely photos. Regarding copying vs moving, what I really want to do is tag so that I can have photos appearing in multiple albums, which I can then share.– sennettCommented Aug 21, 2014 at 18:57
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@sennett, in that case it's hard to say why that's happening - is there a logic behind that (e.g. file size) in the app or is that just a bug? Regardless of that - have you tried the same actions on the Google+ web interface at plus.google.com/photos?– ulmasCommented Aug 22, 2014 at 2:23
Same here. It is just not supported. Only the web interface allows it. On Android only single photos work. Btw, a little info text says copying won't count against your quota. So then it really is like a tag.
I want to expand on the answers here. having a Nexus 6 with 5.0.1 and not being a big photos guy, suddenly found myself on vacation and not really wanting a puzzle to solve. Having the pictures already backed up was indeed part of the formula... But even with the photo backed up (cloud decorator visible on thumbnail), the album icon still did not show on the action bar.
The trick to the puzzle was selecting refresh from the overflow menu (the ... on the upper right, or menu button probably if your lucky enough to have one still).
The other trick is if you select any photo that is already in the album, the album icon disappears. IOW if selecting multiple photos, none of the are already in an album.
So in summary:
- Photo(s) are all backed up already (cloud icon)
- Photos app is re-synced with server (click
refreshfrom menu) - No selected photos are already shared
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I love where Google is going with their UIs on android, but they still have a lot to work on with the experience– derekvCommented Feb 12, 2015 at 20:32
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Your trick doesn't seem to work here with MotoE2 (L 5.02). However when I go to a album and select any photo, it shows album icon in the actionbar!. But no album icon is visible, when I browse photos from the main screen of the app. Any idea why? Commented May 22, 2015 at 17:34