Google Photos is a wonderful and incredibly helpful tool – not only does it allow you to access your images from any device at any time, but it also automatically backs up all of your photos and stores them in a cloud, ensuring you never lose your data.
However, there could be a number of reasons why you would like to delete your backed-up images on Google Photos, whether it’s because you’ve already made copies, or because you simply don’t have any use for those photos anymore. So, here are two different ways that will help you delete everything from Google Photos:
Through the Google Photos cloud
- Go to your Google Photos library, and log into your Google account.
- Once you hover over a photo or a date, you will see a checkmark in the upper-left corner. Click on the checkmark of any specific photo or collection of photos you would like to delete. To select all, press and hold Shift and select the checkmark of the first photo. Then, scroll down to the end and select the checkmark of the last photo, before releasing Shift.
- After you’ve selected the photos you want to delete, click on the blue Trash Can icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. This will move all of your photos to the Bin
- Next, press on the Menu icon (three vertical lines in the upper-left corner of the screen) and then click on Bin. Here, you will see all the photos that have previously been removed.
- To permanently delete your photos, click on Empty Bin in the upper-right corner of the screen. Alternatively, you could also skip this step, as your photos will be automatically deleted from the Bin folder after 60 days.
Through the Google Photos mobile app
- Open the Google Photos app on your mobile device or tablet.
- Press and hold the first photo to select it, and then select all other individual photos or albums you’d like to delete. Keep in mind that the app doesn’t have a ‘select all’ option, meaning you’d have to manually select all of your Google Photos images, if you want to remove them.
- After you’ve selected the photos you want to delete, tap the Trash Can icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. This will move all of your photos to the Bin
- Next, press on the Menu icon (three vertical lines in the upper-left corner of the screen) and then tap on Bin. Here, you will see all the photos that have previously been removed.
- To permanently delete your photos, tap the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of the screen, and then select Empty Bin. Alternatively, you could also skip this step, as your photos will be automatically deleted from the Bin folder after 60 days.
Note: Google Photos are synced and connected across all of your devices. For this reason, it’s recommended to turn off the Back up and sync option before deleting your images from Google Photos. This will ensure you won’t also remove the copies from your devices’ libraries, if that’s not something you wish to do.
