Question Trying to figure out where all photos are saved and how to delete ones I don't want?

[Mike D]

Trying to figure out where all photos are saved and where is best to delete ones i dont want? I have pics in my files, gallery and google photos plus several clouds. I've deleted pics in one location thinking they will only be deleted there only to find they were completely removed from phone. Because of this i have multiple copies all over the place and want to clean things up
Thank you!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. It may be possible that some of those locations are syncing to other locations. For instance, Gallery may be syncing to Google Photos.

Here is what I would suggest: If you have access to a PC, you can do a 'Takeout' from Google Photos (Search Google Photos Takeout; it should give you a direct link to your own Google Photos account). This will download all your photos on Google Photos to a series of .zip files (there is a predetermined file size, once a collection of files hits that size, a new .zip folder is created). Once this is done, you can delete all photos on Google. See what is left in other places, and make copies of the ones that are remaining. Delete those. Now, you have a full copy of your photos, where you can decide where you want them. Before placing them anywhere, I would see if there is syncing going on between apps. Don't forget to check where your camera stores them.

I would honestly suggest keeping them on Google Photos. That way you can access them from any device that can access the internet, and if your phone gets damaged, they won't be lost due to damage.

 

[Mike D]

Thank you! What great detailed and easy to follow response!!!

Have a great day!

 

[Mooncatt]

I have pics in my files, gallery and google photos plus several clouds.

It's a common misconception that the gallery app is a storage location, when all it is is a viewer. The files on your phone are stored in folders similar to on a PC, and gallery apps routinely scan your phone for changes. Some can delete files, but they are deleting them from their stopped location and not a copy stored in the app itself.

When it comes to cloud saves, a lot of times they want to sync back and forth so that you are unable to have items saved in one location but not the other (at least not without some extra effort). That's why it's never a good idea to delete from within the cloud or with a dual browsing app like Google Photos unless you are doing what was mentioned above with a dedicated backup and basically starting over from scratch. I hate cloud backups these days because of this. I would like to free up my cloud space, but don't want to have it delete files from my phone.

 

[Mike D]

Thanks a lot, great info!

 

[B. Diddy]

I swear by Google Photos, because (a) I want the security of having my photos backed up safely to the cloud, and (b) it allows for easy and more versatile album organization. What I mean by the latter is that on Google Photos, one photo can be easily placed in multiple albums without having to duplicate it, since these are essentially "virtual" albums. If you were to do the same thing on a physical drive using the folder structure as your albums, you'd have to make a copy of the photo to place in each album you wanted it in, meaning that much more drive space taken up.

Probably the most confusing thing about Google Photos is when you want to delete a photo from your device only while keeping it in the cloud. If you want to do this, don't tap the Trash icon that shows up in the main options -- instead, tap the 3-dot menu button at the upper right of the photo, and select Delete From Device. This will preserve the copy in the cloud.

 

[Mike D]

Thanks a lot!