Scoped storage on Android 11 is ruining the Google Photos experience

 

If you plan on buying a phone with Android 11 soon, you'll want to get used to your manufacturer's gallery app. And if you're going to be using Google Photos on something that's not a Pixel, be prepared to confirm every single thing you want to delete on the app. The reason why boils down to a new, well-intentioned policy in the operating system that leaves end users with some annoying consequences.

You hit the trashcan icon, see a toast prompt at the bottom of the screen, tap "Move to trash" to confirm, and the media goes into the app's trash where it will sit for 60 days before it clears completely off your device. You can also hop into the Library tab and look in the Trash folder to manually wipe those pics. This experience is pretty consistent across different devices.

Now let's take a look at what you'll see on that new, non-Pixel phone of yours on Android 11 as illustrated by our Artem Russakovskii on his OnePlus 8T.

On your new device, you'll see the toast prompt, but then this new dialog box featuring the content you want to trash along with options to allow or deny Photos the privilege of moving said content to said trash.

But it's not just that: if you use the app on a second device — maybe a tablet or your desktop machine — and want to trash something that was taken on your new phone, when you pick up that new phone again and hop into Photos, you'll be alerted to "out-of-sync changes" and will be required to give permission for the app to move the items to the trash.