How to archive photos in Google Photos: A complete guide
Not every photo in your library needs to be front and center. Screenshots, receipts, or random images often clutter your timeline, making it harder to enjoy the photos that matter most. That’s where Google Photos’ Archive feature comes in. Archiving allows you to hide selected photos from your main feed without deleting them, ensuring they remain safely stored and searchable when needed. Think of it as a way to declutter your gallery while still keeping important but less visually appealing images accessible. Whether you’re organising for personal enjoyment or simply want a cleaner browsing experience, archiving is a powerful tool to keep your photo library streamlined and stress-free. What does archiving actually do?
Before diving in, it's worth clearing up a common misconception. The Archive feature in Google Photos exists for just one purpose: it removes images from your main Photos feed. It doesn't delete files or free up storage, either on your phone or in the cloud. It isn't a privacy tool, either — although it makes images less obviously visible by placing them a few taps away, they are still fully accessible to anyone using your phone. The Archive is purely for decluttering.
Move photos to archive
You can hide photos from your Photos view and move them to archive. This can help you organize your photos and hide any photo that you don’t want to find often.
Any photos that you archive:
- Will still be in any albums that they were added to, search results, and folders on your device.
- Won’t be used to create highlight videos or animations.
- Will still count towards your storage quota.
How to move images to archive
Find your archive & unarchive items
Read more
