How To Delete All Google Photos from Any Device

Google Photos is an excellent cloud service with fair pricing and tons of free storage. It is packed with features and available on any platform and operating system. However, you can not save all your photos in their original quality without reaching a capacity limit.

Eventually, you have to pay if you want to keep adding photos to your Google Photos folder. That is if you do not want to compromise image quality. But, if you want to free up some space and add new photos, you can always delete some or all of them.

Here is how you can do just that on any device that you may own. This tutorial will also teach you how to restore deleted photos and what you can do to avoid losing deleted photos forever.

How to Delete All Google Photos from a Windows PC, MacBook, or Chromebook

The process of deleting your Google Photos from a computer is the same, whether you use a PC, Mac, or Chromebook. You can do it on your browser, so the steps are the same for any OS.

1. Log into the Google Photos website with your Google account credentials.
   
2. Select the photos you want to delete.
   
3. If you click on the Check button above the photos, it selects all photos in the folder.
   
4. Click on the bin icon (Trash) to delete.
   
5. Confirm by clicking Move to trash.
   

Note that if you do this, and you have synced devices, the process deletes the photos from your other devices too, not just on your cloud storage. To avoid this, here is what you can do.

1. Bring up the Google Photos app on your iPhone or Android device.
   
2. Go to Photos settings then Backup & sync.
   
3. Disable the Backup & sync option.
   

This setting will un-sync your devices and ensure that you can free up cloud storage without deleting anything on your phone or tablet. It works the other way around too.

If you want to delete individual photos, open the photo you want to delete and click on the bin icon in the upper right corner. This action sends the images to the Trash folder.

To avoid potential issues, we recommend using Google Chrome as your browser of choice when going through your Google Photos and making any changes.

Note for Chromebook Users – Since 2019, Google Photos and Google Drive no longer sync. It means that you can not access your Google Photos from the Google Drive shortcut on your Chromebook. Thus, you need to use the browser and access photos.google.com to delete your pics.

How to Delete All Google Photos from an Android Device

Selecting all your photos to delete them takes a while on mobile devices, especially when you have a large library. Here’s the method you can use.

1. Launch the Google Photos on your smartphone.
   
2. Tap on the menu icon (three dots on the upper-right side).
   
3. Click Select photos.
   
4. Tap the photos that you want to delete.
   
5. Tap Move to trash to confirm the deletion.
   
6. For permanent deletion, go back to the Menu then select Trash.
   
7. Tap on the Trash icon.
   
8. Select the Empty Trash option to confirm.
   

How to Delete All Google Photos from an iPhone

Many iPhone users also use Google Photos, and the reason is simple. Compared to iCloud, Google Photos offers more free storage capacity. At the same time, upgrading is cheaper too with Google’s storage.

If you want to free up space in your Google Photos and you are using an iPhone, the following steps apply.

1. Launch the app from your iPhone.
   
2. Tap on the Free up Space button located under the Trash folder. This will delete all of your photos.
   

As an alternative, manually select all the photos in your folder. Then tap the trash bin icon to delete the photos.

Although this frees up space, note that you can still restore your photos from the Trash folder.

iPhone users may face some challenges. For example, deleting photos from the Google Photos app may also delete them on your iCloud storage. However, you should get a notification that asks you if you agree with the action.

Additional FAQ

Here are some additional answers to common Google Photos questions that PC and mobile device users have.

How to undelete Google Photos?

If you are a PC user, you should be familiar with the Recycle Bin. When you delete something, it does not automatically disappear. Many files and photos end up in the bin. This system is beneficial as it allows you to clear some storage space but also recover your files later.

You can access the trash folder and undelete all or only some of your photos. But be careful, as the 60-day grace period is not folder-wide but per picture based on the individual deletion date and time.

Tap on an image that you want to recover and then tap the Restore button. Alternatively, tap the Delete button if you want to skip the counter and destroy the pic for good right away.

Are my Google Photos permanently deleted after deleting?

Deleted Google Photos end up in the trash. However, you can not leave them there indefinitely. There is a default grace period before you lose your photos forever.

Google Photos keeps deleted pics in the trash for 60 days. After the 60 days, they disappear. Of course, each picture has a 60-day recovery period since you added it to the trash folder. It is best to check the new indicator system to see how much time you have left to recover each picture.

At the end of those 60 days, you cannot recover those photos anymore. It’s especially true when you sync all your devices. If you don’t sync your devices then deleting something on Google Photos won’t cause you to lose the pic from the device you used to take the photos.

Final Thoughts

Unless you really do not mind losing image quality, chances are your Google Photos storage will run out. Sooner or later, you may have to face the fact that a storage upgrade is necessary. But not everyone will want to spend on that, despite Google offering some reasonable prices.

The good news is that you can always delete some of your older photos, or your bad shots. If push comes to shove, you can delete all your photos with a few clicks. And even permanently delete them at your whim.

Now that you know how to free up Google Photos storage space, do you think that the process could be made simpler? Let us know if you find Google Photos advantageous or if you prefer other cloud storage options. Also, tell us if you encounter any unexpected issues with device syncing and disappearing photos.