In previous versions there was an option to start tha backup process only while the phone is charging and now it's gone!
It just doesn't make sense to remove this option, and it's really needed
When I shoot a new photo the photos app backs it up immediately so even if I removed the photo from the camera app it's still there on cloud.
Please bring this feature back,thanks

Hi.

I agree that it doesn't really make sense to remove the feature. It wastes phone battery if it's immediately backing up when not charging. And if I'm taking lots of pictures of the same thing to experiment, I don't want all the rubbish ones to be backed up and clog up the photo stream. Having to delete the bad photos twice is just adding extra micro-managing for no reason.

Agreed.  This was a very poor decision for Google to remove this option.  I do not understand.  I want to see the feature come back.  I don't like my phone battery being drained during the day for photo backups, as well as consuming my internet bandwidth.  

If you delete through the website it will delete off the phone as well.

If you uninstall current updates and run a version pre 2.17.0.159033354, the option may become available again. I have had differing results depending on the phone.

It's really surprising that this is "by design". Can someone from Google explain how removing this option is a better design than having it?

Bye Bye Google Photos!!!!

Folks, please send feedback as per Tanya's post so that the developers at least get some acknowledgement of this issue. I can't understand why Google have a habit of messing with features that are perfectly sound, instead of fixing the ones that aren't!

Google, please let the users know before the update exactly what are the new features BUT ALSO WHAT WAS REMOVED

Stupidest decision ever. My battery doesn't even last a whole day with this option and now it's gone.

I think you are right,I uninstalled the current version and installed 2.16.x version and enabled the option then updated the app and the option is still there and functional.
Weird!
Thanks bro.

The automatic uploading when we are connected to WiFi and still taking photos is so annoying and such a waste for battery life and a metered WiFI data plan. All the unwanted pictures and videos are uploaded instantly. Where's the commonsense Google? Give us time to select which one we don't need and which one to back up to Google Photos. There's no option to exclude backing up video as well. :/

Google always messing up with us. I'm a Google fanboy, but starting to hate some poor decision like this on their ends lately.

I agree! This needs to be added back. The places I have WiFi on a daily basis have pretty slow upload speeds. This means Photos spends a lot of time trying to upload my things which, inevitably, hits my battery pretty hard. The phone will also get rather hot during the process. I preferred the option to just plug in my phone at night and let it take its time uploading the photos of the day. Not cool, Google.

This option disappeared for me when I untoggled the 'backup only while charging' switch, and deleted the app data (was having issues with stuck backup). Now the option is gone, even with no app update. I provided feedback to Google using the link above.

Dear guys, we just need to rate Photo app 1 star, then good things will happen, I promise!

+1 to this. What goes on in an Engineer's mind to remove such an option is a mystery!!!

It seemed Google AI did all the decisions.

Where are the focus on user and don't be evil philosophies? :(

Please return this option.

Seriously. Fire the PM who decided to do this. It's an intensive task to back up photos, I just want it to happen while my phone is charging.

Option is still missing after a few Google Photos updates

Just 1 star the app until it's fixed. That's the most powerful "feedback" we users can give. In the meantime, you can also downgrade to a working version as mentioned previously.

They don't like us anymore obviously. Thank you Samsung for having the common sense to leave us a functional version of the app as factory installed.

And this is why I lea e automatic updates turned off.  I read recent reviews to see what the morons at google broke this time.  I was forced to do a factory reset and everything updated by default without my consent.  Google can't be trusted to update anything automatically, they ruin everything that gets popular.  

I'm actually surprised there are so few complaints about this. For example, my mom just went her over data plan this month because she no longer had the option to upload while charging only (at home, where she would be on wifi). She's just a regular user, so Google Photos updated automatically. For now, my only solutions are either to uninstall updates and hope that it reverts to a functional version, or to disable the app since it's factory.

I turned off backup sync.

Please bring back this important feature
(Amazon photos still offers it and I may go that route only).  Many miss this tool to edit before backup is done!

New feature of Android 8.1: calls out photos for taking up so much battery!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/mmlMdV7CxfnxAw4L2

No surprise. I'm on stock Android, Pixel, and once a week I find a Google app going rogue, especially Photos.

Hi all,

Please bring this feature back asap!!

Done and done.  it's one feature but probably one of the most important ones.  BRING IT BACK GOOGLE!

Have to put in my .02 as well...  Please bring back " Backup on Battery Only "  .... 

the removal of this feature is a pain in the ass. It was the only way to manually handle your phone to not suck up your entire bandwidth. Now, I can't manage when google photos does a backup, it does it on demand. Considering you may have an entire family connected to your home network and considering there is not an option to set WHEN to backup photos, this turns out to be a pain in the ass.

I too find this setting removal very annoying..
The only reason I can think is that google (or customers paying for farming the cloude) wanted more updated pictures globaly. This chenge will definitely result in more "fresh" pics available on the cloud by some hours..
I suppose the next step is to take the setting and update over 3g always
Its just a little to soon as now most users would stop using it.. So less fresh pics..  But in future,  whith even cheaper connections or no 3g limits for most, we ll definitely see this
My 2 cents

BRING IT BACK  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please fix this google, I upgrade phones and can no longer use this option. Dont want to have to root 

please roll back this " While charging only - backup feature please "

I believe that option is an important feature, doesnt make sense that they have removed it.

Weird but one of my Android devices (OnePlus One) is running Photos Build 3.11.0.178912478 and doesn't have the option for backing up only while charging yet my other Android device (BlackBerry Priv) running the the exact same build of Photos does have the option. Neither device has ever been rooted or modified in any way so I'm not sure why Photos is different on my devices.

This needs to be fixed!  I turned on my hotspot for my daughter and BOOM!  50% of my 5gb data was eaten up by get Google photos backing up!!

sir/ madam please help me backup photo delet for someone my  goole photo 

Six months has gone by from opening this thread and still Google has not bring back the "Upload only when charging" setting. Why it takes so long? Why it is so difficult to have that option back? What's the point on asking feedback, if it's ignored for six months now? Now it's uploading photos always on WiFi: eating my bandwidth and draining battery, very annoying :(