Google Photos is a great app for managing your photos and videos. But it can be a little bit of a pain to have to ask for permission to delete photos and videos. Here’s how to stop Google Photos from asking for permission to delete photos and videos:

  1. Open Google Photos and sign in.
  2. Click the three lines in the top left corner of the main screen (or press Command+I). This will show you a list of all your photos and videos.
  3. On the left side of this list, click on the photo or video you want to delete. This will take you to a confirmation page that asks if you want to delete that photo or video. If you answer yes, Google Photos will start deleting that photo or video right away. If you don’t answer yes, Google Photos will keep trying to delete the photo or video until you decide not to delete it.
  4. To stop Google Photos from deleting photos and videos, click on the trash can icon in the top right corner of the main screen (or press Command+X).

There’s an annoying thing that happens if you use Google Photos on non-Pixel phones. You have to give the app permission to delete photos every single time you do it. Thankfully, you can put a stop to this.

Why Does This Happen?

Android 11 introduced a major revamp to how apps can access your device’s storage. Previously, the storage permission gave apps access to basically all of your files. The new feature—called “Scoped Storage”—divides up what apps can access.

Scoped Storage divides files into two buckets: “Media” (images, audio, and videos) and “Downloads” (PDFs, documents, etc). You’re not giving an app all-or-nothing access to all your files anymore.

Apps get permission to access only the types of files relevant to them. However, gallery apps that aren’t pre-installed have to constantly ask for your permission to modify files. That’s why this problem is only present in Google Photos on non-Pixel devices.

RELATED: How to Manage and Free up Google Photos Storage Space

How to Give Google Photos Permission to Delete Photos

With Android 11, you needed to run some commands in ADB to fix this annoying issue. Thankfully, it’s much easier to do with Android 12 devices. We’ll be demonstrating on a Samsung Galaxy phone, but it works on other Android devices as well.

First, swipe down once or twice—depending on your device—and tap the gear icon to open the Settings.

Scroll down to the “Apps” section.

Next, tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right and select “Special Access.” On some devices, “Special Access” is available here without opening the extra menu.

Now find “Manage Media” or “Media Management Apps.”

Toggle on the switch for “Google Photos.” You may need to select it to see the toggle on some devices.

It’s as simple as that. Next time you want to delete a photo with Google Photos it will simply do it without asking permission first. This also applies to photo edits that appear “out of sync.” Hopefully, this makes using one of Google’s best apps a little better.

RELATED: Using Google Photos? Here’s Why Partner Sharing Is Essential