How to permanently delete photos from laptop

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Last Updated: May 6, 2021 References

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Method 1 Method 1 of 3:Deleting Photos from Your Smartphone or Tablet
Method 2 Method 2 of 3:Deleting Photos from Your PC
Method 3 Method 3 of 3:Archiving Photos You Don't Want on Your Device
Community Q&A
Warnings
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If youre like most people, you have countless pictures saved to your smartphone or laptop that you rarely, if ever, give a second look. After a while, photos that have accumulated over a span of months or years can clutter up your file storage folders and take up valuable space on your hard drive. Its not always easy, but sometimes its best just to say goodbye. If youre unsure about how to rid your devices memory of unwanted photos, read on for a couple quick, easy to follow walkthroughs.

Method 1 Method 1 of 3:Deleting Photos from Your Smartphone or Tablet

1
Open your devices photo manager app. Go to the home screen on your phone or tablet and look for the icon of your devices photo app. On iPhones, this app will simply be called Photos, though on other operating systems it might be labelled Pictures or Gallery. Tap the icon once to launch the app.[1] X Research source Go to source
- On iPhones, the Photos app is normally on the first page of the home screen. For non-iPhone users, your photo manager app may appear among your other app icons or in a scrolling bar at the bottom of the screen.
- Inside your photo app, youll find all of the photos youve taken or saved, along with the various subfolders theyve been grouped intoselfies, Panoramas, Instagram photos, etc.
2
Select the photo you want to delete. Sort through your stored photos to find the ones you want to remove from your device. You can either browse your entire gallery (known as the Camera Roll on iPhones) to see them all laid out in one place or explore different subfolders if you have them separated. Tap a photo to select and enlarge it.[2] X Research source Go to source
- Selecting a photo will also allow you to find out more about it, such as the file size and type and the date it was taken or saved.
3
Locate and tap the trash can icon. Once the photo is displayed on the screen, look for the delete option in the upper or lower righthand corner. On most devices, this appears as an icon in the form of a trash can. Tap this icon to select the photo for deletion.[3] X Research source Go to source
- Most devices will ask you to confirm whether or not you want to delete the photo. Simply choose delete to move forward with the process, or cancel if youve changed your mind.
- Choosing to delete a photo doesnt actually remove it from your phone. Instead, it sends it to a recently deleted folder, where it can be either be recovered or permanently erased.
4
Select multiple photos to delete. If youre trying to delete several pictures at once, you can save time by batching them together. Pull up your photo manager app so that youre looking at an overview of all your pictures. Hit the trash icon or select option on your screen, then tap each photo you want to remove individually. After youve finished selecting the photos, your phone will erase all of them at the same time.[4] X Research source Go to source
- This function is useful if you want to hand pick which photos stay or go, or youre trying to destroy all evidence of a bad selfie session.
- Be careful not to accidentally select a photo you want to keep.
5
Delete photos permanently from your device. Deleting a picture only removes it from your photo gallery. To erase it from your device once and for all, go back to the main screen of your photo app and look for the recently deleted folder. All the photos youve deleted will remain here for a certain amount of time before theyre erased automatically. To speed up this process, tap the select option and either choose which photos you want to delete permanently or hit delete all to clear the photos out of your storage.[5] X Research source Go to source
- Its impossible to recover a photo after its been erased from the deleted files folder, so be certain you can live without it.
- Photos will usually stay in the recently deleted folder for 30 days before theyre automatically deleted.[6]

Method 2 Method 2 of 3:Deleting Photos from Your PC

1
Access the photo(s) you wish to delete. Open the folder where you have your pictures stored. From here youll have the option to view, move, edit and delete your saved photos. Search your files until you find one or more you want to eliminate.
- If you dont remember where you put a photo or arent sure which folder your PC saves to automatically, you can use your PCs file search option to locate it. Simply type in the name or keyword from the photo and the file and its location should appear.
- For the sake of convenience, save all your photos in one location (i.e. a folder labelled Photos in your Documents folder). Creating different folders to categorize photos can help keep them organized.
2
Right click the photo and hit delete. Hover your pointer over the unwanted photo. Right click to bring up a drop-down menu of options. Look for the delete option near the bottom of the list. Left click this option once to delete the photo.[7] X Research source Go to source
- Deleting a file relocates it to the trash folder on your desktop.
- You can pinpoint specific files you want to delete by holding the Ctrl key and then clicking the files individually. This is a much faster and more efficient way to get rid of multiple photos than deleting them one at a time.[8]
3
Drag unwanted photos to the trash. Rather than clicking the photo to delete it, you can also drag it straight to your computers trash. Left click and hold the photo in question. Then, move your pointer to the trash can icon on your desktop and release the photo to drop it in.
- On computers that run Microsoft Windows, the trash folder is known as the Recycle Bin.[9]
- Drag multiple photos to the trash simultaneously by clicking and dragging your pointer around a group of files to select them all.[10]
4
Empty your trash can to free up storage space. The trash folder holds files that have been deleted but not erased entirely from the hard drive, so theyll still take up memory. To permanently remove these files, youll need to empty the trash can. Right click the trash can icon and select empty trash can from the drop-down menu. After you empty your trash can, the files youve deleted will no longer be on your computer.[11] X Research source Go to source
- Make sure youre okay with losing the photos youve deleted before emptying your trash can. Once theyre gone, the only way to recover the deleted files is to run a system restore, which reverts your computer to the way it was at an earlier date.
- Empty your trash can regularly. This can help to free up storage space on your PC.

Method 3 Method 3 of 3:Archiving Photos You Don't Want on Your Device

1
Sync your photos to the Cloud. If youre running out of storage on your phone or computer but you have photos you dont want to lose, upload them to the Cloud. The Cloud is an non-local form of mass storage, which means it saves files separately from your device. Most new smartphones and PCs provide users the option of uploading files to the Cloud so that they can free up space on the device itself without losing things they want to keep.[12] X Research source Go to source
- On iPhones and iPads, the default cloud-storage service is called iCloud; devices that run Android and Other operating systems typically come equipped with Dropbox or Google Drive.[13]
- Read up on how to sync your files to the Cloud.
2
Email the photos to yourself. This is an old-school and more private form of alternative file storage. Place the photos you want off of your device into an email attachment and make yourself the recipient of the email. Your photos will then remain there safe and sound in your email so that you can re-download them whenever you choose. Just make sure you have enough available storage in your email to house the attachment.[14] X Research source Go to source
- Most email programs offer storage of up to a few gigabytes, more than enough for the average person that doesnt often exchange large files.
- Group lots of photos into a folder in order to send them as a single large attachment rather than numerous smaller ones.[15]
3
Upload the photos to a flash drive. Purchase an inexpensive flash drive (also known as a thumb drive) and connect it to a USB port on your PC. This will give you the option of opening a folder displaying the contents of the flash drive. Drag-and-drop the photos you want to save into the flash drive folder, then disconnect it from your computer. Your photos will be saved physically on the drive, which you can reconnect to download, modify or remove.[16] X Research source Go to source
- Check to make sure the flash drive youre using has enough memory to hold the pictures you want to hang on to.
- Keep up with your flash drives and other external storage devices. If they happen to get lost, so do your pictures.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I delete a photo?

Community Answer

Look for the delete sign, then press it. If there is no icon, look under "options."

Tips

Sort photos you know you want to keep into a separate subfolder.
Double check that youve properly backed up photos you want to keep before deleting them.
Some picture files can be quite large and, as a result, they take up a lot of storage space on your device. If you start running out of storage, consider which photos youd be willing to part with.
Dont forget to clear your trash, Recycle Bin or recently deleted folder to erase photos entirely.
In some cases, tech experts may be able to salvage deleted photos from your device by piecing together remnants of data. Take your phone, tablet or computer in to get looked at if youve lost pictures you wanted to save.

Warnings

Dont delete photos that you think you might have use for in the future. Instead, sync them to the Cloud or store them on a flash drive.
Be careful about keeping sensitive images on your smartphone, tablet or PC, especially if its synced to the Cloud. These photos are saved automatically, even after youve cleared them off of your device.