Intelligently wait until previous deletion has completed

[recursionbane]

Thank you for this tool!
I am here to suggest an improvement.

The current iteration with timers between deletion cycles is somewhat clunky, and does not take machine performance and network latency into account.

Recommended change is to wait until the "Moving X images" prompt disappears from the DOM before attempting the next deletion cycle.

[recursionbane]

I made some other changes like removing the limit of retries in this fork: https://github.com/recursionbane/google-photos-delete-tool

[mrishab]

Sounds amazing. Can you make a PR back into the project with this change?

[mrishab]

AI-Generated Summary and Implementation Plan

Issue Analysis: This is a smart improvement suggestion to replace fixed sleep/timer delays with intelligent DOM-based waiting. Instead of using setTimeout() with a fixed duration, the script should poll the DOM to detect when Google Photos has completed the deletion operation.

Current Implementation Problem:

• Fixed timers (e.g., await sleep(5000)) don't account for network latency or machine performance
• Creates unnecessary wait times when deletion completes faster
• May timeout on slow connections when deletion takes longer than expected

Proposed Solution - Intelligent Waiting:

1. Create a function to detect deletion completion:

   async function waitForDeletionComplete() {
     const maxWaitTime = 60000; // 60 second max timeout
     const pollInterval = 500; // Check every 500ms
     const startTime = Date.now();
     
     while (Date.now() - startTime < maxWaitTime) {
       // Look for the "Moving X images" prompt
       const movingPrompt = document.querySelector('[aria-label*="Moving"]');
       if (!movingPrompt) {
         // Prompt is gone, deletion completed
         return true;
       }
       await sleep(pollInterval);
     }
     // Timeout reached, return false
     return false;
   }

2. Replace existing delay logic:

   • Remove or replace await sleep(5000) or similar calls
   • Call waitForDeletionComplete() instead
   • This ensures you only proceed when deletion actually completes

3. Add safety timeout:

   • Always include a maximum wait time to prevent infinite loops
   • If timeout is reached, log a warning and continue anyway

4. Error handling:

   • Gracefully handle cases where the prompt structure changes
   • Add console logging for debugging

Implementation Steps:

1. Identify the exact DOM selector/attribute for the "Moving X images" prompt
2. Create the waitForDeletionComplete() function
3. Replace all fixed delay timers with this function
4. Test with various network conditions and Google Photos states
5. Add appropriate logging and error handling

Benefits:

• ✅ Faster overall execution on good connections
• ✅ Better reliability on slow connections
• ✅ More robust to machine performance variations
• ✅ Cleaner, more professional implementation

Status Note: The requestor has already created a fork with this improvement. Consider reviewing their fork or requesting a PR from them to merge this enhancement.

Recommendation: High priority - this is a clear improvement that makes the tool more reliable and efficient.