Google Photos Service Ending

Google Photo Service Ends on June 30, 2026

Brookline Public Schools will be turning off access to Google Photos for all staff Workspace accounts, effective June 30, 2026.

Google Photos is not included as a Google Workspace for Education Core Service. Instead, it is classified by Google as an "Additional Service." This means it is governed by consumer terms and may be subject to different data privacy and usage policies than our core academic apps (like Google Docs, Drive, and Gmail).

Disconnect your Phone from Google Photos

The Google Photos app on your iPhone or Android phone may be backing up photos to your psbma.org without your knowledge. Check to see if you inadvertently set the backup.

On an iPhone:

Open your iPhone Settings app (the gear icon).
Scroll to “Apps”
Find Google Photos in your list of apps.
Tap Photos.
Change the setting to None. This prevents the app from accessing your camera roll entirely, but keeps you signed into Gmail/Drive.

On an Android phone:

Open the Google Photos app.
Tap your Profile Icon in the top right corner
Tap the down arrow next to your @psbma.org email address.
Select "Use without an account." This "unlinks" the app from your school cloud storage. It does not sign you out of your school email or Drive.
Double Check: Tap the Profile Icon again. It should now show a generic silhouette instead of your school account picture. You are now safe to delete photos from the web without them being removed from your phone.

Download your photos

On a computer, login to your psbma.org account, and launch Google Photos.

Review the photos. Decide if you need to keep any of the photos. Keep in mind that photos in your psbma.org Google Photos app may be backups of photos you have on your Phone’s Apple or Android Photo app. You likely have photos in both places. Deleting photos from the Google Photo backup will not delete them from your Apple or Android Phone app.

Keep in mind that you may be limited by storage space on your computer, you may need to download the files to an external drive. A 1 TB external drive is a good investment.

To Download:

Select photos or videos that you wish to download bu clicking on the upper left of each photo. When selected, the photo will display a blue check mark.
Click on the Three dots at the upper left to reveal the Download option.
Select a folder or external drive.

After downloading the photos, you’ll need to delete them from your Google Photos. The photos remain in your Google Photos after you download them.

Delete your photos

Deleting Google Photos media frees up individual drive space and keeps the district storage pool under Google's limits

Delete the photos from your psbma.org Google Photos. This is best done on a computer. Follow the steps in this short video to quickly select the files to be deleted.

Some staff have found this extension to be helpful: Bulk Delete Google Photos Tool.

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