Everybody deletes the wrong photo sometimes. In Heart Photos that is never the end of it: deleting a photo moves it to the Trash, and from there it can come back exactly as it was. Nothing leaves the Trash until you say so.
Three ways to delete a photo
You can only delete your own photos, and you need to be signed in.
- In the viewer. Open the photo and press the Delete key. Or press Photo info (the I key), scroll to the end of the panel, and press Delete under Danger zone. The note beside it says what happens: it moves to the Trash.
- On the wall. Move the focus to a thumbnail and press Delete.
- Many at once. Press Multiselect, choose as many photos as you like, and press Delete in the bar at the top.
Each time, a note at the bottom says how many photos were moved to the Trash, with an Undo button. Press it and they are back where they were.
Deleting a gallery
On one of your galleries, Delete gallery asks first. Left as it is, only the gallery goes to the Trash and its photos stay where they are. Tick Also delete all photos in this gallery and your photos in it go to the Trash too, out of every gallery they were in. Undo puts back the photos and then the gallery.
Where to find the Trash
While anything is in it, Trash sits at the top of the galleries column, with a count of what is inside. You can also go straight to heart.photos/gallery/trash. Its heading says what it is: deleted photos and galleries wait there until you restore them or delete them forever.
When you open a photo that is in the Trash, the word Trash under its title says so, and pressing it opens the photo among the rest of the Trash.
A photo in the Trash is private
The moment a photo goes in the Trash, it is private, whatever it was before. It leaves the public wall, every gallery and every link that showed it, and nobody can make it public again while it is there. Only you can see it.
Restoring a photo, exactly as it was
There are three ways out of the Trash, and Restore is the first:
- Hover over a photo in the Trash and press Restore in the middle of it. On a phone the button is always there.
- Or open the photo; in the panel, where who may see it would be, you will find Restore.
- Or choose several in Multiselect and press Restore in the bar.
Restore puts the photo back the way it was: the same people can see it, it is back in its galleries, and if it was part of a series it takes its old place in the series again. A gallery in the Trash has its own Restore in the list above the photos, and comes back as public, unlisted or private as it was.
Deleting forever
When you are sure, a photo can leave for good. Beside Restore there is Delete forever, on the photo, in its panel and in Multiselect, and the Delete key does the same inside the Trash. Pressing Empty trash at the top of the Trash deletes everything in it at once.
Every one of these asks first, in the same words: "Are you sure? This photo will be deleted forever. There is no undo." There really is no undo after that, so take a last look before you press it.
Good to know
- The Trash never empties itself. There is no timer: a photo stays until you restore it or delete it forever.
- The Trash still counts toward your storage. A photo in the Trash takes its room until you delete it forever, so when your plan is getting full it is the first place to look. Studio's Your library shows how many photos are in the Trash beside your total.
- One Trash for He.art and Heart Photos. A photo you delete from He.art lands in the same Trash, so you can restore it from either site.
- A photo's other versions go with it. When a photo has several resolutions, or is half of a pair, the whole thing goes in and comes out together.
Try it
Open Heart Photos, press Delete on a photo you do not need, then press Undo and watch it come straight back. And if you are new here, He.art is where the same account asks questions, writes docs and makes images.