How do I delete from "Photos" without from "Pictures" on PC?

[cher1948]

I move my photos from "Camera Roll" to my PC and put them in monthly folders in Library. When I delete them from "Photos" to free up space, they disappear from my PC and end up in the Recycle Bin. How can I keep them from happening?

 

[anon(238680)]

Welcome to Android Central. Assuming you disconnect the phone from the PC before deleting the photos the only thing that comes to mind is an online backup service. Are you using one of those?

 

[cher1948]

I'm not sure that you understand my question. Once I put my photos in my Pictures Library on my PC, I want them to stay there. These folders are always available to me, even when I'm offline. Is there a way to stop Photos from controlling my Library folders? The photos in Photos are taking up too much space on my Google Drive, and since I have them on my PC, I would like to delete them from Photos but when I did this, they were removed from my PC folder also. Thanks for your help!

 

[wizzrah]

I'm not sure that you understand my question. Once I put my photos in my Pictures Library on my PC, I want them to stay there. These folders are always available to me, even when I'm offline. Is there a way to stop Photos from controlling my Library folders? The photos in Photos are taking up too much space on my Google Drive, and since I have them on my PC, I would like to delete them from Photos but when I did this, they were removed from my PC folder also. Thanks for your help!

This is an interesting dilemma. I understand the issue here, but how it is happening, I am unsure. As was mentioned above, the logical reason for this happening is that there is syncing happening between your phone and your computer. Do you have Google Drive for PC installed? Or is it simply the default Photo app from your desktop that you're dragging into?

 

[chanchan05]

Ok. We're getting a bit confused here.

When you mean Photos originally, I was thinking of the Photos app in the phone (referring to Google Photos).

On the PC, please give the exact data tree of the folder library you are sending your pictures to. Is it in C:/User/Your username/Drive?

 

[cher1948]

Yes, I have Goggle Drive on both PC and phone. On my PC, the "Photos" app is the one with the black/white mountain icon. On my phone, "Photos" is the colored pinwheel icon.

When I take a photo with my phone, it appears on the PC. When I copy a photo from the web, using my PC, it appears in "Photos" on PC, but not on phone.

I'm not dragging to/from Photos, but from Camera Roll, which removes them from that folder, but not from "Photos" on either device.

 

[cher1948]

Yes, it is very confusing! On the phone it is the "Photos" with the colored pinwheel icon. On the PC, it is the "Photos" with the black/white mountain icon. Photos taken on the phone appear in both but when copied from the web on the PC, they don't appear on the phone.

On the PC, I have the "Pictures" folder in several places:

Cherryl Chandler>Pictures

This PC>Pictures

Libraries>Pictures

These all contain the same files and are all updated when I add photos to any one of them.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Rukbat]

If both devices (phone and PC) are using Google Drive, what you do on one will be reflected to the other.

Put the photos in the PC into a folder that has nothing to do with Google Drive. Then you can delete them from the phone. (But they'll get deleted from Google Drive too. so they won't be available to the phone, online opr off-line.)

 

[chanchan05]

Yeah, seems like on installation of Google Drive on your PC, you allowed it to control your pictures folder.

Note that from what you've told me, you only have 1 pictures folder. This PC and Libraries are just symbolic links. The actual folder would be in C:/Users/Cherry Chandler/Pictures.

One of the things that you can do is as suggested by Rukbat.

Personally I use OneDrive for my photo backup. It just dumps my photos onto an online server with copies on my computer, which I can rearrange as I want into folders as I wish. Deleting photos from either PC or phone will not affect the backup. The problem with this is that album arrangement on the PC will not affect albums on the phone so you'll have to manage both.