Delete photos and videos

You can delete photos and videos:

From the Camera app

  1. Touch the photo thumbnail (right of ).
  2. Do one of the following:

    • To delete it from your phone's storage and your Google account backup, touch . (If you don't see the icon, touch the screen first).
    • To only delete it from your phone's storage, touch > Delete from device.

From the Photos app

  1. From the list of thumbnail photos:

    • To select one item, touch & hold it.
    • To select multiple items, touch & hold the first one, then touch the others.
  2. Do one of the following:

    • To delete it from your phone's storage and your Google account backup, touch .
    • To only delete it from your phone's storage, touch > Delete from device.

Recover deleted photos and videos

If you automatically back up photos to your Google account, you have some time to recover deleted items. When you delete a photo or video, it's moved to the Bin in the Photos app for several weeks, before being deleted forever.

To recover a photo or video:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Touch > Bin.
  3. Touch & hold the photo or video.
  4. Touch Restore.

If you don't back up photos to your Google account, to maximise use of your phone's internal storage space, there's no undo. Once you delete something from your phone's storage, it's gone. You can try using a third-party app to recover recently deleted photos or videos.

Fix a problem

If you're having problems, try these troubleshooting steps.