How to stop individual pictures from syncing to Google Pictures

Google's picture auto-sync is a cool thing indeed – all your photos get uploaded to the cloud and will not get lost if your phone happens to get damaged, lost, wiped, or you just forget to copy some of them over when you upgrade. But there is one thing that may irk you often – since the app syncs all images that it finds on the phone, your Photos may end up being filled with your new phone's wallpapers, any screenshots you may take, and other system images that just have no place in a gallery where you store your memorabilia. And, since Google's Photos app is all about syncing information between your device and the Google cloud, if you delete the pictures from it, you will also lose them on your phone storage. And nobody wishes to delete their wallpapers, right?

Well, before you choose to disable auto-sync in frustration, know that there is a workaround for that. Namely – you can choose which of your picture folders get uploaded or not. This way, you can disable sync for the libraries, which house your wallpapers and screenshots. Just be sure to do this before any syncing actually occurs, as afterwards, deleting the pics from the Google Pictures app, even if the folders have been unchecked, will result in them being wiped from the device as well – yeah, that's kind of annoying.