Pixel, Pixel XL Users Couldn’t Use Unlimited Google Photos Storage Due to Typo, Issue Fixed

One of the huge advantages of buying a smartphone from the Google Pixel series was unlimited photo and video storage in Google Photos, thereby eradicating the problems of storage forever. This has been applicable on all Pixel smartphones till date – namely the Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, Google Pixel 2, and Google Pixel 2 XL as well. However, many users were complaining of limited storage on the Pixel and Pixel XL, especially users running custom AOSP-based ROM. However, it has been learnt that this was due to a typo, and a fix has been issued for the same.

XDA Developers senior member razorloves discovered that photos taken by the Google Camera app improperly tagged the photos as “google” instead of “Google”. This casing error caused Google Photos to count against the storage limit. The build scripts of the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL had the “PRODUCT_MANUFACTURER” flag in lower case “google”. While this didn’t affect stock ROMs, nor did it affect AOSP-based ROMs on the Pixel 2 series of smartphones, Pixel and Pixel XL users were affected. Most of the custom ROMs have implemented a fix after razorloves published a fix a while back, however a fix was submitted to AOSP on July 3 and merged on July 6.

Google is currently thought to be working on bringing the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL this fall, alongside the commercial release of Android P. The larger variant is expected to sport a notch display, while both the variants have rear single cameras and a fingerprint scanner also mounted at the back. Specification details are scarce at the moment, however, previous reports note that both the smartphones will be powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC, and at least the larger variant will have a 6GB RAM. The Pixel 3 is expected to sport a 5.4-inch display, while the Pixel 3 XL is expected to sport a 6.3-inch display. Also, the Pixel 3 is tipped to measure 145.6×68.2×7.9mm, while the Pixel 3 XL is tipped to measure 158×76.6×7.9mm. The thickness increases to 8.6mm if the camera cut out is considered on both the phones.