Some for my followers asking me this question that they want free up their phone storage by deleting photos from there phone and want these photo backup only on google drive.

so I decide to make a guide which helps them to delete their images form gallery but not from google drive.

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Not all of the Android device has big storage there for many Android users use the cloud drives.

And if we compare the cloud storages then google drive is the best cloud for android phone and the one reason to use that cloud is that because it’s free and also come free with phone and when you create Gmail account.

Fortunately, there is a way around that, and all it takes is one tap. This isn’t a setting you can adjust—it’s a single button that will delete all photos from your device that are backed up to Google Photos.

If none of your photos are backed up to Google, then no photos will be deleted. In other words, you first need to enable the backup.

Table of Contents

Backing up to Google Photos

Before you attempt to delete anything, enable Back Up & Sync from within Google Photos. Here’s how.

  1. Open Google Photos on your Android device.
  2. Slide right from the left edge of the screen to reveal the sidebar.
  3. Tap Settings.
  4. Tap Back Up & Sync.
  5. Tap to enable Back Up & Sync (Figure A).

Be patient—it may take a while to complete the initial backup.

Figure A

Enabling Back Up & Sync in Google Drive Photos on the Nextbit Robin.

Enabling Back Up & Sync on the Nextbit Robin.

Image: Jack Wallen

Freeing up space

Once the initial backup is complete, it’s time to free up space. This will delete all of the local copies of photos while retaining everything on your Google cloud account. To do this, follow these steps.

  1. Open Google Photos on your Android device.
  2. Slide right from the left edge of the screen to reveal the sidebar.
  3. Tap Settings.
  4. Tap Free Up Device Storage.
  5. When prompted, tap REMOVE (Figure B).

Figure B

Figure B

Removing locally stored copies of photos is just a tap away.

Image: Jack Wallen

You have freed up space on your Android device without losing your photos and videos. If you need to view those photos and videos, open Google Photos, and you’ll see them. If you need to get a local copy back, open the photo in Google Photos, tap the Menu button, and then tap Download—photo restored.

A full device is an unhappy device

Because smartphones deal with solid-state storage, the less space they have, the slower the device will write to the file system. So make sure you have space on your device for the system to run as smoothly as possible—Android needs at least 200-500 MB free at a minimum, though I recommend 500 MB to 1 GB.

By clearing out locally-saved copies of photos, you can gain precious free space without losing your files.