Frequently asked questions
Device support, what happens to your originals, where backups go, and what the app does not do. If something is missing, the articles go deeper.
What does Favorites Gallery actually do?
It finds the photos and videos you marked as favorites on your phone, copies only those to cloud storage you control, and for JPEG photos writes a five-star XMP rating into each copy so the file itself records that you chose it. Your originals are never modified or deleted without your say-so.
Why do I need this when Google Photos already backs everything up?
Google Photos protects your photos, which is worth doing. What it does not protect is your curation. The favorite star lives in a database on your phone rather than inside the photo file, so it is not part of any backup. Move to a new phone and the photos arrive while every star is gone.
Does it change my original photos?
No. The XMP rating is written into the copy that goes to your cloud storage. The photo in your camera roll is left exactly as your camera wrote it, byte for byte.
Which phones does it work on?
Android 11 and later. That is the version where Android added a standard favorites field to its MediaStore database, which is what the app reads. It works with Samsung Gallery and any other gallery app that uses the standard field.
Where does it back up to?
SmugMug is supported today, using your own account and your own storage. Google Drive and Dropbox are in development and not usable yet. We would rather list what works than what is planned, so this answer will change when they ship rather than before.
Does the star get preserved for videos too?
Videos are found and backed up the same way photos are, because the favorite flag applies to both. The embedded rating is different: XMP is written into JPEG photos, and video files are copied through unchanged. So your favorite videos are safe, but they do not carry the rating inside the file the way photos do.
What is XMP, in plain terms?
A long-standing standard for storing information inside an image file, including a zero to five star rating. Because it is part of the same bytes as the picture, it travels wherever the photo goes. Lightroom, Adobe Bridge, digiKam, XnView and Windows File Explorer all read it without any setup.
Can it free up space on my phone?
Yes, and only against photos it has confirmed arrived at the destination. After a backup it reports what it verified, folder by folder, and offers to remove its own local copies. It never deletes your originals unless you explicitly ask it to.
Do my photos pass through your servers?
No. Uploads go from your phone directly to your own cloud account. We do not host, proxy, or keep copies of your photos.
When can I get it?
It is in active testing on real devices and not yet on Google Play. Join the waitlist and you will get one email when it is available. No newsletter, and no passing your address to anyone else.
Still deciding?
Join the waitlist and you will get a single email when the app is downloadable. No newsletter, and your address is not passed to anyone.