One of the answers points the right steps to disable the Google account (and the annoying popup) in the Photos app:
- click on the account icon
- choose switch account and pick use this application without an account
One of the answers points the right steps to disable the Google account (and the annoying popup) in the Photos app:
- click on the account icon
- choose switch account and pick use this application without an account
That does not work for all use cases.
For me, I want to use Google Photos exclusively to see my past backups but never back anything up again.
> For me, I want to use Google Photos exclusively to see my past backups but never back anything up again.
Get out while you still can, it's only a matter of time before your account gets locked by their automated "abuse" systems.
Just tried that.
Unfortunately, it seems to completely mess up the interface?
I couldn't even see all photos anymore. Even though I do not use backup at all. So it is not possible that those photos are in the cloud or something.
Force close the app and clear the cache, your photos will come back.
Or clear data completely, then open the app "for the first time" and immediately log out.
It'll work, but as you've discovered, google made sure that it isn't the happy path.
Also no search (not even by file name), no albums, some editing functions won't work (even though they're local), and a few more annoyances. but also no more backup prompt...
Oh, that looks good!
I closed the app, stopped it and cleared the cache. Then restarted it.
The UI is surprisingly sane now. My first impression is that it is much better than before. Everything is neatly layed out in a series of albums, for each the latest images are shown and I can click on the album name and it displays them all.
So I do see my albums. Those seem to be just directories in /Pictures/ which it seems I can edit with the files app?
Am I missing out on anything this way? I don't need search.
All the usualy edit functions like cropping, adjusting colors etc also seem to still be there.
Is google lens still available? That's perhaps the only cloud feature I sometimes use, in order to translate Chinese text to English or similar.
Also is it possible to undo (in case there's something I don't like?) Is it just a matter of adding the app back to your account?
I switched back and forth between "with account"/"without account" a few times now and it seems to work just fine. I stay with the no-account state, as it not only removes the nags, the interface is actually much cleaner and more logical
No idea about Lens, because I never used it. Aren't there webapps or web services for everything these days? I do everything that I do only occasionally via webapps. Barcode parsing for example.