It’s a common question for Google Photos users: “How Do I Delete Pictures From Google Photos without losing them from my phone?” You might want to free up storage in your Google account or simply declutter your cloud library, but still want to keep those precious memories safe on your personal device. Fortunately, deleting photos from Google Photos while preserving them on your phone is entirely possible. This guide will walk you through the steps to manage your photos effectively.
Step-by-Step Guide to Remove Photos from Google Photos (But Keep Them on Your Device)
To delete photos from Google Photos while ensuring they remain on your phone or tablet, you need to follow a specific process. This method focuses on removing the backed-up copies from the cloud while leaving the original files untouched on your device’s local storage.
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Turn Off Backup & Sync: The first crucial step is to disable the backup and sync feature in Google Photos on all devices where you wish to keep the photos. This prevents Google Photos from syncing changes, including deletions, across devices and the cloud.
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Access Google Photos on the Web: Open a web browser on your computer or mobile device and go to photos.google.com/login. Using the website interface is important because it directly interacts with your Google Photos cloud storage, separate from your device’s app.
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Delete Photos from Google Photos Website: Now, select and delete the photos and videos you want to remove from your Google Photos account. Since backup is turned off on your devices, these deletions will only affect the cloud versions.
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Check Your Device (After a Few Minutes): After deleting online, wait for a few minutes and ensure your device is connected to Wi-Fi. Then, close and reopen the Google Photos app on your phone or tablet.
Verifying Local Copies
After following these steps, the photos should be removed from your Google Photos cloud storage but remain on your device. To confirm that the photos on your device are indeed local copies and not still backed up, you can check the backup status within the app.
- Check Backup Status: Open a photo in the Google Photos app on your device. Tap the three dots “More” icon at the top right corner. Scroll down to “Details.” If it indicates “Backed up,” it means the photo is still linked to your Google Photos account. If it doesn’t, it’s a local copy.
Important Considerations and Tips
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Benefits of Backup: Remember that by turning off backup, you lose the advantages of automatic cloud backup, such as safeguarding your photos if your device is lost or damaged. Learn more about Google Photos backup benefits.
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Re-enabling Backup: If you decide to turn backup back on later, be aware that:
- Photos deleted from Google Photos might be backed up again from your device if they are still present locally.
- In some cases, the local copies of photos you deleted online could also be removed from your device once backup is re-enabled, as the system might sync the deletions.
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Managing Storage: Regularly managing your Google Photos storage helps keep your cloud space organized and free. Deleting photos from Google Photos while keeping local copies is a useful strategy for storage management.
By following these instructions, you can effectively delete pictures from Google Photos while keeping them safely stored on your phone, giving you more control over your photo storage and backup preferences.
