Keepr If you're running out of space, this is the first thing to try — and most people don't know it exists.
Remove the original, keep the photo#
On plans that keep print-ready originals, each photo is stored twice: a browsable copy, and the untouched file from your camera.
You can remove the original on its own. The photo stays in its album, looks the same in the grid, and everyone who could see it still can. What goes is the large file behind it — and that space comes straight back.
Nothing disappears from anyone's view. This is not deleting a photo, and it doesn't behave like deleting a photo.
Why this is the intended lifecycle#
An original earns its space when you might still print from it. Once the print is on the wall, or once you've decided this particular photo is a snapshot rather than a keepsake, the big file is doing nothing except costing storage.
So: keep originals while they're useful, remove them when they're not, and the photos stay either way. That's a better arrangement than choosing a resolution once and living with it forever.
How to decide what to remove#
The storage screen shows what share of your space originals are using, and lets you work by size — so you can clear the largest files first rather than going photo by photo.
A reasonable approach:
- Start with the biggest. A handful of very large files often accounts for more than hundreds of ordinary ones.
- Keep originals for anything you'd genuinely print large — the posed family photographs, the once-in-a-lifetime days.
- Remove them for the everyday ones. A photo of a good lunch does not need an archival master.
It's permanent#
An original can't be regenerated from the browsable copy, so this is one-way. That's the same trade as choosing not to keep originals in the first place, just made later and per photo — which is strictly better, because by then you know which photos mattered.
Your own uploads only#
You can remove originals for photos you uploaded. In a shared album or a Family Hub, other people's photos aren't yours to trim.
The other place space hides#
Near-identical shots. Keepr groups them so they don't clutter your library, but every copy is still a stored file. The storage screen shows how much your duplicate stacks are using and lets you review them side by side before removing any.
See Duplicate stacks.
Between originals and duplicates, most libraries have more room available than their owners expect — worth checking before moving up a plan.