2 Best Ways to Remove Someone from Google Photos Shared Album

2 Best Ways to Remove Someone from Google Photos Shared Album

It’s no surprise that Google Photos works as a gallery app and photo storage service. When the latter is activated, Google Photos becomes complicated. It misses out on the basic functionality linked to the capabilities it offers. One such case is to remove someone from a shared album in Google Photos.

If you accidentally add someone to an album or if someone else who has access to the album adds a person, the first reaction is to delete the unwanted person. We want it to be as simple as hitting the Delete button. But is it that simple? Can you remove someone from a shared album in Google Photos and how do I do that? Find the answer in this article.

Here we’ll show you how to remove someone from an album in Google Photos.

How shared albums work in Google Photos

The sharing feature works slightly differently in Google Photos if you compare it with other tools. Many questions arise regarding the confidentiality of photos when added to shared albums.

For starters, when you share an album with certain people, they can invite more people to join the album. And this is one of the reasons for removing people from shared albums. Even if it has its advantages, adding more people without the owner’s permission is slightly creepy. But wait, there is more.


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Shared albums have a unique link. Anyone with access to the link can see the photos in the album. So even if someone is not invited and they have the link, they can still view the photos.

Now that you know the basics of shared albums, let’s move on to deleting the person.

How to remove a person from the shared album

As you saw above, the shared albums in Google Photos are not entirely private. A slight swipe when inviting people or sharing the link will hinder the confidentiality of your photos. But can it be saved by removing the person?

Without sugar coating the words, the answer is no. I know it’s surprising, but it’s like that right now. Unfortunately, Google Photos doesn’t offer a delete button to revoke access to someone in the album. It doesn’t matter even if you own the album and you can’t delete someone.


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The problem was reported to Google in 2019. Even though they said the deletion capacity would be added soon, there was no update as such.

The reason behind this could be that even if you delete the person, someone else could add it again. And if they have the link, they can still see the photos without being in the album.

To avoid this, you can block the person. This is one way to solve the problem. Another way is to stop sharing the album and then share it again. Here are the steps and implications of the two methods.

2. Share the Google Photos album

To do this, you must first stop sharing the album with everyone. This will delete the unwanted person. Then you will have to share it again with the required people. The steps to follow are mentioned below, but let’s see its consequences first.


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What happens when you stop sharing an album in Google Photos

When you stop sharing an album, the following things happen:

Your photos

Others who previously had access to the album will lose the right to view the photos. They will not be able to see them because now the album is private. However, if they copied or downloaded the photos earlier, these photos will not be deleted. Therefore, they can still access it.

Note: The photos will not be deleted from your side.

Photos shared by others

If others had added photos to the album, they would also be removed from your view. If you have saved them to your Google Photos account, the will not be deleted.

comments

Turning off sharing for an album will remove all comments from the shared photos, including your comments.

Visibility

The album will disappear from the Sharing tab because you have disabled sharing for it.

How to stop sharing an album

To do this, follow these steps on Android and iPhone:

Step 1: Launch the Google Photos app and tap the Sharing tab. Open the album you want to cancel sharing.


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2nd step: Press the three dots at the top. Select options there.


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Step 3: Disable the toggle next to Share. Confirm on the next screen.


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How to share an album

To share an album, you don’t need to create and add the photos to the album again. Even if it disappears from the Sharing tab, you will find it in the Albums tab.

Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Launch the Google Photos app.

2nd step: Tap Albums at the bottom. Tap the album you want to share again. All your previously added photos will already be available in the album.


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Step 3: Tap the share icon at the top and select the people you want to share the album with. Once shared, you will find the album in the Sharing tab.


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Last resort

While Google doesn’t provide the album owner with a delete button, it does allow participants to opt out of shared albums. So, if possible, you can ask the unwanted person to leave your shared album. I know this is not an appropriate option, but you never know when it might be useful.

For now, we can only hope that Google will soon provide us with the ability to remove someone from a shared album.

Then:

Are you finished with Google Photos? Find out what happens when you delete and uninstall the Google Photos app from your Android or iPhone.

Last updated on February 19, 2020

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