How to Clear Photos From Google Photos: A Step-by-Step Guide

Google Photos has become a popular choice for storing and sharing photos, offering convenience and accessibility across devices. However, using Google Photos means entrusting your personal memories to Google’s ecosystem, raising concerns about privacy and data usage. While Google highlights user-friendly features, their business model relies on analyzing user data, including your photos. For individuals prioritizing digital privacy, understanding how to manage and remove photos from Google Photos is crucial, especially when seeking to reduce reliance on Google services.

Beyond privacy considerations, Google has also altered its storage policies for Google Photos. Promises of unlimited storage for high-quality photos have been replaced with storage limits and charges, pushing users to manage their cloud storage more actively.

This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to safely clear photos from Google Photos without losing them from your phone or other devices. We will walk you through the steps to delete photos from the cloud service while ensuring your local copies remain intact. Furthermore, we will discuss how to remove the Google Photos application and explore privacy-focused alternatives for your photo storage needs.

Why Delete Photos From Google Photos?

Uploading your photos to Google Photos grants the company access to view, analyze, and process them. This includes all the metadata associated with your images. Google utilizes sophisticated technology like facial recognition to identify individuals in your photos and determine locations based on landmarks and other data points. While Google allows users to disable features like face grouping and location estimations to limit visible tagging and organization, it’s important to understand that your photos and their associated metadata remain under Google’s management and are accessible according to their data privacy policies.

The upcoming launch of “Ask Photos,” powered by Google’s AI model Gemini, further amplifies privacy concerns. This feature aims to enhance search and query capabilities within the Google Photos app. Despite Google’s assurances that personal photos will not be used for AI training beyond Google Photos and that human review of personal information is limited, the company retains the right to make exceptions requiring human oversight.

History has shown instances where Google has made errors in data handling, which could potentially lead to account termination and loss of access to your data across all Google services. Subscribing to Google One does not fundamentally change this privacy dynamic. Whether you are a free or paid Google Photos user, your data holds value for Google, and they are invested in retaining access to it.

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How to Delete Photos from Google Photos Without Deleting From Your Phone

We present two straightforward methods to remove photos from Google Photos while preserving them on your devices: using the Google Photos app directly (on Android or iOS) and accessing Google Photos through a web browser on a computer. Both approaches achieve the same outcome, but using a computer can be significantly faster, particularly when deleting a large number of photos.

Using the Google Photos App (on Android or iOS)

Open the Google Photos app on your Android or iOS device.
Tap your profile picture or initials located in the top right corner of the screen.

Alt text: Accessing Google Photos settings by tapping profile icon in the top right corner of the app.

Navigate to Backup.
Disable “Backup photos & videos on this device automatically”. It is crucial to disable backup on every device where you wish to keep local copies of your photos. If you use the same Google account across multiple devices synced with Google Photos, failing to disable backup on all relevant devices will result in automatic deletion of photos from those devices when you remove them from Google Photos.
Go back to the main Photos section and select the photos you intend to delete from Google Photos.
Tap Delete at the bottom of the screen, then Move to trash to confirm the deletion.

Alt text: Deleting selected photos in Google Photos app and confirming move to trash.

Your deleted photos will be moved to the trash and will remain there for 60 days before Google permanently removes them. If you wish to expedite the permanent deletion process:

Go to Library → Trash.
Tap Select in the top-right corner, then tap Delete all, and finally Empty Trash to confirm permanent deletion.

Alt text: Emptying the trash in Google Photos app for permanent photo deletion.

* Selecting Multiple Photos Efficiently: Google Photos does not offer a direct “select all” option, which can make deleting numerous photos somewhat cumbersome. However, you can streamline the selection process using these steps:

In the main Photos view, tap the three vertical dots (menu icon).
Enable Stack similar photos.
Set the layout to Month.

This configuration allows you to select all photos within a specific month by tapping the select symbol next to the month. To delete all your photos, you will need to repeat this process month by month, moving backward in time. While still requiring time, this method is significantly more efficient than individually selecting each photo, especially for large libraries. However, for deleting a vast number of images, using a computer browser is generally faster.

Using Google Photos in a Browser (on a Computer)

Deleting and selecting photos is more efficient using Google Photos in a web browser on a computer, as it allows you to use the Shift key for bulk selection. Follow these steps:

Disable backups on all mobile devices where you want to retain local copies of your photos, as described in the previous section.
Open a web browser and navigate to Google Photos and log in to your Google account.
Select the photos you want to delete from Google Photos.
1. To select a continuous range of photos, click the first photo, hold down the Shift key, and then click the last photo in the range.
2. To select all photos, select the most recent photo, scroll to the bottom of your photo library (ensure all thumbnails are loaded by scrolling manually with the mouse wheel or down arrow key, avoid using the scrollbar jump), hold Shift, and click the earliest photo.
Click the trash icon located in the top-right corner and confirm by clicking Move to trash.

Alt text: Deleting selected photos from Google Photos in a web browser using the trash icon.

Go to the Trash section, usually located on the left-hand side menu.
Click Empty trash in the top-right corner, and then Empty Trash again to confirm permanent deletion.

Alt text: Emptying the trash in Google Photos via web browser to permanently remove deleted photos.

Understanding Google Photos Syncing Mechanism

Google Photos’ syncing feature automatically uploads photos taken with your smartphone camera to the cloud and synchronizes them across all devices linked to your Google account. Understanding how syncing works is crucial for effectively managing your photos:

When you upload a photo to Google Photos, it becomes accessible on all devices with the Google Photos app installed and logged into the same account.
By default, photos taken with your smartphone camera are automatically uploaded to Google Photos. This automatic upload cannot be disabled as a feature within the Google Photos app itself. The only way to prevent automatic uploads is to stop using the Google Photos app entirely.
If you capture a photo with your smartphone camera after disabling syncing, it will not be uploaded to Google Photos. It will only be visible locally within the Google Photos app on that specific device.
Deleting a photo within the Google Photos app will remove it from all synced devices unless syncing is disabled on those devices beforehand.
Even if you disable syncing on a device and then delete a photo from the Google Photos app on that device, the deletion change will still synchronize to the cloud and propagate to other devices where syncing is enabled.
When you re-enable syncing in the backup settings, Google will display all photos taken since you disabled backups that have not yet been backed up. There is an option presented at this stage to “delete these photos,” which can be misleading. This option does not exclude these photos from future Google Photos backups; instead, it permanently removes these photos from both Google Photos and your device’s local storage.

How to Prevent Google Photos From Deleting Photos From Your Device

It is important to avoid using the “Free up space on this device” option in the Google Photos app, especially if you intend to stop using Google Photos. This feature, accessible by tapping your profile picture or initials, deletes photos from your device that are older than 30 days and have already been backed up to Google Photos. If backup is disabled and you have already deleted photos from Google Photos, using “Free up space” will lead to permanent data loss unless you have created separate backups elsewhere.

Pixel phone users should also be aware of the Smart Storage feature. If enabled, Smart Storage automatically deletes photos from your device that are older than 60 days and have been backed up to Google Photos. To disable Smart Storage on Pixel devices, follow these steps:

Open the Google Files app.
Tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) next to the search bar.

Alt text: Accessing the Google Files app menu.

Select Clean and tap the storage details section at the top of the screen.

Alt text: Navigating to storage details in Google Files app Clean section.

Disable “Smart Storage”.

Alt text: Disabling Smart Storage in Google Files app settings.

How to Delete All Google Photos and Stop Using Their App

The most direct method to remove all your content from Google Photos is to delete your Google account after backing up or migrating all your essential data, including photos, emails, and Drive files. However, if you wish to remain within the Google ecosystem but discontinue using Google Photos, you can simply stop using the app.

Uninstalling Google Photos on iPhones is straightforward, similar to removing any other app. On Android, it is more complex because Google Photos is typically pre-installed and cannot be uninstalled in the traditional way. Clicking “Uninstall” in the Play Store will only remove updates, reverting it to the factory-installed version.

However, it is possible to effectively disable Google Photos on Android and prevent it from accessing your data. Here’s how:

Open your Android device’s Settings.
Go to Apps or Applications (the exact wording may vary depending on your Android version).
Find and select Google Photos from the list of apps.
Tap Disable, and then Disable App to confirm.

Alt text: Disabling the Google Photos app in Android settings.

Tap Force Stop and confirm again.
Go to Permissions.

Alt text: Accessing app permissions for Google Photos in Android settings.

Tap each entry in the Allowed list and change the permission to Deny.

Alt text: Denying all permissions for Google Photos app in Android settings.

Restart your Android device.

Make Your Photos Private With Proton Drive

For a privacy-conscious alternative for photo storage and sharing, consider Proton Drive. Proton Drive employs end-to-end encryption to protect your photos, ensuring that only you can access them. Not even Proton has the ability to view your content. Unlike Google Photos, Proton Drive does not scan your photos or utilize them for AI training purposes. We also do not access your photo metadata, such as file names and location information.

Proton Drive offers secure photo sharing through end-to-end encrypted links. You can set passwords and expiration dates for shared links, providing granular control over access. Shared items are managed in a dedicated section, allowing you to revoke access at any time. Proton Drive also supports offline access to important photos.

Proton Drive is accessible via web browser, and dedicated desktop apps for Windows and macOS, as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS are available. Both desktop and mobile apps offer automatic photo backup capabilities.

To enhance account security, Proton Account supports two-factor authentication (2FA). You can also add an extra layer of protection to the Drive app using biometrics or a device lock to prevent unauthorized access.

At Proton, your privacy is our priority. We are primarily owned by a nonprofit organization, which reinforces our mission-driven approach. All our apps are open source and undergo independent security audits. As a company based in Switzerland, we operate under some of the world’s strongest data protection laws. Furthermore, we utilize full-disk encryption to protect our servers and ensure the ongoing safety of your photos.

If you value your privacy and control over your personal data, transitioning from Google Photos to Proton Drive is a worthwhile consideration. A Proton account provides access to a comprehensive encrypted ecosystem for all your data, including passwords, internet connection, email, and calendar.