Google Photos now has a single setting that stops the music it adds to your Memories. Google’s Photos team announced the switch this week in the Google Photos Help Community. It covers every Memory at once, including your End of Year Recap. It is rolling out gradually, though, so it may not be on your account yet.
Why turn off background music in Google Photos Memories?
Memories are the slideshows Google Photos builds from your past trips, birthdays and older photos. Many of them play a music track that Photos picks for you. That can suit a holiday montage. It feels less right on a quiet memory, or when you open the app in a silent room.
Google says the new control is a response to user complaints. Its announcement opens with a plain admission: “We’ve heard your feedback: you want to turn off the automatically added background music to your Memories.” With the setting off, Photos stops layering its own tracks over your Memories. Video clips inside a Memory still play their original sound.
How to turn off Memories background music
These steps follow Google’s own help page for the Android app:
- Open the Google Photos app.
- Tap your profile photo or initial at the top of the screen.
- Select Photos settings.
- Go to Preferences > Memories.
- Turn Background music off.
Google’s community post describes the same route with slightly different labels. It points to Settings, then Memory preferences, then the Background music toggle. If your menus read that way, you have found the same switch.
What the switch covers
- All Memories at once: Google calls it a global setting, so you don’t have to change Memories one by one.
- End of Year Recap: Google says the setting applies to the yearly recap too.
- Video audio stays: only the music Photos adds is removed, not the sound recorded in your clips.
- Platforms: Google says the setting is coming to all platforms, though it hasn’t listed them individually.
If you only want to mute one memory
The global switch is new, but muting a single memory is not. Open a featured memory and tap Volume at the bottom of the screen. That option suits you if you like the music on most Memories and want silence on a few.
Don’t see the setting yet?
Google is turning the option on from its servers, so updating the app may not make it appear. Android Authority reported that the toggle had not reached its test devices, even on the latest app version. If your Memories menu has no Background music switch, check back over the coming days.
Google also says it has refreshed the Memories music library. It wants feedback on the music, tagged #music. If you are tidying up your photo library, our guide to blurring sensitive info with the Google Photos Redact tool is worth a look too.
Source: Google Photos Help Community, Google Photos Help, Android Authority
This post was written with AI assistance from public sources and published under the editorial responsibility of AndroidPure’s editor. How we work.
