Google Drive: What to do about photos stuck ‘Waiting to upload’ for hours

Michael Timmermann | January 22nd, 2018

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Google Drive offers 15 GB of free online storage for your photos, videos, audio, documents and other files.

It’s a handy tool, but I’ve recently been running into trouble when I take pictures or record videos with my Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone and then try to save them to Google Drive over Wi-Fi.

How to fix Google Drive’s ‘Waiting to upload’ error

That problem? The files get stuck and will say “Waiting to upload” for hours! Here’s an example…

After I experienced this problem a few times, I began searching for solutions in Google Drive’s help forum. Here are the steps that I took to resolve the issue:

1. Go to settings from the Google Drive app

2. Select “Clear cache”

3. Force Stop Google Drive

To Force Stop Google Drive, I switched over to Samsung Galaxy S8’s settings menu, scrolled down to apps, clicked Drive and then hit Force Stop.

The next time I opened Google Drive, the pictures uploaded without a problem.

Important note

Let me be clear: I’m not an expert and don’t pretend to be one. Here’s a link to the help forum where I found the answer. You may want to back up any important files before attempting this fix.

Have you experienced the “Waiting to upload” error with Google Drive? Tell us how you fixed it in the comments below.

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This post was last modified on January 7, 2019 12:30 pm