The Complete Guide to Finding and Deleting Screenshots in Google Photos

As a prolific smartphone user, I regularly capture screenshots throughout my day – saving articles to read later, conversations to laugh about with friends,Reservation details for upcoming trips, and more. While screenshots are handy in the moment, most end up forgotten in my Google Photos library, quietly taking up precious cloud storage.

After years of accumulating screenshots, I finally decided to take control and optimize my Google Photos library. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share everything I‘ve learned about finding and removing screenshots, based on my own trial-and-error.

Whether you‘re a fellow screenshot addict or simply looking to organize your Google Photos collection, you‘ll learn efficient tricks to locate screenshots, techniques to select and mass delete, options to permanently erase, and settings to stop screenshot backups. Let‘s dive in!

The Rise of Screenshot Culture

Before we get deletion happy, it helps to understand the appeal of screenshots in the first place. Snapping a picture of your screen has become second nature for a reason – it‘s one of the fastest and easiest ways to capture and share digital content.

According to a recent survey by Dolby Laboratories, the average person takes 10 screenshots per day. I know my personal number is much higher! Screenshotting allows us to bookmark online recipes, product links, amusing social media posts, and memorable conversations.

As a Google Photos power user, I loveAI-powered features like automatic album creation. But all those screenshots scattered across my library made searching frustrating. I knew it was time to clean house.

Locating Your Screenshot Stash

Google Photos makes it simple to surfacing your screenshot collection. Instead of digging through folders, use these two shortcuts:

Search "Screenshots"

Open the Google Photos app and tap the search bar at the top. Type "screenshots" and tap return to view them all chronologically.

Open the Screenshots Folder

Alternatively, tap the photo grid icon to access your library. Scroll down to the "Categories" section and select "Screenshots" – another quick way to view all detected screenshots in one place.

Once you‘ve accessed your screenshots via either method, it‘s time to start sorting and selecting shots to remove.

Clearing Out Individual Screenshots

When reviewing your screenshot stash, you‘ll likely find some worth saving and others ready for deletion. I like to manually select my keepers first before mass deleting what‘s left.

Here‘s how to remove individual screenshots from your Google Photos library:

1. Press and hold your finger on a screenshot thumbnail to select it.

2. Tap the trash icon in the upper right.

3. Confirm you want to move the screenshot to the trash.

4. Repeat for any other unnecessary screenshots.

ThisProcess ensures you only purge the screenshots you‘re certain you no longer need. Personally, I move especially funny, sentimental, or useful screenshots to a separate album before mass deleting.

Bulk Deleting Screenshots to Save Time

Once I‘ve picked out any screenshots I want to keep, it‘s time to do some major cleanup.

Follow these steps to quickly mass delete screenshots from Google Photos:

1. From inside the Screenshots folder, tap Select in the upper right.

2. Tap the circular icon atop each thumbnail to select all screenshots.

3. Tap the trash icon when finished selecting all unwanted shots.

4. Confirm by tapping "Move to trash."

And just like that, your screenshot count plunges! I was able to delete over 2,000 old screenshots in one swoop using this method. Talk about freeing up storage space.

Permanently Erasing Screenshots from the Trash

When you delete photos through Google Photos, they are moved to the Trash folder rather than immediately erased. This provides a safety net in case you change your mind.

To fully remove screenshots from your Google account, you need to manually empty the trash:

1. Open Google Photos and select the "Library" tab.

2. Scroll down and tap the "Trash" folder.

3. Select all the screenshots inside you want to permanently delete.

4. Tap "Delete" at the bottom of the screen.

Once the trash is emptied, your screenshots can‘t be recovered. However, deleting photos from the cloud does not remove them from the original device they were captured on.

Good to know: Google automatically empties trashed items every 60 days. So any lingering screenshots won‘t stick around in the trash indefinitely.

Stopping Screenshot Backups to Google Photos

In addition to mass deleting old screenshots, I also changed my Google Photos settings to stop automatically saving new screenshots I capture.

Here‘s how to disable screenshot syncing:

1. Open Google Photos and navigate to your Screenshots folder.

2. Tap the 3-dot menu button in the top right corner.

3. Select "Back up & sync."

4. Toggle the switch off to prevent screenshots from auto-saving.

With that setting disabled, my future screenshots won‘t fill up my precious Google cloud storage. I can easily turn syncing back on if I ever want screenshots saving again.

Final Thoughts on Optimizing Google Photos

After regularly clearing out my screenshot collection, I‘ve reclaimed gigs of Google Photos storage and brought order back to my library. A few minutes of maintenance pays off in a much more usable system.

My advice for fellow prolific screenshotters is to periodically review and mass delete outdated screenshots. I like to set a calendar reminder every couple months to clear out my shots. You may be surprised just how quickly they can accumulate!

Hopefully these tips will help you locate screenshots faster, select multiple thumbnails with ease, empty the trash fully, and configure backup settings to your liking. The ability to find and remove screenshots makes Google Photos an even more powerful media management tool.

What about you – do you take a ton of screenshots too? How often do you go through and delete old shots? I‘d love to hear your Google Photos tips and tricks!