Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR Google Photos may not behave as you expect when deleting pictures you’ve copied.
In addition to removing the primary photo from your camera gallery, Photos will also delete local copies.
The app does reference this behavior, but it’s possible that users may not understand Google’s messaging.
Accidentally losing data sucks, but that sting feels especially pronounced when we’re talking about our photographs. Some memories are once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and we’ll never get those pics again. Late last year we shared some problems several Pixel phones were having with failing to save your photos, and we’re rounding out this week with a PSA about a potentially devastating Google Photos issue that users will want to know about.
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Google Photos is the app lots of us with Android devices turn to for easy picture management — far more than just Pixel users. Beyond just letting us view and edit our pics, Photos offers easy cloud support for keeping all those memories backed up.
Not all us take advantage of those backups, though, and especially if you’re more comfortable just manually moving files around the old-fashioned way, there’s the chance you might overlook some slightly unintuitive Google Photos behavior — and lose your pics in the process.
Over on Reddit’s Google Pixel sub, user gongarher shares their harrowing experience with a Pixel 10 Pro. After a recent trip, they were trying to move the pictures they took, but found Files by Google struggling to keep up with the task. Instead, they opened up Google Photos and used the app’s sharing function to copy the pics to their phone’s Downloads folder.
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