Problems with Picasa Online Albums and Google +

I recently got back from a trip and wanted to share photos with my family so I uploaded the pictures to an online Picasa album and quickly realized Google has taken away the ability to share pictures and let end users “download album” with the introduction of Google plus (+).  In order to easily provide the ability to do this I ended up deleting my Google + Profile and now all my albums are available in the pre-Google Plus album format and I am happy again.  It is disappointing that when Google implemented Google + (plus) they decreased the abilities to share photos for paying customers.

If you have run into this problem, you can read more about it on this Google Help forum link.

Here is the process to delete your Google + profile, while still maintaining your Google account and services, you only lose Google+ specific services, which I have not missed.  You essentially sign in to Google, click on your full name or email address in the Google bar, then click on “Account Settings,” click on “Account Overview tab”, “Click Delete profile and remove associated social features.”

Once this is completed you will be able to manage your photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com and the Google + view will be removed from all of your photos and the “download album” option will return.