Delete photos and restore from trash

Deleting a photo isn’t instant and permanent. It goes to the group’s trash first, giving you a window to change your mind.

Delete a photo

Open a photo, or select several in a collection, and choose to delete. Members and admins can delete photos; viewers can’t. Photos in a locked collection can only be removed by an owner or admin. When you delete a photo (or a batch of them), it moves to trash rather than disappearing.

If you’re clearing out copies of the same picture, find and remove duplicate photos can help you spot them first.

Restore within 30 days

Trashed items stay recoverable for 30 days. To open the trash, choose Organization in the left sidebar (on a computer), then the Trash tab. There, an owner or admin can choose Restore on any item to send it back to its collection, or select several and restore them together. After 30 days, trashed items are permanently deleted and can’t be recovered.

One thing to know: any member can delete a photo, but the Trash screen, and restoring from it, is for owners and admins only. If you deleted something by mistake and can’t restore it yourself, ask an owner or admin.

Trash and your storage

Photos in the trash still count toward your group’s storage until they’re permanently removed. If your group is tight on space, emptying the trash (or letting the 30 days lapse) frees it up.

Removing a photo for good, right away

If a photo needs to be pulled and kept out, an owner or admin can approve a takedown, which blocks that file from being re-uploaded and can catch edited copies for an admin to review. See report a photo.