Frequently Asked Question: FAQ:

How do I delete clinical photos I have stored on my phone?

Other FAQs

We recommend using a dedicated app like PicSafe where photos never enter your device photo gallery. If you don't want to use PicSafe, you will need to remove clinical photos from your phone as soon as you take them. This is much more involved that most people realize because sometimes "delete" does not mean what you think it does!

iOS

To delete a photo on iOS:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap the Photos tab.
  3. Navigate to and tap on a photo you want to delete or tap Select and then tap on one or more photos.
  4. Tap the trash can icon.
  5. Tap Delete Photo(s). Doing this places the photos in the “Recently Deleted” album, where they remain for up to 40 days.
  6. Tap on the Albums tab.
  7. Scroll down to and tap on the Recently Deleted folder.
  8. Tap the Select button and select all the photos you want to remove permanently.
  9. Tap the Delete button.
  10. Tap the Delete Photo(s) button.
Android

To delete a photo on Android:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap the Photos tab.
  3. Touch and hold a photo you want to remove. Select any other items you also want to remove.
  4. Tap the trash can icon In the action bar at the top.
  5. Tap the Move to trash button. Doing this places the photos in the “Trash”, where they remain for 60 days.
  6. Tap the menu icon (three horizontal bars) in the top left.
  7. Tap the Trash row.
  8. Tap the menu button (three dots) in the top right.
  9. Select Empty trash.

Unfortunately, on Android, messages and photos are not permanently deleted. When files are “deleted” on Android, really all that happens is the operating system labels the disk space that stores the file as free space. The data is still there, and off-the-shelf data recovery tools can easily recover it. What do we do about this? There are numerous free apps in the Google Play Store, such as Secure Eraser, that will allow you to delete these files properly. Tools like this write over the so-called free space with random data. You should probably install and use a tool like this to remove all “deleted" data.

If you want to remove all existing photos from your phone, please see the How do I prevent my photos from being backed up overseas? FAQ.