Google Photos’ Archive: The misunderstood feature revealed

There’s a common misconception about what the Archive feature in Google Photos actually does. It isn’t a delete button, it doesn’t recover space in your Google account, and it doesn’t make images private. It’s purely a way of decluttering your main Photos timeline, and it’s actually pretty useful.

What the Archive feature really does

Google Photos’ Archive exists for just one purpose. It removes images from your main Photos feed. And that’s all.

It doesn’t delete files or free up storage, either on your phone or in the cloud. It isn’t a privacy tool, either. Although it makes images less obviously visible by placing them a few taps and swipes away, they are still fully accessible to anyone using your phone.

The Archive is purely for decluttering. Archived images are still searchable and still show up in any albums you’ve added them to. It makes it ideal for getting rid of the screenshots, scans, and other things you don’t want clogging up your main library. Move these to your Archive, and you’ll still be able to find them easily when you need to.

Which is not to say it’s only good for boring documents. Natural language searches also work on archived images. Search for “dog,” and your archived dog photos will appear.

Archive is a somewhat hidden feature in Google Photos, yet it’s really handy for clearing up large libraries with thousands of images collected over many years.

How to use your Archive effectively

Your Archive is best used for clearing out low-priority images from your Photos timeline, or anything else that you don’t need to see but don’t want to delete. As a tech writer, I take a lot of random photos of hardware that I don’t want to have mixed in with my holiday snaps. The Archive is the perfect place for them.

There are a few ways to archive images. The first is to open a single image and select Add to > Archive. Or, you can select multiple images, then from the menu that pops up beneath them, tap “Move to archive.”

Alternatively, if you’ve never used the Archive before, you can add lots of images in bulk. In the app, go to Collections, then scroll down and select “Archive.” Now hit the “Add photos to archive” icon at the top and select all the images you want to include. Finish by tapping “Done.”

To unarchive images, open the image or select several, then tap the three-dot menu button and select “Unarchive.” They’ll return to your main Photos screen in the correct position by date.

Get more from your Archive

To prevent your Archive from becoming a dumping ground for random images, use it in conjunction with albums. Archive all your receipts? Create an album called Receipts so that they’re easy to find. They’ll be totally accessible when you need them, but out of sight and out of mind when you don’t.

If you’ve been using the Archive for an extra layer of privacy to hide certain images, it’s okay insofar as it makes them a little harder to find. Anyone glancing over your shoulder won’t see them as you scroll through your main image timeline. But for real privacy, you should move them to your Locked Folder instead.

Go to Collections > Archive to see the images you’ve already archived, and select the ones you want to move. Now open the three-dot menu button and under Move To, tap “Locked folder.” You’ll need to use your screen lock option, like your fingerprint or passcode, to access this.

Manage Google Photos better

While Archive is nothing more than a way to declutter your main Photos screen, you can minimize how often you have to use it. Tap your avatar in the top corner of the app, go to Photos settings > Preferences > Photos view, and toggle on the “Hide clutter from other apps” option. This automatically hides things like screenshots and GIFs.

There’s also “Customize by app,” which lets you decide whether images from apps like WhatsApp appear in your main Photos view or are hidden.

If you want to delete photos entirely, hit the Trash icon. They’ll stay in the trash for 60 days if they’ve been backed up to your Google Photos storage, or 30 days if they haven’t.

And if you’re running out of space on your phone, Photos has the “Free up space” option in the Settings. This lets you delete photos and videos from your phone that have been safely backed up to your Google account.

You can do it selectively, too. Open the Archive, select the images, and choose “Delete from device” under the three-dot menu. You can still see them in Google Photos, but they’ll no longer clutter your main Photos screen or your device’s storage.

The Archive feature in Google Photos might not do what many people think it does, but it’s still a pretty useful tool. It helps keep your image library clean and streamlined without risking losing anything you really need to keep.