Take a photograph off your phone without losing it
Exactly what deleting does in a cloud folder, and which button you actually wanted instead.
You delete a photograph on the phone. Within a minute it has gone from the laptop upstairs, and from the tablet in the kitchen.
That is sync: whatever happens to a file on one device, make it happen everywhere.
Key points
- Sync is a mirror: one file, shown on several screens
- Deleting on one device deletes from the library, and so from all of them
- “Free up space” and “remove download” change this device only
- Deleted things sit in a bin for around thirty days — look there before worrying
What to remember
- It did not go from one device. It went from the shelf all three were looking at.
- They sit in Recently Deleted for about thirty days. And if you meant “take it off this phone”, there is a different button.
- Two words do all the damage. Delete changes the library; remove or free up changes this device.
Try this
Find the Recently Deleted album in your own photographs. On an iPhone it is at the bottom of the Albums tab; in Google Photos it is called Bin.
Practice: Take a photograph off your phone without losing it. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.