Google will permanently delete photos next month – how to check if your snaps will be affected

From random selfies to snaps from a loved one’s wedding, Google has long been a trusted storehouse for precious memories.

But many of these precious photos could soon be lost, following the changes announced by the tech giant this week.

Google has revealed that it is shutting down Album Archive, a little-known storage folder that can be accessed through your Google account.

Album Archive is not part of Google Drive, but a separate service with its own web page where you can view, download and delete photos.

Here’s how to check if your photos are compromised and what you can do to keep them safe.

If you’re affected by this, you should have received an email before July 19 telling you to download data in your album archive, after which it will be permanently lost.

You are advised to use Google Takeout – an export tool that allows you to download your data to a zip file – for safekeeping.

“You are receiving this email because you recently viewed the album archive or because you may have content visible in the album archive,” the company says in the email.

Until then, you can use Takeout to download a copy of your album archive data.

“We recommend using Google Takeout to download a copy of your album archive data before then.”

To save photos to the album archive, go to the Album archive web pagewhere you’ll see a pop-up saying it won’t be available after July 19.

To download photos from the album archive, click the option below that says “Go to Pickup.”

Then, under the text “Create a new export,” click the checkbox next to Album archive followed by “Next step.”

You can then choose to receive an email when your album archive data is ready to download – and you only have one week to download your files.

This popup appears when you go to the Album Archive web page. You will be prompted to download items using Takeout

Alternatively, you can have your album archive data added to Google Drive, Microsoft’s OneDrive or Dropbox account.

Album Archive collects photos from various Google products, including Google Photos and the now-defunct Picasa Web Albums.

However, there is content that is exclusive to Album Archive, including small thumbnail photos and album comments or likes.

Also, if you’ve shared photos and videos on Hangouts, they’ll be stored in the album archive and won’t be visible in Google Photos.

Album Archive was launched in 2016, after Google announced it was discontinuing Picasa Web Albums.

For those not old enough to remember, Picasa Web Albums was an image hosting and sharing web service from Google.

Google Photos was touted as a high-tech replacement for Picasa, with free unlimited storage, facial recognition, automatic album creation, and the ability to edit and share photos.

Picasa Web Albums was an image hosting and sharing web service from Google, but was replaced by Google Photos

However, the facial recognition capabilities on Google Photos have been embroiled in controversy since their release.

Google Photos faced accusations of racism in 2015 after it tagged images of a black computer programmer and his friend as gorillas.

Google later “fixed” the problem by blocking any primate identification, angering users who pointed out that the company should have improved the algorithm instead.

The internet giant’s Google Photos application uses an auto-tagging feature to organize images uploaded to the service and make searching easier.