Backed up photos and videos that you delete will stay in your bin for 60 days before they are
permanently deleted. 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 the archive. When you move photos and videos to the archive, you can still find them in any albums that they were added to, search results and folders on your device. Learn how to move photos to the archive.
Before you delete photos and videos
Learn where photos and videos do and don't get removed.Items that 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 that 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 that you delete aren't automatically removed from:
- Blogger
- Drive
- Gmail
- YouTube
Delete photos and 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
.
- At the top, click Delete
Move to bin.
- To undo, at the bottom, click Undo.
.
Move to bin.Tips:
- If you backed up your photo or video before you deleted it, it will stay in your bin for 60 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 bin
Important: If you get a prompt to 'Delete permanently' when you move photos and videos to the bin, your bin 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 bin. When you empty your bin, you permanently delete any photos and videos in your bin and they can't be restored.
- On your computer, go to photos.google.com/login.
- Click Bin
.
- At the top, click Empty bin
Delete photos and videos permanently
- On your computer, go to photos.google.com/login.
- Click Bin
- Choose the photo or video that you want to delete permanently.
- At the top, click Select
- At the top, click Delete permanently