Samsung Gallery can now free up phone storage by deleting the original photos and videos you’ve synced to Google storage. Gallery keeps thumbnails, and you download a full file when you need it.
Samsung detailed the new Free up space option on November 10, in its official announcement of Gallery sync with Google storage. The catch is storage. Everything counts against your Google account’s free 15 GB, which Gmail, Drive and Google Photos also draw on.
How Samsung Gallery’s Free up space works
Once your photos and videos are synced, Free up space removes the original files from the phone itself. Thumbnails stay visible in Gallery, so your library still looks complete when you scroll through it.
Samsung’s sample screen shows an option to free up 4.23 GB by removing 100 backed-up items. Samsung marks that screen as simulated, so treat the figure as an illustration rather than a typical result.
The same approach helps when you move to a new phone. Sign in with the same Samsung and Google accounts on a new Galaxy device and turn on sync. You’ll see previews of your photos and videos without downloading the whole library first.
Samsung says feature availability may vary by market and device model.
What to weigh before you tap it
Free up space is genuinely useful on a phone that’s running out of room. But once you use it, your only full-quality copy lives in Google storage. Samsung’s FAQ also spells out how deletion works:
“Deleting a synced item in Samsung Gallery also removes it from the linked Google storage and other connected Galaxy devices signed in with the same Samsung and Google accounts.”
Put those together and one accidental delete can remove a photo everywhere at once. Before freeing up space, keep a second copy somewhere else, such as on a PC. Google’s planned Android photo backup to Windows PCs could help here once it arrives.
Then there’s the storage limit. Samsung notes that Gallery sync doesn’t add a separate storage allowance, and it points to Google One’s paid plans for more space. The settings screen pairs the Clean up space button with a Get more storage button. A 15 GB free tier shared with your email fills up quickly once a photo library lands in it.
Availability and setup
Samsung says support started with select Galaxy devices running One UI 9 and will expand in phases. Its announcement doesn’t name specific models or countries.
At launch, Gallery shows only the photos and videos synced through Gallery after you turn the feature on. Content already sitting in your Google storage won’t appear automatically.
To turn on sync, use any of these routes in Samsung Gallery:
- Cloud icon: tap the Cloud icon in Gallery.
- Tip card: tap Get started on the tip card.
- Settings: open Gallery Settings and turn on Sync photos and videos.
Then follow the on-screen steps. In Samsung’s sample screens, the Free up space on this phone option sits within the sync settings. Our earlier guide to setting up Samsung Gallery sync with Google Photos covers the full setup and its caveats.
If you relied on Gallery’s OneDrive sync, that ended on September 30, 2026. Photos already synced there remain available in the OneDrive app or on the OneDrive website. Our OneDrive sync explainer has more on what changed.
Source: Samsung Newsroom
