Freeing up space on Galaxy S22, Google Photos

[fuzzywuzzywazzafuzzy]

Just want to confirm before I do this. I'm at 99% full on storage with about 65GB of photos and videos in Google Photos. If I do the "free up space" function within Google Photos, I should be able to still see them all in the app, after having deleted them from the local storage on the device. Can anyone confirm that I won't end up permanently deleting these photos and videos by using the free up space function? Kind of scary......

 

[notforhire]

I have the same understanding as you do. let us know how it works (maybe back up your photos to your computer or a SSD just to be safe)

 

[fuzzywuzzywazzafuzzy]

Good idea, I'm going to stick in a flash drive and copy everything then go for it.

 

[B. Diddy]

You're correct -- the Free Up Space feature will only delete photos and videos locally stored on the device that Google Photos knows is already backed up to the cloud.

The main thing to remember is that if you want to delete an individual photo from your device but keep it in the cloud, then don't use the garbage can icon that shows up under the photo when you view it in Google Photos. Instead, tap the 3-dot menu associated with the photo and choose the "Delete from device" option, which will preserve the copy that's in the cloud.