Why do photos I've deleted keep coming back?

[Mr Burns]

I'm running android 5.0 and ive always uploaded photos to Google Drive and then deleted them off my device, to save storage space.

Problem is, lately, I've noticed photos I've deleted showing up again. I use the "Photos" app, to view and delete my photos. Photos I deleted months ago and just last week and everywhere inbetween are showing up again. Its becoming a nightmare.

I also notice the photos have a little symbol next to them. When I go into the photo and press the symbol it switches between the "enhanced" and "original" version. I can only guess that google is downloading my photos off google drive and editing them. On most of the photos the "enhanced" version looks slightly better but this is annoying.

I have a WiFi data limit (10gb) and a storage limit (16gb). It is using up data and my storage keeps going down.

Is this happening to anyone else? Does anyone have a solution?

 

[Solandri]

The Photos app seems to default to showing you your photos stored on Google+/Drive, not your local device. I've noticed when I try to use it to play a movie when I have a slow data connection, it tries to download it instead of playing the copy that's on my phone. I'm on the verge of ditching it for a different photo viewing app, and using it only to manage my photo backups.

 

[Mr Burns]

I've noticed a "on device" option on the "photos" app. I'm wondering if the photos app includes uploaded photos to Google drive, Google + etc and the "on device" includes photos just stored on the device. Anyway very confusing, especially if Google keeps downloading my photos to my device. I also notice on the photos that have come back there is a magic wand in the corner and when I press it it switches between "original" and "enhanced".

 

[hang-the-9]

I've noticed a "on device" option on the "photos" app. I'm wondering if the photos app includes uploaded photos to Google drive, Google + etc and the "on device" includes photos just stored on the device. Anyway very confusing, especially if Google keeps downloading my photos to my device. I also notice on the photos that have come back there is a magic wand in the corner and when I press it it switches between "original" and "enhanced".

You either have the options to sync the offline and local storage for photos, or what you are seeing is just a view of what you have on Google Drive. Did you check the physical location of the photos and look at your local storage? You should be able to turn off automatic synching to the cloud storage in the app options.

 

[Mr Burns]

OK I've worked out now that in the photos app, the "photos" tab shows your photos in the cloud (ie Google drive) and the "on device" option shows photos just stored locally. So the photos I thought had come back are really still on the cloud.


But i think it is definitely downloading something as my internal storage keeps going down rapidly and I haven't downloaded any new apps. Think i am fighting a losing battle here as i seem to free up space then it disappears. Not good 🙁

Very confusing what Google have done, but I guess that's Google for you, I remember when they changed YouTube around again I had to watch videos to try and view my private messages again.

May of accidently deleted some of my photos for good as I thought I was deleting them just off my device. I should have known when the "delete everywhere" pop up came up that I really was deleting them from everywhere.