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It is common knowledge that Google scans your Google Photos content to show you ads that best fit your interests. While some might accept it, others find it intrusive enough to want to take action.
Technically speaking, you can’t delete a Google Photos account nor can you delete the Google Photos app from your device without losing all other Google Account features. There are more details below. This setting is a way for Google to keep control over you!
Depending on the level of your concern, there are a couple of ways to resolve your Google Photos issue. But before we continue, it’s essential to identify the reason why you might want to delete your Photos account in the first place. This step ensures that you don’t delete your Google Photos account if it’s not necessary.
Why delete Google Photos?
One of the most common reasons people want to delete their Google Photos account is because they are running out of cloud storage space. Deleting all your photos seems like a great way to fix this problem.
Another common and increasingly important reason has to do with security and privacy. Many people are not comfortable sharing their photos on a cloud storage service that can be attacked by hackers and that Google can analyze to serve interest ads, among other uses.
Why not delete Google Photos
If space limits make you want to delete your Google Photos account, you can optimize it by changing the quality of Google Photo from “Original” to “Storage Saver” (previously called “High Quality”).
If you don’t want Google Photos to receive images from your phone, turn off syncing.
Let’s say you want to use the Gallery app on your phone to manage your photos. In that case, you can delete Google Photos from your device completely instead of deleting the Google account from your phone, which would disable all other Google features for that account.
Delete Google Photos account on an Android device
In this process, You are not deleting the app, but deleting your account. There’s no way to delete a Photos account completely without losing everything else connected to Google. However, you can disable syncing and all photos and images uploaded through Google Photos will remain in the cloud, but new ones. won’t go there. Additionally, you can delete Google Photos as long as no account is signed in and then you can use your phone’s default image viewer.
- Start the “Google Photos” Android app, then tap your “profile icon” in the upper right section.
- Select your currently active profile.
- Choose “Use without an account.”
By completing the steps above, you will have successfully deleted your Google Photos account and it will become a standard offline image viewer for your Android phone unless you decide to uninstall it. Of course, your cloud remains if you ever want to view stored images within your Google Photos account.
Delete Google Photos account on an iPhone
Like Android devices, iPhones also use Google Photos as an offline viewer when you delete your Photos account, and any previously synced images remain in the cloud app. Since there is no way to delete your Google Photos account, you can disconnect it from the Google Photos app on your iPhone.
- Open “Google Photos” on your iPhone.
- Select your profile icon, located in the top right section.
- Choose your profile and tap “Use without an account.”
Now, your Google account is not signed in to Photos, so the app serves as a simple offline image viewer. Note that the accounts still appear in Google Photos, but you are not signed in to any of them, so you can uninstall the app if you want. Of course, you the cloud remains if you ever want to view stored images within your Google Photos account.
Delete the Google Photos app on a PC
The PC version of Google Photos is different from the Android and iOS apps because it is not an Android-based device. If you delete the app, your existing cloud-stored images remain in the cloud for viewing at any time. Besides, the PC app is actually Google Drive which Google Photos offers only for image backups. Therefore, deleting the app will not delete cloud images, including ones you synced through Windows.
- Launch “Settings” from the “Windows Start Menu”.
- Click on “Applications”.
- Select “Google Drive,” then click “Uninstall.”
- Click “Uninstall” once again in the Windows confirmation pop-up window.
- Select “Uninstall” in the Google Drive pop-up window.
- Click on “Near” in the Google Drive pop-up window once the uninstall is complete.
Delete your Google account completely
There is no way to delete your Google Photos account completely, but you can delete the app from your devices and you can also delete everything in it to help protect your privacy. The closest you get to deleting your Google Photos account is to delete all cloud data and delete all connected Google accounts.
Now that you know how to keep Google Photos under control, you can easily manage your level of participation in the service or delete your Google accounts. While it’s nice to keep a backup of your photos somewhere in the cloud, you might not agree that Google Photos is the best service for the job. Plus, there are many alternatives to explore.
Have you managed to configure your access to Google Photos to your liking? Which option works best for you? Share your experiences in the comments section below.
