To stop sharing Google Photos with other people, you must revoke their access by turning off link sharing, removing collaborators, or disabling partner sharing. This process will prevent anyone from viewing or adding to your shared content, but it will not delete any photos or videos they have already downloaded or copied to their own devices.
Turn off link sharing for an album
When you turn off link sharing for an album, the existing link becomes obsolete, preventing anyone with that link from viewing the content. To do this on mobile:
- Open the Google Photos app and go to the desired album.
- Tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
- Select "Options" or "Sharing options."
- Toggle "Link sharing" off.
Remove an individual person from a shared album
You can remove individual people from a shared album without disabling the entire share. To remove a specific contact:
- Open the album, then tap "More" (three dots) or "Sharing."
- Scroll to find the contact you want to remove.
- Tap "More" (three dots) next to their name and select "Remove person."
Note that older methods required disabling the album share entirely, but direct removal of individuals is now supported.
Stop collaborators from adding photos to your album
If "Collaborate" is turned on in a shared album, anyone with the link can add photos. To prevent this:
- Open the album and tap "More" (three dots).
- Select "Options" or "Sharing settings."
- Turn off "Collaborate."
Remove a Google Photos partner
Partner Sharing allows mutual access between two accounts. If you remove a partner, they can no longer access the photos you shared, and you will lose access to theirs. However, any photos already saved to either Google Photos account will remain. To remove a partner, go to the Google Photos settings, find Partner Sharing, and select the option to remove the partner.
Remove your photos from a shared album
You can remove specific photos from a shared album without deleting them from your personal library. This gives you granular control over what others see:
- Open the shared album in Google Photos.
- Find the photo you want to remove and tap it to open it.
- Tap the three-dot menu icon and select "Remove from album."
Removing a photo from a shared album does not delete it from your Google Photos account.
Disconnect third-party apps from Google Photos
Third-party apps and services connected to your Google Photos account can access your library. To revoke their access:
- Open Google Photos and tap your profile picture or avatar.
- Select "Photos settings" then go to "Account & privacy."
- Look for "Third-party apps & services" and navigate to the list of connected apps.
- Select the app or service you want to disconnect and follow the instructions to revoke access.
If you want to better organize Google photos, you can create albums and label them by event or date. To mass delete photos on Google photos, you can select multiple images at once and move them to the trash. If you need to remove backed up photos from Google photos, you can delete them from your library, but note that this will also remove them from any shared albums they were in.
