Question: My phone says, if I delete a picture it removes it on all Google devices like Maps. Wh

[iyudhi]

@BruceP I've been doing some testing and collecting some data points. It seems the behavior your're experiencing is pretty common. Personally I never feel the need to delete photos, since before I run out of space, I always switch to a new device (long story...). So I never personally experience this. 

I'm also communicating this on the Photos help forum as well to get more clarifications. Stay tuned. 

[ArunMuralidhar]

maybe it is an issue with older android operating systems? 

cause on my nexus 5x, it doesnt say it will remove from maps .. there are other places it will be removed from, but from maps, I havent seen that being displayed for a long time. 

But i do recollect, it earlier used to say so. though I am not sure on the timeline when it changed 

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A suggestion is to directly upload from your phone photos library, instead of pulling it from google photos. can you try it and see

[BruceP]

@ArunMuralidhar

How do I directly upload from your phone photos library, instead of pulling it from google photos? 

I go to Maps first, find a place, then scroll down to the review/add a photo area.  Then Maps pulls the photo from (I don't know where) on my phone.

[BruceP]

@iyudhi

Thanks for your help on this.  I'll stay tuned.

[ArunMuralidhar]

@BruceP

i believe, you click on the contribute link > reviews> and on that add photos to the location. On clicking add photos, you see a set of photos already present. 

My suggestion is to go to the bottom of that screen, wherein, on the left side, you will see switch folder. click that, and your phone gallery or any other installed photogallery option will come up.

choose that, and it will show you only the photos on your phone. choose the one you need to upload, it should directly stay in google maps, irrespective of you clearing your phone photos later. 

if your phone doesnt have a photogallery other than google photos, download quickpic by CM from playstore, which is a very simple gallery app. 

[iyudhi]

Hey @BruceK I think I get a better understanding now. There seems to be a bug on Google Photos that will cause the issue, but I will save the details for later.

But I just want to reiterate what @JacekNK and @Silvernja has explained. Basically the safest thing to do now is to delete the photo from 'Device Folders' on Google Photos.

Basically all photos in this folder are the ones existing on your phone storage. If you delete it here, it will be gone from your device. Pick a photo, then tap the 3 dots on top right corner - tap 'Delete device copy'

It will prompt you with a warning. Go ahead and delete the photo. I've tried this and can confirm that the photo still exists on Maps (and gone from the device).

Please try it on a photo and see if you're getting the same result, if not please report back (well.. please report back either way 😛 ) and we'll think of other solutions. You can restore the photo back on Trash (but it will removed  after 60 days) if needed.

[Silvernja]

Device folder refers to your phones storage. 

Open the 'photos' application. Looks like a colored pinwheel

In the bottom right you should see albums.

Upper right is your menu button. 

You see the option create new. 

[Silvernja]

Device folder refers to your phones storage. 

Open the 'photos' application. Looks like a colored pinwheel

In the bottom right you should see albums.

Upper right is your menu button. 

You see the option create new. 

[BruceP]

I've found away around this problem, but it's a lot more work.  I take a picture with my phone, then I download the picture to my computer.  Then I put upload the picture from my computer to Google Maps.  Then I can delete the photo from my phone and it stays on Maps.

A lot more work, but it doesn't take up the storage on my phone.

[MarinoCarlos]

I also take pictures sometimes that are only taken for maps and dont want to keep them. Until now, all of these photos have been deleted from phone and later from photos (through web), and all remain in maps.

The reason I delete them from photos.google.com and not from the app, is that in my phone, it says the photo can't be deleted from SD card using photos app and need to be deleted from gallery app (maybe because I've my SD card encrypted and photos stored there as default location?)

So,

- I take picture, and upload it to maps

- Delete photos from phone using gallery app (removed from phone, still synced to photos online)

- From time to time, delete batchs of photos from https://photos.com (removed from all places/devices)

- Photos keep showing at maps