How to Delete Your Google Photos

Posted on Dec 9, 2018 by Summer Hirst
delete google photos

If the Backup and Sync settings on your Android phone are turned on, your photos will automatically be uploaded to Google Photos.

What is Google Photos?

It’s a cloud system that stores all the photos that you put on backup. So even if your phone runs out of memory and you have to delete photos from your phone, they will still be safe on the Google cloud storage. And since Google provides unlimited backup, all your pics and videos are secure even if you lose or break your phone.

While Google takes care of your security, you might still worry about the privacy of your personal files. If you have some very personal photos that you don’t want anyone to see, it’s best to take them off the cloud.

How to delete images in Google Photos

  1. Visit https://www.google.com/photos/about/. You’ll see your photos here.
  2. To delete individual photos, hover over that particular photo and you’ll see a tick appear on the top left corner of that photo.
  3. Click on that tick and the pic will get selected.
  4. A trashcan icon will appear on the top right of the window. Click on it.
  5. It will ask for confirmation. Click on Move to Bin.
  6. Files in your trash are automatically deleted after 60 days.

How to recover files from the trash in Google Photos

  1. Click on the hamburger icon on the top left of the window.
  2. Click on Trash.
  3. Select the photos or videos you want to restore.
  4. Click on restore on the top right.

How to delete an album from Google Photos

  1. Visit https://photos.google.com/albums. You’ll see your albums here.
  2. To delete an album, hover your mouse over it and you’ll see three dots on the top right corner of the album cover.
  3. Click on the dots and select Delete Album.
  4. Google will ask you to confirm. Click on Delete to confirm.

How to delete photos from your phone’s Google drive

  1. Open Google Photos.
  2. Long press on the photo you want to delete.
  3. A trash can will appear on the top right of the screen. Click on it.

If you don’t have backup and sync on your phone, your photos will not be automatically uploaded to the cloud. If you want to turn the sync feature on, here’s how you can do it.

  1. Open the Google Photos app on your Android device
  2. Click on the hamburger icon on the top left corner of the screen.
  3. A menu will open up. Select Settings.
  4. Go to Back up and Sync
  5. In the Backup and Sync settings page, there will be a toggle switch. Turn it on.

Now your photos will be automatically backed up in the cloud. And if you want to delete some of them, you can follow the steps given above.