What happened to Picasa Web Albums?
Picasa Web Albums is still there, but with Google entering the social networks game with Google+, the Web Albums are caught in the middle. Pictures are the number one things that people want to share using social networking sites. Google is trying to transition from Picasa Web Albums to Google+ Photos, leaving Picasa Web Albums in tact for those who choose not to join Google+. This transitional period is messy, and it’s changing daily.
Picasa 3.8 –> Upload to Picasa Web Albums  (click for larger image) |
Picasa 3.9 without joining Google+ –> ‘Upload to Web Album’ (click for larger image) |
Picasa 3.9 with Google+ account –> Upload and Share on Google+ |
When I sat down to write this article, I was hoping I could make sense of it all and give you a nice, neat explanation of how it all works right now. I can’t. There’s just too much, and it’s changing too quickly.
Here’s what I can tell you:
- Your photos are being uploaded to one physical location. There are two interfaces to view that one set of photos: Picasa Web Albums and Google+ Photos DO NOT delete pictures from one and expect them to still be there in the other – your online pictures only exist once, if you delete them using either interface, they’re gone. Think of it like separate parents with joint custody. Both Picasa Web Albums and Google+ Photos have joint custody of your uploaded pictures. When you’re using Picasa Web Albums, you have all the PWA features like slide-shows which are not yet implemented in Google+.
- If you haven’t joined Google+ then you will only have the Picasa Web Albums interface available to you. Nothing has changed except the button in Picasa 3.9 is now green and reads ‘Share’ rather than ‘Upload’ as it was in PIcasa 3.8 – see screenshots above.
- If you have joined Google+ then your default interface will be Google+ Photos, but you can manually go to the Picasa Web Albums interface at www.picasaweb.google.com/home
note: when I say you ‘have joined’ or ‘haven’t joined’ … I mean that you’re logged in with a Google account that ‘has joined’ or ‘hasn’t joined’ Google+. For example, I have several Google accounts – only one of them has joined Google+. If I log in with one of the others then I ‘haven’t joined’ Google+ - Using Picasa 3.8 on your computer, the button is called ‘Upload’ and you will be using the Picasa Web Albums interface whether you have joined Google+ or not.
- Using Picasa 3.9 on your computer your options are slightly different. If you have not joined Google+, the button will say ‘Share’ and you’re using the Picasa Web Albums interface. If you have joined Google+ the button will say ‘Share on Google+’ and you’re using the Google+ interface to your pictures by default. Remember – your pictures are being uploaded to the same physical location either way (see #1 above.)
- Using Picasa 3.9 and Google+ to create an album viewable by anyone with the link: If you don’t ‘Add circles or people to share with..’ then you are just Uploading – not sharing on Google+. The album created will be private. Then you can go to the album on Google+, click on Options and change to ‘Share Album via Link.’ This is the equivalent of Picasa Web Album’s visibility property of ‘Limited, anyone with link.’ (see member tutorial video: Picasa 3.9 and Google Plus Sharing) If you want to join Google+ but you want to keep managing your Web Albums the same way you did in Picasa Web Albums – by sharing links – then this is the technique for you.
- Image Size and Unlimited Storage: Using Picasa 3.9 and the Share button, if you leave the image size at ‘Best for Web Sharing’, then you have unlimited storage for free on your Web Albums. Specifically, any uploaded picture under 2048 pixels (aka ‘Best for Web Sharing) doesn’t count toward your 1GB of free space.
- Automatic Uploads from your Phone. If you have Google+ installed on your smartphone, then it will automatically upload any photo taken with your smartphone to a private album called ‘From Phone’ or, in Picasa Web Albums ‘Instant Upload.’
Removing Google+
If you’ve tried Google+ and you don’t like it and want to go back to the way it was before Google+, you can delete your Google+ Profile. Do not delete your Google account! That will delete all your photo albums, email accounts, blogs, and whatever else you’ve created with your Google Account. To remove Google+ from your Google Account:
- On any Google product page, click on the dropdown arrow next to your picture in the upper right corner and choose Account
- On your Google account page, click on Google+ from the left side menu, then scroll to the bottom where it reads, “Disable Google+” and click the word ‘here.’
- Choose ‘Delete Google+ Content’ and then click the button Remove selected services.
- That’s it! Any content you added to Google+ will be gone – but your pictures will still be there. Remember? Picasa Web Albums had ‘joint custody’ with Google+. If you remove Google+, Picasa Web Albums now has sole custody again. For more details see member tutorial video Removing Google+ to use Picasa Web Albums. This video takes an existing Google account and adds Google+, showing what happens to the Web Albums. Then it removes Google+ and shows the results.
Conclusion
If you used Picasa Web Albums like I did … to house photos that I shared with friends via a link (or to embed in blog) … then there’s no reason why you can’t join Google+. The text in blue above, #6, explains the procedure I follow to maintain the same functionality.
Some people really like Google+. It is a lot faster on my smartphone (and Android i.e. Google phone!) than Facebook. I really like how it allows me to automatically share my Blogger (also Google) blog posts to all my Google+ friends. And, the new ‘Local’ feature I expect will be very handy for finding friends’ reviews of favorite eating places and other businesses.
This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour
Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, using Android Smartphones, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.
Great job Chris with the good, bad and downright ugly. Who knows what it will be like when things calm down. This makes the issue usable and managable.
Thank you, thank you, thank you – your comment in blue is EXACTLY what I’ve been trying to find out. Why Google, with all their billions, didn’t see fit to have this very obvious question in their FAQs is beyond me – but I’m glad that Geeks on Tour came up with the goods!
Good timing on this tip. I have been using Picasa Web Album for ages and loved it, recommended it, etc. But, for me, these constant changes are creating a messy nightmare and I was considering moving on to another service that I like. Removing Google+ is the best tip ever! KISS and Kisses to you.
YES LINDA, I AGREE WITH FULL HEART. OUR GOOGLE GURUS MUST BE SUPERVISED TO CHANGE ALL THE NEAR DAILY CHANGES ALL OVER IN GOOGLE BY THE SELF APPOINTED, BUT NOT VERY INTELLIGENT GOOGLE GURU’S!
Thanks a bundle Geeks on Tour. I’ve loved Picasa for a long while now. Found it easy to get round. Google+ (to me) is just to confusing.
The other major feature that was lost with the Google+ integration was the ability to upload images at their original size. All Google+ uploaded images are limited to 2048 pixels. So those of us who paid for extra storage space to be able to upload full-size images are basically throwing our money away now. The only two options are to upload directly from the Picasaweb interface (which seems to always upload the full, original size image), or close your Google+ account to restore the original Picasa uploading options.
I chose the latter, mainly because I needed all of the functionality back ASAP. Plus, I was still struggling with the massive confusion my customers were having trying to find the option to order prints, since the picasaweb.google.com links I was sending out were automatically (unbeknownst to me at the time) being redirected to plus.google.com.
I’m not in G+, and I sent links to web albums available “to anyone with the link”. Nobody without a Google account could access them. Maybe it’s because the invitations are being redirected as you say. So I have to find another way to share these links, I guess.
I hate the new sharing restrictions (or lack thereof) and I hate the image size limitation. These innovations wreck the usefulness of Picasa for me. Plus, I’ve spent hours trying to get to the bottom of the problem of not being able to share my album. Hey Google, you’re supposed to be not evil, remember?
When you click the ‘Share on Google+’ button in Picasa there is a choice for Image Size – it’s right in the middle of the dialog box. It starts out saying ‘Best for web sharing.’ but if you click on the down arrow, you’ll see another option, “Original Size”
I’m stuck in the middle. I like Google+, hate the way they handily my photos. With Picasa you could send someone a link to a photo and that was it. The rest of your album would be protected by your privacy settings. With Google+ if I send my grandmother or a colleague a link to a cute photo but I don’t want them to see the other more private photos this is not possible. At least not up till a couple of days ago.
Once you send someone a link they have access to your whole album. This also makes it impossible to share just one or 2 photos in a forum. I don’t want everyone else to see that whole album. Some serious work will needs to be done before it will tick off all my boxes.
My son lives in another country and uploads photos of his baby through Google+/Picasa Web Albums. I used to be able to download the pictures to my computer for my personal use. Now I am unable to download his photos sent to me. Does anybody know of a way? Does it have to do with the privacy settings? Is he going to have to let the album be “public” for me to download? We have not done that yet for obvious reasons. Right now he has it set to “anyone with link”. This is very important to me. Thanks.
Hello. In the Google+ settings, at the end of the page, there is an option “Allow viewers to download my photos”. Maybe your son must to activate that option.
Regards.
Thanks be to Geeks! I am an artist, and use the web albums , when I want to send multiple pictures with descriptions. Easy Peasy right? With Google Plus, NOT!!! Why the hell is everything trying to be a “social network”? Thanks for helping me make it mine again!
I believe by enabling Google+ on your Google account, you cannot share individual photos anymore. If you give someone a link to a photo in an album, two things will now happen:
1. They will have permission to view the entire album
2. They will have permission to re-share the entire album
I think you can control the second one in the settings, but not the first. The whole transition is so ugly that I removed Google+ and reverted back to good ol’ Picasa the way it used to be. Still not entirely happy that I’m now on an old platform that Google are clearly trying to evolve, but it works for now.
I can’t believe that there doesn’t seem to be an alternative to Picasa and Picasa Web. I.e. an offline categorised store of photos fully synced and backed up to the web.
Thanks to those of you who answered. I have solved the problem by deleting Google+. I love Picasa Web Albums the way it was too and am able to use it as I used to do. I hope Google won’t phase it out and let those of us who want to simplify things continue with this wonderful way of sharing our photos.
Thankyou, thankyou,,,,I thought I was going mad.
Google are really pissing me off, (and everyone else but they don’t know it yet)
Google are becoming what MS was, take it and lump it. From the days of a good search engine its become more and more oriented to trying to control what they think people want. From countless useless retail results in every search, to absolutely horrible to use apps ICS. yet ironically as they p1ss people off, their stocks value increase. Go figure??
And now of course they think we should all share all our pictures because thats what Google thinks we want. So who’s going to manage all the copyright and privacy lawsuits? Google’s new law for the consumer app. Or how about squezzing a bit more data from people like what are hobbies might be and where we take our vacation? Great marketing data just from our pictures alone, and tie that in with our phones that don’t work unless our phone contacts are linked to an email, and now our pictures we can’t access unless we share to the world.
Google are becoming the nightmare that George Orwell warned us of. And all for marketing so they and others can bombard us with more advertising, just so websites can sell us (try ) more crap.
Time to find a new picture site. I here photobucket is quite good.
I removed Google Plus and thought I was all set to send pictures to the web, copy the address, and then paste it in an E-mail. It does all that and is sent to the person, but when clicking the link, the message comes up from Google and says, “404. That’s an error. The requested URL was not found on this server. That’s all we know.”
What good is it to send the link to people who cannot open it? Help!
Great article!
Thanks for such an informative article! I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a mess! What I want to know is how to access the web albums that I created under a different email account I had associated with Picasa before Google+. When I am in Picasa, there’s not option for signing in with anything other than my gmail account…can you answer this? Thank you!
If you are signed out from your google account then, in the upper right corner of Picasa you should see an option to “Sign in with Google Account” … note that it says “Google” account, not Gmail. Click on that and you can enter whatever email address your other google account used.
Intact is one word.
When you break it into two words, “in tact” is no longer intact.
hi, you seem to understand this bit, so pls help if you can
my problem is, that from my android ICS phone gallery app, share via ggogle+ setting, if I don’t add a circle or a person to share the photo with, the “share” button would stay grey… therefore I can only share if and only I really “share”, so far I couldn’t upload a private photo w/o having made it visible to the public
other problem, that even if I uncheck “auto upload all photos” in google+ settings, from the very moment I click “auto upload”, it would upload all my photos to a private goolge+ album automatically, not just the ones I’ve taken after having set the auto-upload on
what I’d like to do is two things:
1) upload selected old photos to a private Google+ album to stay in sync on my tablet and my phone
2) automatically upload all my new photos – but only the ones taken after switching the auto-upload on
is that possible? (SGS2 ICS ; Nexus7 JellyBean)
I am not very literate in these types of things. Someone convinced me to take pics off my phone and put them on Picasa, and now I cannot find them. I joined the Google plus thing, but still can’t find my old pics. Can anyone give me advice in layman’s terms?
I thought I had this all understood already, but apparently not. I don’t share my photos on G+ and I use Picasa online to share my photos. There’s a little link at the bottom of a Picasa online photo album “Share via email only” which I use all the time. this takes the recipient to the traditional Picasa online. Now here’s a problem I’m hoping that someone can help me with… I recently went into Picasa (the desktop program) and tagged a whole bunch of people…. this in turn, synced all of those albums onto G+ (bad!) and sent notifications to the people who were tagged that they were tagged (worse!). When they click on the album, they don’t see the pictures. I don’t want to get rid of Google+ because I use it for other social media reasons but I do not want my pictures on there. If someone could help I’d really appreciate it!
I dont know about anyone else but all of my Picasa pictures and albums have vanished. Abracadabra, poof, gone. I have zero zilch nada…. nothing! I was paying for storage which should mean something, but I quess with all the money and power Google is becoming callus. I have posted to their customer service form and attempted to contact them about this, but have hit walls every time.
Google has been using my albums for web sharing, Have lost my photos before n restored them after,but!!!now my albums has disappeared again, I have thousands off photos involved ‘ I want my albums back. i am Lydia Humber
I loved Picassa because of its convenient offline interface making it easy to upload and share and I actually enjoy a lot of what Google is doing to make working online easier, so I joined Google + to check it out and I use Blogger for blogs. I first discovered problems when I deleted pictures (that I had used from Picassa) from Blogger and they were gone forever. Bad design!! Thanks for this excellent article showing us how to still use Picassa.
For those who are still not happy ‘sharing’ with Google +, I now use Playmemories which is now the official Sony program for pictures. This has the facility to upload your pics directly to Picassa, providing you with a link (not sure if it does individual pictures but it may – otherwise you may need to put these in a separate album – allows you to vary the upload size as well as having some great editing features.
Find it here : http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/www/disoft/int/download/playmemories-home/index.php
I have a ‘regular’ Google account with Picasa. I opened another account for wedding emails and photo sharing. I have Google+ for this account, although I didn’t realize it until today. I want to share wedding photos via a link and allow those friends to add their photos. I have and can do this with Picasa.
Google+ photos allows me to share via link but there is no option that I can find that authorizes others to add photos. Have I missed something or is this not available?
Thanks
The easiest way to allow others to add photos to your Google+ albums is to make them part of an EVENT. Pictures can then be added by anyone invited to the event. Pretty cool. Here’s more:
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2613195&topic=2612996&ctx=topic
I am a picasa user. So far the transition with Google+ has been ok for me. Recently, I uploaded an album using the picasa application software that I had downloaded (as I’ve done many times), but this time it does not show up on picasaweb. It’s there on Google+, but I cannot find it on picasaweb. Any suggestions?
My latest album uploaded to Google+ yesterday is viewable just fine on my PicasaWeb.google.com interface – so I don’t think that anything has changed in that regard. Usually the problems stem from having different accounts. Be sure you are logged into the desired account that shows your pictures in Google+, now, using the same browser window, go to http://www.picasaweb.google.com and you should see the exact same albums there.
My Pictures have all gone black with a white dash on my blog. My Picassa photos are public and recently I deleted Google+ thinking it might resolve the issue but it hasn’t. Is there any way I can make my photos visible. The blog has a lot on it.
Thank you! I thought I was going mad trying to get Picasa Web Albums to show photos in the same order as I have them in Picasa. I deleted my Google+ account and, Presto!, I had several controls back that had mysteriously disappeared. I felt clearly how Google was trying to force me towards Google+. “Use the Force, Luke” – Delete Google+
I did join google+ but when I go to upload a picture from my laptop I know see little mountains with tree’s instead of actually seeing the pictures, from years on my computer ?. how can I change this back ?
I got a Galaxy Nexus last Wednesday. There is a Picasa option right in the share menu. I have uploaded more than 20 photos that way. Or so I thought. My phone says they are all up loaded, but when I go to Picasa Web Albums, they are not there. I checked my Google Plus photos. There is NOTHING there because I have yet to use Google Plus photos. So: If my Google based phone says they are uploaded to Picasa, but I can’t find them on line, either from my phone or from my PC, where did they go? I have all syncs possible checked, too.
You know, it’s a shame they are forcing all picasa usage to be through Google plus. I switched from Photobucket to Picasaweb because I used Picasa exclusively on my computer. Now, they’ve removed the functionality to share one picture on a blog somewhere without sharing it everywhere. This is a problem. I should have kept my Photobucket account, although it seems they’re migrating to something different, too. Sigh.
Why can’t they encourage usage of G+ while allowing people to live on other parts of the web as well? Do you have any contacts who might have insight into giving us back the functionality we so loved in the world of Picasaweb?
Thanks a bunch!!
Thanks a lot.
I recently downloaded the Picasa3 on my computer and have quickly found out this was a HUGE mistake. In the process of trying to create more space by deleting pictures in my account I found I was also deleting pictures from my blog. Very bad design….. Now my blog of 4 years of my kids is a mess and it will take me forever to get my pictures back up if I even can. Is it possible to unsubscribe to Picasa without deleting my whole entire blog? I’m so scared to even attempt to do anything with it?
I’m hoping you can help me. I use picasa to edit personal pictures. I also have a blog. Even though I’ve never uploaded pictures to my blog from picasa somehow the two are connected. Recently when I went to upload pictures to my blog it said I couldn’t because my quota is full and I have to delete something off my web album or buy more storage. I’ve tried to access my web album, but every time I try to window to join google+ is there. No matter what I push (no thanks or join) nothing happens. The whole just freezes. I’m getting frustrated because I want to be able to put pictures on my blog and can’t figure out why the two are even connected!
Google is on a rampage. I ran into the same problem, as have a lot of people recently. I also didn’t realize that Blogger was using Picasa Web Albums as storage for my blog photos. Alas, the only solution is to pay for more storage. I begrudgingly went with the $2.50 a month plan. DO NOT delete any photos in you Web Albums to try to make more storage space. They’ll disappear from your blog!
Is there any possible way to unsubscribe to picasa without messing up your blog? I’ve had a blog for over 4 years now and just downloaded picasa and it’s say I’m out of storage. Trying to avoid paying the $2.50 a month thing, but will pay it if I absolutely have to if it’s going to wipe out my blog by unsubscribing. Very frustrated with Google right now. Who knew everything was connected and by downloading a photo editing page it would take over all my pictures and blog. UGH!!!!!
I’m attempting to “share” aka upload pictures from Picasa to a new web album and when I try to “view online” I get a, Sorry, that page was not found, message. I’m able to log in and see all my other albums and I can upload to a new album once in Web Albums, so I’m at a loss as to why I can’t upload directly from Picasa. My pictures have the little green arrow as if it’s been done, but the album isn’t there.
I’ve spent too much time trying to find an answer on Google with no luck, so thought I’d pop in here and see if you have a solution.
Thanks!
Just had the same issue – You have to share with at least one person, otherwise you get that error. Once shared with one person, the link works.
Well, I tried the sharing and I’m still getting the same message. So frustrating.
By golly, I think I just figured it out……
I can’t seem to make any sense with my pics anymore. Picasa has seemed to just disappear along with all my pics. As for downloading new ones I haven’t the slightest idea what to do anymore. I what to make a collage for a Christmas card but can’t find my pics!!!
What the hell is going on! ,People i did not want this damned abomination now crowd scenes create night mares hundreds of blurry little snapshots of what i wanted to be anonyomous background people as if to make matters even worse any thing that looks faintly like a human/humanoid is treated to the same palaver road signs etc i do not want to remove individual people i want to remove the device that is trying to create my new friends . can you or one of your colleages explain how this can be done . Next missing photos troubleshooting 1 through to 9 did any one try to use this before it was released obviously not ! or perhaps the upgrade to 3.9 has affected it adversely i am losing photos files and albums faster than i can trace them recently 16 albums and 8 folders duplicates are springing up left right and centre . Files filing up with duplicates of other files . Like i said what the hell is going on . the photos are all important records of 5 years spent travelling in Europe totally irreplaceable some i fear are totally lost i can no longer afford to have the hard drives searched forensically in any reply to this would you bear in mind that i am not technically savvy .
I used to be able to see how many views my photos had. Where did that go to and how can i get it back??
This ρost is worth everyonе’s attention. Where can I find out more?
Looks like a lot of other people have worse problems than me…however I too have a question which you might be able to answer. I use Picasa Web Albums to share my photos with the world, but the compiled list of tags from all photos which used to be displayed on the sidebar seems to have disappeared. Now the only tags which I can see displayed are the ones beside each individual photo after selecting it (if I’m already viewing the photo, why do I need a tag to find it…?!). Any thoughts? Good luck all.
I cannot figure out what the Google+ is for.
My theory is that it is something that the geeks are doing for each other.
I do not have the time or the interest to change my ways every time they come up with an “upgrade”.
So my Google+ account is deleted and I got my Picasa albums back.
WTF do you have to change the way things function whenever you make an improvement behind the scenes. Most people do not play around with apps and stuff as their primary profession. We need tools, we are not interested in making them.
Thanks for the article. I’m having a major problem with Google+. I can’t share Google+ photo albums with my gmail contact groups (e.g. family). They just don’t appear as options. I can share with individual email addresses, but not groups. This functionality was so obvious in picasaweb and seems to have gone in Google+. Most of my email contacts are not Google+ members so sharing with Circles are not much help at this stage – need to share with gmail contact groups. Anyone have any idea where I might be going wrong?
After reading the Google+ forum and this article, I clicked on the link I found above in this article and it took me to the old type of page that shows “link” in the right column. I hope this is not temporary.
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/home
I appreciate this article but it didn’t answer my specific question. I’m paying for my Picasa web albums storage but my daughter said that I wouldn’t have to pay if I just used Google +. How can I transition? I have too many photos for Picasa to be free but I don’t want to lose any pictures if I cancel Picasa and just go with Google +.
Thanks for your help!
This is such a shame. I can not longer embed my photos. W/picasa, I used to be able to embed a photo in an html gadget on my blog. Now, there is only a link, rather than a code for embedding, and I can’t use the gadget. Do you know how I can convert a link into a code for embedding photos?