How do I delete photos and albums on Facebook?

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook hosts a massive number of photos and albums. As you use Facebook more and more, your profile can easily become cluttered with old or embarrassing photos and albums you no longer want. Fortunately, Facebook makes it easy to delete individual photos, entire albums, and even all the photos you’re tagged in. Here’s a detailed guide on how to delete photos and albums on Facebook.

Deleting individual photos

To delete individual photos from Facebook:

Go to your Facebook profile and click on “Photos” in the left sidebar.

Browse through your uploaded photos and hover over the photo you want to delete.
Click on the three dots that appear in the top right corner of the photo.
Select “Delete photo” from the dropdown menu.

Click on “Delete” in the popup confirmation window.

The individual photo will be immediately deleted from Facebook. However, deleting a photo this way will not remove it from any albums it was uploaded to. The photo will simply appear as a blank space in your albums. To completely remove all traces of a photo, you will need to delete it from your albums as well. We’ll go over how to do that next.

Deleting photos from albums

To delete a photo from an album on Facebook:

Go to your Facebook profile and click on “Photos” in the left sidebar.
Click on the album that contains the photo you want to delete.
Hover over the photo and click on the three dots in the top-right corner.

Select “Delete from album” from the dropdown menu.
Click on “Delete” in the confirmation popup.

The photo will be removed from the album. However, it won’t be deleted from your Facebook account entirely and may still show up in other albums or your profile pictures. To do that, you’ll need to delete the photo itself as explained in the previous section.

Deleting entire photo albums

To completely delete a whole photo album from Facebook:

Go to your profile and click “Photos” in the left sidebar.
Click on the album you want to remove.

Click on the three dots next to the album name and select “Delete album” from the dropdown menu.
Click on “Delete Album” in the confirmation window.

Once you confirm the deletion, the entire album and all the photos it contained will be permanently removed from your Facebook account.

Deleting photos you’re tagged in

Photos that you are tagged in by your friends and others appear in the “Photos of you” section on your Facebook profile. To remove a tagged photo:

Go to your profile and click “Photos of you” in the left sidebar.
Find the photo you want to untag yourself from and hover over it.

Click on the three dots in the top-right corner and select “Report/Remove Tag” from the dropdown menu.
Choose the option “Remove tag from photo”.
Click “Remove tag” to confirm.

This will untag you from the photo while leaving the photo itself intact. The photo will remain visible to anyone else tagged in it or the original uploader. If you want the photo deleted entirely, you will need to ask the uploader to remove it.

What happens when you delete Facebook photos?

Here’s a quick rundown of what happens when you delete photos from Facebook:

When you delete an individual photo, it is removed from everywhere it appears on Facebook. However, it will still exist in any albums it was uploaded to.

Deleting a photo from an album removes it from that album but not from Facebook entirely.
Deleting an entire album permanently deletes all the photos in that album.
Untagging yourself from a photo only removes your tag. The photo itself remains visible to others.

Deleted photos are moved to the trash folder and permanently deleted after 30 days.
Deleted photos also get removed from Facebook’s servers and CDNs within 30 days.

So in essence, any photos that you delete are not immediately and permanently erased from Facebook’s servers. They go through a 30-day grace period in the trash folder before eventual erasure. But they do get deleted from public view almost instantly when you remove them.

How to recover deleted Facebook photos

If you accidentally deleted a photo on Facebook and changed your mind shortly after, you may be able to recover it from the trash folder:

Click on the three lines menu icon in the top right of Facebook.
Go to “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings”.

Click on “Your Facebook Information” in the left sidebar.
Go to the “Download your Information” section.
Deselect all categories except “Photos and Videos”.

Enter your password and click “Request download”.
Once the download is ready, find and restore your deleted photos from the ZIP file.

However, this will only work within the 30-day window before the deleted photos are permanently erased. So act quickly if you need to recover deleted Facebook photos.

How to permanently delete all Facebook photos

If you want to permanently delete all your Facebook photos and albums in one go, here are the steps to do it:

Click on the down arrow at the top right and select “Settings & Privacy”.
Go to “Settings” > “Your Facebook Information” in the left sidebar.

Click on “Download your Information”.
Deselect all options and only choose “Photos and Videos”.
Click on “View” to download the ZIP file containing all your Facebook photos.

Save copies of any photos you want to keep elsewhere.
Go back to “Your Facebook Information” and click “Delete Photos and Videos of You”.
Enter your password and click “Continue” to confirm.

This will immediately remove all your photos, albums, and tagged photos from Facebook. You can also choose to only delete photos you’re tagged in rather than all your photos.

Why can’t I delete some Facebook photos?

There are a couple reasons why you may not be able to remove certain photos on Facebook:

You don’t have permission – You can only delete photos and albums uploaded by you. For photos uploaded by others, you need to ask the uploader to delete them.

The photo is your profile picture – You cannot delete a photo that is set as your profile picture. You’ll need to change your profile picture first.
The photo is set as a cover photo – Same for photos set as your cover photo. Change the cover photo to be able to delete that specific photo.
The album is synced from Instagram or other apps – Albums synced from Instagram, Google Photos etc. need to be deleted from the original source app.

So if certain photos don’t have a delete option, it’s likely because of one of the reasons above. Change your profile/cover photo or request the uploader to delete those photos.

Can someone recover photos I deleted from Facebook?

Once you permanently delete a photo or album from Facebook, it cannot be recovered by anyone else. The photos do sit in a trash folder for 30 days before being permanently erased. But they are not accessible to anyone during that time. So you can rest assured photos deleted from your account are permanently gone (after 30 days). The only exception is if someone happens to have downloaded copies of those photos already.

Should I backup my Facebook photos before deleting?

It’s generally a good idea to backup your Facebook photos before deleting:

You have a copy if you ever need to recover or access those photos again.
Backing up allows you to selectively delete photos from Facebook while retaining copies of others.
You preserve important memories that only exist on your Facebook account.

You can store backups on other devices or cloud services if you’re deleting Facebook entirely.

You can download your entire Facebook photo archive from the “Your Facebook Information” section in your account settings. You can also manually save copies of select photos you want to keep.

Can I delete my Facebook photos from my mobile app?

Yes, you can easily delete individual photos, albums, and tagged photos from the Facebook mobile app on your smartphone:

Open the Facebook app and tap the ≡ menu icon.
Go to your profile and tap on “Photos”.
Tap on a photo or album to open it.

Tap on the three dots in the top-right corner.
Select “Delete” or “Delete Album” from the menu.
Confirm the deletion in the popup.

The process is the same whether you use Facebook’s iOS or Android app. The photos will be deleted in the same way as when removing them from the desktop site.

Can I delete Facebook photos of other people?

You can only delete photos and albums you have uploaded yourself on your own Facebook profile. You don’t have permission to remove photos uploaded by your friends or photos of you uploaded by others.

If you want photos deleted that were posted by someone else, you’ll need to either:

Report the photo and send a removal request to Facebook.
Directly ask the person who uploaded the photo to remove it.
Untag yourself if you are tagged in the photo.

Do not make attempts to access someone else’s account to delete their photos. That would be considered illegal hacking.

What happens when you delete Facebook?

Here’s what happens to your Facebook photos and data if you delete your Facebook account entirely:

Your profile, photos, posts, videos, and data are deactivated temporarily for 30 days.

Within that 30 days you can still choose to reactivate your account to get everything back.
After 30 days, your account and all data including photos are permanently deleted from Facebook.
Copies of your data are removed from Facebook’s servers and backups within 90 days.

Your posts, photos, and data may still exist in copies downloaded by other users.
You can download an archive of your Facebook data before deleting your account.

In essence, your Facebook presence is wiped out entirely after the 30-90 day deletion period. But your data including photos may persist in parts of the internet out of Facebook’s control.

Other tips for managing your Facebook photos

Here are some other handy tips for managing photos and cleaning up your Facebook account:

Use the “Limit Old Posts” privacy setting to reduce visibility of old embarrassing photos.
Unfollow friends who tag you in unwanted photos.

Delete your Facebook account if you want to purge all photos and start fresh.
Sync Facebook photo albums to Google Photos for backups before deleting.
Unlike SpaceX which announced layoffs of 10% of its workforce, Facebook parent company Meta is freezing hiring across the board given current economic conditions.

Conclusion

I hope this detailed guide covered everything you need to know about how to delete photos and albums from your Facebook account. With over 200 billion photos shared on Facebook, it’s normal for your profile to accumulate unwanted pictures over time. Removing old, embarrassing, or irrelevant photos helps present a clean image and saves space. Make sure to download backups before deletion and be mindful of what others may still have copies of. With this guide, you should be able to clean up your Facebook presence in no time!