How To Delete All Photos From Google Photos?

It’s not a straightforward process to delete all Google Photos at once as there is no Select All button available at the time of writing. More than 28 billion new photos and videos are uploaded on Google Photos every single week.

You can easily back up and share your photos using Google Photos. However, it also becomes more difficult to manage huge amounts of photos in the Google Photos library especially when you want to delete them all at once for whatever reason.

Using these few steps, you can delete all photos from Google Photos at once. Also, you can speed up the process to quickly delete all of your Google Photos.

How To Delete All The Photos From Google Photos?

Google has not yet introduced any method to quickly select and delete all Google photos however, there is a way to select multiple photos quickly and hence you can delete Google Photos at once.

Note: It’s important to mention that when you delete Google photos, they will also be deleted from your other synced devices as well. So, make sure you have a Backup of your data.

Now, we’ll go through this method according to different devices and you can follow the process according to your device.

Delete All Photos From Google Photos On Desktop

Removing Google Photos on the Desktop is easier compared to Android and iPhone. The keyboard shortcuts make the process straightforward.

You’re suggested to follow this method on your desktop. The steps are the same on Windows, Chromebook, Mac, or Linux OS. Use any web browser of your choice, such as Google Chrome.

Follow the given steps to delete all photos From Google Photos on your computer:

1. Go to the Google Photos website and sign in with the same Google account you want to delete photos from:

2. Select the first image by clicking on the white checkmark circle located at the top-left corner of the image. The image should be marked with a blue-circle checkmark:

3. Now, scroll down not too fast until you reach the last image. You can use the mouse wheel or page down key from the keyboard for scrolling down. You must scroll down slowly so that the images can be properly loaded, otherwise, they will not be selected.

Note: If you have thousands of photos in Google Photos then, you should select them in sections i.e. select the first 500 photos then, another 500, and so on to avoid any issues.

4. Now, hold the shift key from the keyboard and click on the last image in order to select all the images in between, and then, release the Shift key. As a result, every image will be selected automatically:

The images will only be selected while pressing the shift key if all the previous images have been loaded properly. With a fast internet connection, the photos will load quickly, allowing you to select a larger number of photos at once in the Google Photos library.

5. Once the images are selected, click on the bin icon 🗑, located at the upper right corner of the screen:

6. Finally, click on Move to Trash to delete the selected photos:

Common Problems While Selecting All Google Photos

Many users face the problem that other images are not automatically selected when they click on the last image. And, this happens with too many users even with me. But, why?

The problem occurs when you scroll down too fast, press the end key from the keyboard, or keep holding the page down key to quickly reach the last video or image. As a result, none of the photos will be selected, since the previous photos were not loaded properly.

When the previous photos are loaded properly, depending on your internet speed, select the last video or image while holding the Shift key from the keyboard, and now the photos in between should be selected. I personally have selected more than 2600 images at once using this same method.

So, you have to be patient while scrolling down. I know it’ll take time but there is no other way. Also, you should select images in groups instead of selecting them at once.

If the photos in between don’t turn blue then, select one photo after the already selected ones, and continue this process. You must have to press the shift keyboard key before selecting the last photo in order to select the photos in between.

In addition, some users report that they are only able to select images that are visible onscreen and can’t scroll down to select more images. This problem occurs when you hold the shift key while selecting the first photo.

You’ll not be able to scroll down until you release a shift key. You only need to press the shift when selecting the last video or photo.

You can deselect photos if anything goes wrong by pressing the Esc key on your keyboard or by clicking on the cross symbol (✖) located at the upper left corner of the screen:

It’ll take you more time to delete Google Photos if you have thousands of images. I don’t know why Google is making this process hard.

Tips To Speed Up The Process

If your Google Photos account contains a huge amount of photos and videos then, it’s going to take a lot of time to delete them all. However, we can apply some tweaks to make this process faster.

If you zoom out of your page, more images will be displayed on your screen, so you will be able to select more photos at once. You can press CTRL and – (minus) keys together to zoom out the page.

Once you zoom out your web browser page, you can quickly select and delete images.

Furthermore, if you have a high GHz internet connection, you can increase the speed of your mouse scroll to take bigger jumps and select all the photos more quickly.

Empty Bin

When you delete photos or videos from Google Photos, they are moved to the Bin or trash, which is a temporary storage just like the Recycle Bin in Windows.

If you don’t restore your items from the Bin folder within 60 days in Google Photos, they are automatically deleted permanently. Then, you can’t retrieve them anymore.

Follow the given steps to delete photos from the Bin folder:

1. Navigate to the Bin or Trash folder located on the left side of your screen:

2. Click on Empty Bin
3. In the confirmation window, click on Empty Bin again.
4. Now, your photos and videos have been permanently deleted.

Furthermore, it’ll erase all the synced photos from the phone gallery as well. In this way, you can delete Google Photos permanently at once on a desktop device.

Delete All Photos From Google Photos App on Mobile

Deleting images from the Google Photos app is more time-consuming than on the desktop, especially when you have thousands of photos in the Library since there is no Select All button in the app as well.

Only follow this process on a mobile device if you have a few images; otherwise, it will take a long time. Using either the Android or iPhone app will yield the same results.

To delete all Google Photos on Android or iPhone:

1. Open the Google Photos app on your smartphone.
2. Long-press the first photo and scroll down without lifting your finger from the screen.
3. Once you reach the last image, simply tap Delete 🗑 option.
4. Select Move to Trash to delete all photos.

Note: If you lift your finger, you will not be able to select photos by scrolling down instead you can only select individual photos or select by date.

After that, the images will be moved to the trash. In this way, you can get rid of all of your Google Photos. You can also open the Google Photos website on a mobile device as well.

Deleting Google Photos may also delete them from iCloud as well. So, be careful about that.

Speed Up the Process

The only way to speed up the process of deleting images from the Google Photos app is to select photos or videos by date.

Tap on the grey circle with a checkmark next to a specific date in order to select images that were taken on a specific date:

Obviously, you’ll have to spend more time selecting all of them if you have a large number of photos and videos.

Empty Trash

To permanently delete Google Photos, you have to delete them from the Trash too.

Follow the given steps to empty trash on the Google Photos app:

1. Open the Google Photos app
2. Navigate to the Library > Trash:

2. Tap on three dots located at the upper right corner > select Empty trash:

3. Finally, select Delete permanently on the confirmation screen:

All the photos have now gone for good. You can’t retrieve deleted photos back now.

Protect Gallery Photos from Deleting with Google Photos

Your photos saved in the gallery will also be deleted once you delete photos from Google Photos if you have synced your mobile device with the Google Photos app.

However, if you want to avoid this scenario, you need to turn off the backup and sync option from the Google Photos app manually.

Follow the given steps to disable the backup and sync feature:

1. Open the Google Photos app
2. Tap on your profile photo > then, Photos Settings:

3. Navigate to Back up & sync > disable this feature:

4. Your device will be un-synced.

If you have synced your Google account on multiple devices, you have to un-sync them all to avoid accidental data loss.

Now, you can easily free up your Google Photos storage without deleting photos or videos from your mobile device.

Things To Do Before Deleting All Google Photos

Google Photos holds and organize your memories. Your photos are important to you, that’s why it’s hard to throw them away. But if you have decided to delete all of your Google Photos, you must take some actions beforehand.

Before you start deleting your Google Photos, make sure you have a backup of all of your images and videos as a precaution against data loss. You can easily download your Google Photos data from google takeout.

You can then save it on your computer or in a cloud storage space like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive. Whether you consider your data to be important or not, it is always a good idea to have a backup.

Additionally, if you have shared your Google Photos data with someone, make sure to inform them that you are deleting it all as they’ll not be able to access that data once deleted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bottom Line

Google is offering 15 GB of free space that is shared among other Google services, such as Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail. As your data grows, you will eventually need to upgrade your storage limit. But, it’s not feasible for everyone.

You can, however, take a backup of your Google Photos and save them on your computer or in another cloud storage service. After that, delete all your photos and videos to free up Google Photos cloud storage.

In this way, you can make room for your fresh data. Now that you know how to delete Google Photos in simple steps, you won’t have any trouble deleting your Google Photos.

If you think the process can be simplified further, please let us know in the comments. We’ll review it and update this guide with your useful information.

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