Android: Can’t Delete Photos From Gallery App

Normally, you can tap and hold any photo in the Gallery app for Android to access the option to delete. That option may not appear for all of your photos. That’s because the Gallery may not only show images on your device. It also may show items from online image-sharing platforms.

If the Android Gallery app won’t delete photos even after you manually delete the items, you’ve come to the right place. Find below the best troubleshooting ideas to resolve this problem on your Android smartphone or tablet.

How to Fix Can’t Delete Photos From Android Gallery App

The Gallery app may not show the delete option for selecting photos or bringing back the photo after you delete it. Find below different solutions for carrying problems with the Gallery app won’t delete photos:

1. Delete Images From the Original App

Sometimes, you may delete WhatsApp images from the Android Gallery app. But, once you revisit the same WhatsApp chat, you see that the deleted image comes back on the Android Gallery app. That’s because the Gallery app isn’t the original source of the image you deleted. It just shows all the media content on your device like photos, screenshots, videos, and more. When you access a specific WhatsApp chat again after deleting its images, the chat loads and the device saves a copy of the shared media. Here’s how you should delete images that come from messaging apps or social media apps:

• Go to the WhatsApp chat from which you need to delete one or many photos or images.
• Long tap on the image you want to delete.

• Tap the delete icon (looks like a trash bin) on the top menubar of the image or photo you selected.
• A delete message warning will pop up. There, you should see a checkbox to delete the content also from the device gallery.

• Checkmark that checkbox and tap Delete for me.

WhatsApp will delete the photo from the chat as well as from the Android Gallery app. Now, you can open the Gallery app and this particular WhatsApp media won’t show up there. This way, you can also delete those photos for which you don’t see the delete option on the Gallery app.

2. Force Stop the Gallery App and Uninstall Updates

It happens rarely, but at times, Android Gallery won’t let you delete photos nor remove a photo from the gallery display, even if you deleted it from the device storage or originating app. In such a situation, do the following:

• Long tap on the Gallery app icon and then choose App info (i) on the context menu that shows up.

• Inside, the App info screen, tap Force stop.
• This will stop all the background processes of the Gallery app.
• Now, tap the three dots or kebab menu on the top right corner of the App info screen and choose Uninstall updates.
• This will revert the Android Gallery app to its factory settings as it came with the new Android device.
• Now, open the Gallery app from the app drawer.
• You shouldn’t see the image or photo you deleted earlier.

If the Android Gallery app isn’t a built-in app for your Android device, then you won’t find the three dots menu nor the Uninstall updates option. You’ll only see the Uninstall option on the App info screen.

You can however tap Storage & cache and touch Clear cache to erase temporary app files. Then, tap Clear storage to delete app data. This should fix the “Android Gallery won’t delete photos” problem.

Some new Android devices like Android 11, 12, and 13 come with Google Photos as the default gallery app. In that case, perform all the above steps for Google Photos if it’s not removing an already deleted photo.

Also read: Can I Delete My Photos After Backing Them up to Google Photos?

3. Delete Photos the Right Way

Merely deleting media from the Android Gallery or Google Photos app won’t erase the content from the device. For backup and failsafe purposes, the Android OS moves the deleted content to a Trash folder. Anyone else who has access to your Android smartphone or tablet with the knowledge of restoring such backups can bring back the photo you deleted. So, follow these steps on the Gallery app:

• Open Android Gallery and locate the photo or image you want to delete for good.
• Tap the content and touch Bin in the bottom right corner of the screen.
• A warning message will pop up asking you for approval to send the image to the bin.

• Tap Allow.
• Now tap View on the ticker that shows up below the photo you just deleted.
• The Gallery Bin folder opens up.

• Here, tap Empty on the top of the screen to clear all items from the Bin. This means the permanent deletion of content from the Bin folder.

• Alternatively, long-press the target image and tap Delete in the top right corner.

This is how you remove content from Android Gallery permanently. Now, if you don’t find the Gallery app on your Android device and you mainly use Google Photos to visualize photos, images, and videos, try these steps instead:

• Open the Google Photos app and find an image you wish to delete.
• Don’t use the Delete from device by scrolling to the details section at the bottom of the image.
• This will just erase the image from the device temporarily.
• When you restart Google Photos, the image will resurface on the app.
• Instead, Tap the Delete icon near the bazel of the device when you visualize the image on Google Photos.

• Then, tap Move to Bin.

• This will delete the content from your Google Account and also from other backed-up devices using the same Google Account.

Now, you won’t see the photo on the Android device anymore. However, Google backed it up in the Trash folder of the Google Photos web app. If you just don’t want the photo anywhere on your Google Account, access the Trash folder link as given earlier. Log in using your Google Account username and password. Now, simply click Empty trash on the top right corner of the page.

Also read: Fix Microsoft Teams Large Gallery View Not Working

4. Clear the Cache of Media Storage

If the Android Gallery app won’t delete photos because of an issue in the Media Storage or Media app of the Android device, you need to clear its cache. Here’s how:

• Open the Android Settings app.
• Tap the Apps option on Settings.

• Touch the See all apps option to expand the list of installed apps.
• On the All apps screen, tap the kebab menu in the top right corner.

• Choose Show system apps from the context menu that shows.
• Now scroll down to the apps listed with names starting with the alphabet M.
• Then, look for the Media Storage app.
• Select the app and then tap on Storage & cache.
• Touch Clear cache and Clear storage to reset app data and cache.
• Now, check the Gallery app and you shouldn’t find the deleted image anymore.
• If you weren’t able to delete a photo, you’ll be able to delete that now too.

5. Disable Google Account Sync

Suppose, you just want to delete some photos from the Android device but not from your Google Account. In this scenario, you need to stop the sync with Google Account for photos. Then, delete the images from the device to get rid of the content. Here’s how it’s done:

• First, you must stop syncing the device with Google Servers for photos backup.
• To do this, open the Settings app.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and touch the setting System.
• There, choose the Backup option.

• Inside the Backup screen, tap Photos and videos under the Backup details section.
• If the toggle button for Backup is green, tap on it.

• It’ll become grey, which means the backup process is now offline.
• Now. open the Google Photos app from Home Screen or apps drawer.

• Tap the Delete option in the bottom right corner and choose Move to Bin.

6. Clear All Data Inside Thumbnails Folder

The Gallery app can also show a deleted photo if Android OS doesn’t delete the thumbnail of the image from the .thumbnails folder. You can manually delete the thumbnail by following these steps:

• Open the File Manager app on your Android mobile phone or tablet.
• Tap the three dots menu on the top right corner to reveal the Settings option.

• Tap Settings and activate the Show hidden files option.
• Now, go back to the main screen of the File Manager app.
• Touch the Internal storage option.
• You should now see a list of Android folders.
• Find DCIM and access that folder.

• Inside DCIM, you must see the .thumbnails hidden folder.
• Tap .thumbnails and delete all of its content.

Now, visit the Android Gallery app and you should see that the deleted photo isn’t there anymore.

Conclusion

So these are some of the ways to fix the “can’t delete photos from Android Gallery app.” If the default gallery of your Android smartphone is Google Photos, then you can follow the same methods for troubleshooting. Also, if you know any better methods to fix this, don’t hesitate to mention that in the comment box below.

Next up, how to create an album based on someone’s face on Google Photos.