Managing your digital photos often involves juggling between cloud storage and your phone’s local storage. Google Photos is a fantastic service for backing up your precious memories, but sometimes you might want to remove photos from Google Photos without deleting them from your device. This is especially useful when you are trying to free up cloud storage while still keeping your photos accessible offline on your phone or tablet.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to delete photos from Google Photos while ensuring they remain safely stored on your device.
Steps to Remove Photos from Google Photos (Cloud) While Keeping them on Your Device:
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Turn off Backup & Sync: The crucial first step is to disable the backup and sync feature on all devices where you want to retain the photos locally. This prevents Google Photos from syncing changes, including deletions, across devices.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Photos app.
- Tap your profile picture or initial in the top right corner.
- Select “Photos settings” then “Backup & sync.”
- Turn “Backup & sync” off.
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Access Google Photos on the Web: To delete photos from the cloud and not your device, you need to use the Google Photos website. Mobile apps often sync changes immediately, which can lead to photos being deleted everywhere if not done correctly.
- Open a web browser on your computer or mobile device and go to photos.google.com.
- Log in to your Google account.
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Delete Photos from Google Photos Website: Now, carefully select and delete the photos you wish to remove from Google Photos. Since backup is turned off on your devices, these deletions will only affect the cloud storage.
- Choose the photos or videos you want to delete.
- Click the “Delete” icon (trash can).
- Confirm the deletion if prompted.
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Verify Local Copies on Your Device: After deleting from the website, check your Google Photos app on your device to confirm the photos are still present. It might take a few minutes for the app to refresh. Ensure you are connected to Wi-Fi for quicker updates. Closing and reopening the app can also help refresh the view.
- Open the Google Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Browse your “Photos” view. The deleted photos might still appear – these are now local copies only.
- To double-check, tap on a photo, then tap the three dots “More” icon .
- Scroll down to “Details.” If it indicates “Backed up,” it might still be syncing. If it doesn’t mention backup status or mentions “Device folder,” it’s likely a local copy.
Important Considerations:
- Backup Benefits: Remember that by turning off backup, you lose the advantages of automatic cloud backup, such as access from any device and protection against device loss. Consider if this is the right trade-off for your needs.
- Re-enabling Backup: If you decide to turn backup back on later, be aware that:
- Photos you deleted from Google Photos (cloud) might be backed up again from your device if they are still present in your device’s camera roll or other synced folders.
- In some cases, if Google Photos detects a discrepancy between the cloud and your device after re-enabling backup, it could potentially delete the local copies, although this is less common when following these steps correctly.
- Alternative: Free Up Space: If your primary goal is to free up Google storage, consider using the “Free up space” option in the Google Photos app. This can remove photos that are already backed up, helping manage storage without deleting local copies, but it works differently than deleting specific photos manually from the cloud while keeping local copies.
By following these instructions, you can effectively delete photos from Google Photos cloud storage while keeping them safe and sound on your personal devices. This gives you more control over your photo storage and ensures you always have access to your memories, even offline.
