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Google Photos no longer offers unlimited storage for unsupported video formats

Google Photos no longer offers unlimited storage for unsupported video formats

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Google Photos on the Google Pixel
Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

Google Photos will no longer let you upload unsupported video formats and take advantage of the free unlimited storage it offers, the company announced in a change to its support site earlier this week, as first spotted by Android Police. It’s a small change that won’t affect most users. Google Photos already supports the following video formats:

.mpg, .mod, .mmv, .tod, .wmv, .asf, .avi, .divx, .mov, .m4v, .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .m2t, .m2ts, .mts, and .mkv files,

This leaves some RAW and VOB files as the most popular formats Google Photos doesn’t support. So if you use excluded formats, get ready to watch your storage more closely or pay a bit extra for Google One.

I finally wised up and uploaded my photo library to Google Photos a few weeks ago, and so far, it’s been wonderful. I’m paying for storage so I can upload full-resolution photos; the free unlimited storage only allows for “optimized” images (see: compressed). While iCloud Photo Library — which I’ve been using for years — isn’t necessarily bad, the search capabilities within Google Photos far surpass anything Apple can muster at this point.

Google Photos is definitely worth using for most people, and losing the ability to upload a few fringe formats to your unlimited storage likely won’t change that.