Delete photos & videos
Backed up photos and videos you delete will stay in your trash for 60 days before they're permanently deleted forever. If the photos and videos aren't backed up, they'll be permanently deleted after 30 days. Photos and videos that were permanently deleted can’t be restored. Learn how to turn on backup.
If you no longer want to see a photo or video in your Google Photos gallery view but don't want to delete it, you can move items to Archive. When you move photos and videos to archive, you can still find them in any albums they were added to, search results, and folders on your device. Learn how to move photos to archive.
Tip: You can look for photos in a Locked Folder. Learn more about where you can access items in a Locked Folder.
Before you delete photos & videos
Learn where photos and videos do and don’t get removed.Items you delete from Google Photos are also removed from:
- Android devices, iPhones, and iPads with Google Photos installed and backup turned on.
- Google Photos albums.
- Shared albums and conversations you added them to.
- Some Google Photos highlight videos. Learn more about deleted photos in highlight videos.
- Local storage when files are downloaded to iPhones and iPads, and some devices on Android 11 or later.
Items you delete aren't automatically removed from:
- Blogger
- Drive
- Gmail
- YouTube
Delete photos & videos
- On your computer, go to photos.google.com/login.
- Choose the photo or video that you want to delete.
- At the top, click Select 👁 Select
. - At the top, click Move to trash 👁 Delete
👁 and then
Move to trash. - To undo, at the bottom, click Undo.
- If you backed up your photos or videos before you deleted them, they'll stay in your trash for 60 days. After 60 days, they'll be permanently deleted.
- If the photos and videos aren't backed up, they'll be permanently deleted after 30 days.
- Some photos save space when deleted. If you delete a photo that saves storage space in your Google Account, you may get an estimate of the recovered storage.
Empty your trash
Important: If you get a prompt to "Delete permanently" when you move photos and videos to trash, your trash is full. You can choose to delete these photos and videos permanently, but if you would like the ability to restore these photos and videos, you must first empty your trash. When you empty your trash, you permanently delete any photos and videos in your trash, and they can’t be restored.
- On your computer, go to photos.google.com/login.
- Click Trash 👁 Delete
. - At the top, click Empty trash 👁 Image
👁 and then
Empty Trash.
Delete photos & videos permanently
- On your computer, go to photos.google.com/login.
- Click Trash 👁 Delete
. - Choose the photo or video that you want to delete permanently.
- At the top, click Select 👁 Select
. - At the top, click Delete permanently 👁 and then
Delete.