u/Artistic-Dimension50

Before anyone suggests the usual things like checking the Trash, Archive, Locked Folder, switching accounts, checking the browser, Gallery Trash, reinstalling the app, or signing out and back in... I have already done all of that. I have literally tried everything I could find online. There isn't a single obvious troubleshooting step left that I haven't already tried.

Also, please don't tell me that "Free up space deletes photos from your phone." I already know that. That was the entire point.

My phone storage was completely full. I had around 4,000 photos and videos, and my phone had become almost unusable because of the lack of storage. I didn't want to keep those files on my phone forever. That's exactly why I trusted Google Photos.

I thought, "Google is one of the biggest technology companies in the world. Google Photos is literally designed to back up your memories so you can safely remove them from your phone afterward."

So I gave Google Photos permission to back up my gallery.

The backup took several days because I was using mobile data. During that time, Google Photos itself kept sending me notifications saying that a certain number of photos had been backed up and asking if I wanted to "Free up space."

I didn't blindly press the button.

Every single time, I read the message carefully. It clearly said that those photos had already been backed up safely to Google Photos and could be downloaded again anytime in the future. Only after reading that did I press "Free up space."

I used that feature because I thought it would save me from manually opening my gallery and deleting thousands of photos one by one. That's literally what the feature is supposed to do.

Instead, after using it, I discovered that not only were the photos removed from my phone, more than half of them are missing from Google Photos as well.

Entire months are almost gone.

For example, if I originally had around 100 photos in a month, Google Photos now only shows one or two. Most of my camera photos and photos I received through WhatsApp and Instagram have disappeared. Ironically, most screenshots are still there.

I never manually deleted anything from Google Photos.

I trusted Google's own backup process and used Google's own "Free up space" feature exactly as it instructed me to.

Then I contacted Google Support.

They asked me multiple questions, asked which account I used, whether I used Google Photos or Google One, asked for screenshots, and I answered everything because I genuinely believed they were investigating my issue.

After several days, their final reply was simply that they don't handle Google Photos, only Google Drive.

That honestly left me even more confused.

If they couldn't investigate Google Photos in the first place, why wasn't I told that in the first reply? Why ask me for all that information and give me hope that someone was looking into my case?

Then they told me to ask in the public forums.

This makes me wonder... Google Photos is one of Google's biggest services. Millions of people trust it with their most valuable memories. Is there really no dedicated Google Photos support team that can investigate account-specific issues?

At this point, I'm not looking for generic troubleshooting tips anymore. I've already spent days trying every suggestion I could find and contacting Google themselves.

If anyone has a real solution, or has actually recovered photos after something like this happened, please tell me. These weren't just files. They were years of memories that I can never recreate, and I'm honestly heartbroken.

Before anyone suggests the usual things like checking the Trash, Archive, Locked Folder, switching accounts, checking the browser, Gallery Trash, reinstalling the app, or signing out and back in... I have already done all of that. I have literally tried everything I could find online. There isn't a single obvious troubleshooting step left that I haven't already tried.

Also, please don't tell me that "Free up space deletes photos from your phone." I already know that. That was the entire point.

My phone storage was completely full. I had around 4,000 photos and videos, and my phone had become almost unusable because of the lack of storage. I didn't want to keep those files on my phone forever. That's exactly why I trusted Google Photos.

I thought, "Google is one of the biggest technology companies in the world. Google Photos is literally designed to back up your memories so you can safely remove them from your phone afterward."

So I gave Google Photos permission to back up my gallery.

The backup took several days because I was using mobile data. During that time, Google Photos itself kept sending me notifications saying that a certain number of photos had been backed up and asking if I wanted to "Free up space."

I didn't blindly press the button.

Every single time, I read the message carefully. It clearly said that those photos had already been backed up safely to Google Photos and could be downloaded again anytime in the future. Only after reading that did I press "Free up space."

I used that feature because I thought it would save me from manually opening my gallery and deleting thousands of photos one by one. That's literally what the feature is supposed to do.

Instead, after using it, I discovered that not only were the photos removed from my phone, more than half of them are missing from Google Photos as well.

Entire months are almost gone.

For example, if I originally had around 100 photos in a month, Google Photos now only shows one or two. Most of my camera photos and photos I received through WhatsApp and Instagram have disappeared. Ironically, most screenshots are still there.

I never manually deleted anything from Google Photos.

I trusted Google's own backup process and used Google's own "Free up space" feature exactly as it instructed me to.

Then I contacted Google Support.

They asked me multiple questions, asked which account I used, whether I used Google Photos or Google One, asked for screenshots, and I answered everything because I genuinely believed they were investigating my issue.

After several days, their final reply was simply that they don't handle Google Photos, only Google Drive.

That honestly left me even more confused.

If they couldn't investigate Google Photos in the first place, why wasn't I told that in the first reply? Why ask me for all that information and give me hope that someone was looking into my case?

Then they told me to ask in the public forums.

This makes me wonder... Google Photos is one of Google's biggest services. Millions of people trust it with their most valuable memories. Is there really no dedicated Google Photos support team that can investigate account-specific issues?

At this point, I'm not looking for generic troubleshooting tips anymore. I've already spent days trying every suggestion I could find and contacting Google themselves.

If anyone has a real solution, or has actually recovered photos after something like this happened, please tell me. These weren't just files. They were years of memories that I can never recreate, and I'm honestly heartbroken.

My phone storage was almost full, so I decided to back up all my photos and videos to Google Photos.

The backup took around 2–3 days because I was using mobile data and trying to save battery. I didn't leave backup on all the time. Whenever I had enough data or battery, I turned it on for a while, then turned it off again. Over several days I gradually backed up almost everything. Even now there are still around 300 photos and videos left on my phone that haven't been backed up yet.

While all this was happening, Google Photos kept showing me the "Free up space" option. It showed how much had already been backed up and asked if I wanted to free up space on my device. I trusted it because I assumed it only included files that had already been safely backed up. I never deleted everything at once. I only used "Free up space" whenever Google Photos itself told me those files were backed up.

Everything disappeared from my gallery, which is exactly what I expected, and my storage problem was solved.

The problem is that I recently noticed that around 50% of my photos and videos are missing from Google Photos too. I checked the app, the browser version, the Bin, Archive, and I'm using the correct Google account.

Entire months are missing. For example, in December 2025 I had around 200 to 300 photos, but now Google Photos only shows 5 to 10 from that month. The same thing has happened with many other months.

This is what I can't understand. I know my entire library wasn't 100% backed up yet because there are still around 300 files waiting to be backed up. But I never expected Google Photos to remove anything that wasn't already backed up. I only trusted the "Free up space" prompt because Google Photos itself was telling me those specific files were safe to remove from my phone.

I'm honestly so hurt right now. These weren't just random pictures taking up storage. They were years of memories with my family and friends, birthdays, trips, and moments that I'll never get back. I keep opening Google Photos hoping those missing months will somehow come back, but they're just... gone.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this? Is there anything at all that I can try? I'm genuinely desperate at this point because losing years of memories like this is heartbreaking.