Google Photos is a photo sharing and storage service offered by Google. It provides users with free, unlimited storage for photos up to 16MP and videos up to 1080p resolution. Google Photos uses cloud technology to automatically sync images from computers and mobile devices, allowing users to access their photos from anywhere. The service also includes powerful photo editing tools and the ability to easily share photos with others.
One question users often wonder about Google Photos is what happens to photos when they are deleted. When a photo is deleted in Google Photos, does it completely disappear from Google’s servers? Or does Google continue storing the photo data indefinitely? This article will examine how Google handles photo storage and deletion to answer whether deleted photos stay in Google Photos.
How Google Photos Stores Photos
Google Photos is a cloud-based photo storage service, which means it stores your photos in the cloud rather than locally on your device’s hard drive. When you take a photo on your smartphone or other device, the Google Photos app can be set up to automatically sync and back up those photos to Google’s servers over the internet.
Your photos are stored in Google’s data centers, not directly on your phone or computer. This allows you to securely access your photos from any internet-connected device by logging into your Google account. All your photos are synced across devices so that edits or organizational changes you make on one device will apply everywhere.
The benefit of cloud storage services like Google Photos is that it creates backups of all your images so you don’t lose them if your local storage is damaged or lost. Your photos are also accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. The downside is that you must rely on Google’s servers and internet availability to access your own photos.
Deleting Photos in Google Photos
Google Photos allows users to easily delete photos from their account. There are a few ways to delete photos:
- On the Google Photos website, select the photos you want to delete and click the trash can icon at the top.
- In the Google Photos app, tap and hold a photo to select it, select multiple photos, then tap the trash can icon.
- In the Google Photos app, tap a photo to view it, tap the 3-dot menu icon, and select delete.
When you delete photos through the Google Photos interface, the photos are removed from your Google Photos library and trash. However, deleting photos from Google Photos does not delete the original copies from your device storage or other cloud sources like iCloud (source).
If you want to free up device storage space, you will also need to delete the photos directly from your device gallery or cloud storage. Likewise, if you only delete photos from your device, the copies in your Google Photos account will remain.
So in summary, deleting photos in Google Photos only removes them from the Google Photos ecosystem, not the original sources. To permanently delete photos from all locations, you would need to delete them from both your device storage/cloud accounts and your Google Photos library.
Where Deleted Photos Go
When you delete photos or videos in the Google Photos app on your mobile device or on the Google Photos website, the deleted items are not immediately erased. Instead, Google Photos sends deleted photos and videos to the trash folder where they remain for 60 days before being permanently deleted.
The trash feature gives users a grace period to recover accidentally deleted items. Any photos or videos placed in the trash will remain there for up to 60 days. During this time, you can still view and restore the deleted items as needed. After 60 days, the items are permanently erased from Google Photos.
So in summary, when you delete a photo or video in Google Photos, it goes to the trash for 60 days before being permanently deleted from your library and all Google servers. This gives you a window to restore deleted content if needed. But after 60 days, deletions become permanent.
Sources:
[1] https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6128858?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
Recovering Deleted Photos
If you accidentally delete photos in Google Photos, you may be able to restore them from the trash within 60 days. When you delete photos in Google Photos, they are moved to the trash bin where they remain for 60 days before being permanently deleted. During this 60 day window, you can recover deleted photos by:
On the Google Photos app or website, go to the trash bin which is found under Library. Here you will see all your recently deleted photos. Tap and hold on a photo, then tap ‘Restore’ to move it back to your main photo library. You can also click the checkbox at the top left to select all photos, then click ‘Restore’ to restore them all at once.
According to MakeUseOf, another option is to use the search bar to search for the specific photo you want to restore. This will show deleted photos matching your search. Tap the photo, then tap ‘Restore’ to recover it.
Restoring photos from the trash bin allows you to quickly undo accidental deletions. As long as you notice within 60 days, you can get your photos back. However, after 60 days deleted photos are permanently removed from Google Photos and can no longer be recovered using these steps.
Permanent Photo Deletion
When a photo or video is deleted in Google Photos, it is first moved to the Trash folder where it can easily be restored. However, after being in the Trash for 60 days, Google Photos will permanently delete the photo or video from its servers [1]. At this point, the photo or video cannot be recovered through Google Photos.
It’s important to understand that data deletion is complex, especially for a cloud service like Google Photos that stores vast amounts of data across multiple servers. Even after Google deletes a photo from view, remnants of the data may still exist in their systems. However, for all practical purposes, a photo deleted after 60 days should be considered permanently gone from Google Photos.
Google Still Has Photo Data
Even when you delete photos from Google Photos, Google may still retain metadata about those photos, such as geolocation, timestamps, and other data. According to a discussion on Reddit, metadata added through Google Photos is never actually added to the photo file itself. Instead, Google stores metadata separately. Therefore, when you download your photos through Google Takeout, you’ll get the original photos without the metadata added by Google Photos.
This means that even if you delete the photo file from Google Photos, Google still has the metadata about that photo stored in its databases. A user on Google support forums also noted that when saving photos to Google Drive, it strips out the original metadata. So Google likely replaces the original metadata with its own metadata for organizing photos in Google Photos.
In summary, while deleting a photo may remove the actual image file, Google still retains metadata about deleted photos that can show location history, time stamps, and other potentially sensitive information. The only way to fully remove all traces of a photo from Google is to not upload it in the first place.
For more information, see:
[Does Google Photos remove metadata?](https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/17ria96/does_google_photos_remove_metadata/) – Discussion on Reddit about metadata in Google Photos.
[Saving to Google Drive strips metadata](https://support.google.com/photos/thread/180378738/saving-to-google-drive-strips-metadata?hl=en) – Google support thread about metadata being removed when saving to Drive.
Other Cloud Storage Services
Google Photos handles deleted photos differently compared to other popular cloud storage services like iCloud and Dropbox. With iCloud, when you delete a photo it gets moved to the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before being permanently erased (Source). Dropbox gives you 30 days to restore deleted files from the Trash before they are deleted forever (Source).
In contrast, Google Photos does not have a temporary trash folder. Once photos are deleted, they are immediately removed from your Google Photos library with no grace period for recovery. However, Google retains certain metadata about your photos for up to 60 days before fully deleting that as well (Source). So while the photo itself is gone, Google still has some data tied to it for a period of time. This makes complete photo recovery difficult compared to iCloud and Dropbox.
Overall, other services provide more user control over deleted photo recovery than Google Photos. iCloud and Dropbox have set windows where users can restore accidentally deleted photos. Google Photos deletes photos instantly with no built-in recovery options.
User Control Over Photos
Users have a few options to take more control over their photos stored online:
Make backups of photos stored in the cloud. Services like Take Control of Your Digital Photos recommend downloading a copy of your cloud-stored photos to your local hard drive or an external hard drive. This acts as a backup in case photos are ever deleted from the cloud.
Review platform policies before uploading photos. As Wired suggests, read the terms of service and privacy policies to understand how platforms like Google Photos or iCloud handle your data. Look for details on permanent deletion and data retention.
Consider hosting your own photos. Rather than relying on Google Photos or other platforms, services like Trovebox allow you to host photos on your own domain while managing them through their interface.
Deleting photos locally doesn’t remove them from online backups. So deleting through Google Photos web interface or app only deletes the local cache, with the photo still stored by Google’s servers. For full removal, users need to delete both locally and online.
Conclusion
In summary, when you delete photos from Google Photos, they are first moved to the trash folder where they can easily be recovered. The photos remain in the trash for up to 60 days before being permanently deleted from Google’s servers.
So in answer to the main question – do deleted photos stay in Google Photos? – the answer is yes, but only temporarily. Deleted photos are stored for a period of time, allowing you to restore them if deleted accidentally. However, after 60 days, the photos are completely removed from Google Photos and can no longer be recovered.
Therefore, while deleted photos do not permanently remain in Google Photos, they are temporarily stored, giving you a window to recover them before permanent removal. Just be aware this window is limited to 60 days.