Delete only photos/videos that are not part of a shared album

[melalj]

Thank you for building this.
As I would like to liberate space on my Google account, I'd like only to delete photos and videos that are not part of a shared album.
Because if I delete all the photos, they will also be deleted from the shared album.

[llang629]

Exactly the functionality I'm seeking. But looking at the code, this seems like quite a challenging extension. The existing JavaScript logic selects all visible photos, chooses the delete action, then confirms the deletions. Essentially automating the browser actions a human user would take.

The filter you're describing (and I also seek) would require the code to click on each image, click on the ⓘ information icon, check whether the image is in an album, and if not, click on delete and confirm. A very substantial extension.

I've also checked out the Google Photos API. Its list functionality would make it possible to determine if an image is in an album. But the API lacks any capability to delete images. You might imagine some sort of hybrid approach (API + console JavaScript), but that seems like a horrid project.

The APIs for GCP are generally useful and complete, which makes the lameness of the Google Photos API particularly disappointing. Maybe a lingering aftereffect of the Google+ failure.

[mrishab]

AI-Generated Summary and Assessment

Issue Analysis: This is a thoughtful feature request from users who want to delete only their personal photos while preserving those in shared albums.

Current Complexity Assessment (as noted by @llang629):

This feature would require:

1. Loop through each photo
2. Click on each photo to open its detail view
3. Click the information (ⓘ) icon
4. Check metadata to determine if it's in a shared album
5. Conditionally delete only photos NOT in shared albums
6. Significant performance impact due to per-photo clicking

Technical Challenges:

• ❌ Google Photos API has no deletion capability (as @llang629 correctly noted)
• ❌ Per-photo metadata checking requires significant DOM interactions
• ❌ Much slower than batch deletion (would take hours for large libraries)
• ❌ Risk of incomplete checks if Google Photos UI changes
• ⚠️ Could accidentally delete photos due to UI parsing errors

Feasibility Assessment:

• Current Priority: LOW - Due to extreme complexity vs. benefit ratio
• Alternative Workaround: Users could:
  1. Manually remove photos from shared albums first
  2. Then run the deletion tool
  3. This is safer and faster than per-photo filtering

Possible Implementation Approach (if priority increases):

1. Create a whitelist feature where users manually specify albums to preserve
2. Check selected photos against these safe albums before deletion
3. Much simpler than per-photo metadata checking
4. Still complex but more practical

Recommendation:

• 🔴 Not recommended for implementation in the near term
• Complexity is very high relative to use cases
• Most users can achieve the same result with manual pre-filtering
• Performance impact would be severe
• Suggest documenting the workaround instead

Suggested Comment for Issue: Add a documentation comment with the recommended workaround to help users understand the best current approach.

This issue represents a legitimate user need but the technical constraints make it impractical to implement efficiently.