Google Photos Private Album Limit Increased To 20,000 Images And Videos

Google is back with another Google Photos change, this one involving the number of images and videos that can be saved in a single private album. Unlike now, users were limited to 10,000 pieces of content in these private albums, which some users complained was too low. Google has doubled that limitation as of today, giving users the option of storing up to 20,000 videos and images in an album.

Though the initial 10,000 limitation was still very generous, it wasn't compatible with the needs of many users. The addition of Google Photos Live Albums, which amass content across categories like pets and people, also had the same limitation, causing them to max out and stop adding new content for heavy Google Photos users.

Given that Live Albums automatically retrieve images that fall within its categories, it's easy to see how some users — particularly those storing and scanning old physical photographs — may have easily reached the maximum limit. Once the limit was reached, the albums stopped pulling new content, which makes them less than useful for Google's goal of simplifying finding images.

These Live Albums still have a maximum limitation, but it has been increased to 20,000, which is massive and far beyond the needs of many people. Though some users will probably still manage to hit the limitation over time, it brings the threshold in line with the maximum limitation already present on shared albums.

The move follows a recent tweak to Google Photos' unlimited free storage: it no longer includes unsupported video formats. The change was quietly made in recent days likely as a way to crackdown on abuse of the platform. As of now, unsupported videos will count against the user's Drive storage space.