Where is the photo trash on Android and how to empty it

Android has no single trash for photos. Each app that can delete photos has its own: Samsung Gallery has a Recycle Bin, Google Photos has Trash, Xiaomi Gallery has Recently deleted, Files by Google has its own Trash. Deleted photos usually stay there for 30 days (up to 60 in Google Photos) and keep taking up space until you empty them.

Which trash do I need?

The one in the app you deleted the photo from. If you use both your phone’s gallery and Google Photos, a photo may land in both trashes — check each of them when you are looking for a photo or freeing space.

Samsung Gallery: Recycle Bin

1. Open Gallery and tap the ☰ menu (bottom-right) — on some One UI versions it is the three-dot menu.
2. Choose Recycle bin (called Trash on some models).
3. To restore: tap Edit, select photos and tap Restore.
4. To empty: tap Empty (or Edit → select all → Delete) and confirm.

Items stay in the Recycle Bin for 30 days. The bin can be turned off in Gallery settings; then photos are deleted immediately, without a safety net — we would not recommend it.

Google Photos: Trash

1. Open Google Photos and go to the Collections tab (called Library in older versions).
2. Tap Trash (shown near the top, among the utility shortcuts).
3. To restore: long-press a photo, select others and tap Restore.
4. To empty: tap the three-dot menu → Empty trash and confirm.

How long photos stay in the Google Photos trash depends on whether they were backed up: backed-up items stay for 60 days; items that were only on the device (not backed up) are typically kept for 30 days. Deleting a backed-up photo removes it from your Google account and from all devices signed in to it.

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO: Recently deleted

Open the Gallery app → Albums and scroll to the bottom to Recently deleted (on some MIUI and HyperOS versions it is in Gallery settings or the three-dot menu, called Trash bin). Photos stay there for 30 days. Select items to restore them, or delete them permanently from the same screen.

Google Pixel and other phones

Pixel phones use Google Photos as the gallery, so the trash is the one described above. Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO and others either use Google Photos or have their own gallery with a “Recently deleted” album — look at the bottom of the Albums tab or in the gallery menu.

Files by Google: Trash

If you deleted photos from a file manager, they may be in its trash. In Files by Google, tap the ☰ menu → Trash. You can restore or delete items there; they are removed automatically after 30 days. Samsung My Files also has its own Recycle bin in its menu.

Why empty the trash

Until the trash is emptied, the photos still occupy storage. After a big cleanup this can be several gigabytes. That is the most common answer to “I deleted photos but storage did not change” — see more reasons here.

Delete fewer photos you will regret

Most trash-hunting starts with a bulk delete that took one shot too many. It is safer to decide on each photo individually. Temfy for Android (Android 11 and later, installs as an APK from the website) shows photos one at a time: swipe left to mark for deletion, right to keep, and nothing is deleted until you confirm at the end. For a broader cleanup plan, see how to clean your gallery on Android.

FAQ

Can I recover photos after emptying the trash?

Not from the phone. Check whether a copy exists elsewhere: Google Photos backup (if you deleted only from the gallery), Samsung Cloud or OneDrive sync, a computer, or chats where you shared the photo.

Does deleting from Samsung Gallery delete from Google Photos?

It removes the copy on the phone. A copy already backed up to Google Photos stays in the cloud unless you delete it in Google Photos too.