[Android] Having both "Delete" and "Move to Trash" is confusing and unnecessary

[urbenlegend]

The bug

I think having both "Delete" and "Move to Trash" in the Android mobile app is confusing and unnecessary. "Delete" seems to delete the local copy and move the cloud copy to Trash. Meanwhile, "Move to Trash" only deletes the cloud copy and when the photo is permanently deleted from Trash, the app will reupload the local copy. I think this entire behavior is wrong from both a UX and a functionality perspective.

I propose this:

1. Remove the "Delete" button. It's combining two behaviors, "move to trash" and "delete from device" into one confusing button that is unclear, especially when there's already a separate "delete from device" button.
2. Keep the "Move to Trash" button that just moves the cloud copy to trash.
3. When a photo has been moved to Trash and then permanently deleted, only then delete the associated local copy.
4. Keep the "Delete from device" button as is.

This change will prevent the following confusing behaviors:

1. A user "deletes" a photo and then later restores it from Trash. Now he's confused where his local copy is.
2. A user selects "move to trash" on a photo, empties the trash, and then sees the image get re-uploaded to the server from the local copy.

The OS that Immich Server is running on

Arch Podman-Docker

Version of Immich Server

v1.121.0

Version of Immich Mobile App

1.121.0 build.168

Platform with the issue

• Server
• Web
• Mobile

Your docker-compose.yml content

Irrelevant

Your .env content

Irrelevant

Reproduction steps

Delete case

1. Select a photo and press delete
2. Go into trash and restore that photo
3. Notice that the local copy is gone from the device

Move To Trash case

1. Select a photo and press Move to Trash
2. Go into trash and empty it
3. Notice that the local copy is still there in the timeline and later gets backed up.

Relevant log output

No response

Additional information

No response

[Davide9908]

I think keeping only the Move to trash and Delete from device buttons will highlight another issue:

If the user wants to delete a photo from both the device and the server he would need to perform the 2 operations separately.
However, if he moves the photo to the trash, the photo will disappear from the app and he will not be able to delete the local file from within the immich app.

He would need either to use another application to delete the file or remember to use the "Delete from device" button first and then "Move to Trash"

[relic664]

I was onboarding new users into immich and found this behavior to be very confusing. The functionality of immich for delete is all there, but the UX is pretty bad. I'm not sure if it was the case when this issue was opened, but there's also a dialog "Allow immich to delete this photo" with allow or deny, and neither seem to do anything perceptible.

For most "average" users, there's no functional difference between delete and trash; when they delete something normally, stuff just goes to trash. There isn't usually a permanently delete option until you're deleting from trash.

I think there needs to be clear distinctions between local and cloud storages in dialogs, options, and icons. (Trash in immich being cloud trash can also be confusing).

[alirz1]

how about having only two delete options:

DELETE: which moves both local and server side assets to trash.
Delete from device: only moves local asset to device trash.

[PDerid]

I also find the delete process very unclear tbh. I even see 3 delete actions on mobile ("delete from Immich", "delete", "delete from device"). When I see "delete from immich" I expect it only moves the cloud image to the trash, but when I clear the trash, the asset on my local device is also deleted. So basically it has the same behavior as the normal "delete" button. Sometimes I'd like to delete photos on Immich, but keep them on my device.

[Fmstrat]

My 2 cents is this goes beyond Android/Mobile, and "delete" should be unified across the server and all mobile devices.

One delete button to rule them all.

There are a ton of discussions on deleting from device, from server, on both. In Albums and Search and Listings the delete options can differ. Local files get renamed .trashed... and seemingly stick around many devices. Files deleted on the server get re-uploaded by the client.

This reques should expand to unify all delete options across mobile and web into something more UX friendly.

Suggested process

• One delete button
• The same button for all individual and multi-select views
• In settings (mobile and web), add a dropdown select or radios of:
  • Delete moves to Trash on server and all devices
  • Delete moves to Trash on server and deletes from all devices
  • Delete permanently removes from everywhere (big red warning)
  • Ask me every time (default)
• On the "Ask me" popup, it allows the user to save the setting permanently
• If an item in Trash is deleted, it should delete from the server and all devices (no stagnant .trash files)

A key element is delete from all logged in devices to eliminate accidental re-uploads and have a unified image list.

It would also be great if multi-select was modified to make batch deleting easier:

• Hold to select image
• Tap to select another image
• Hold to select that image, and every image between it and the last selected image

[isantiago95]

Hi everyone,
I recently moved from Synology Photos to Immich. At first, I found the three-button approach a bit confusing. After testing with a few images, I eventually understood the behavior and purpose of each button. However, since I had been using Synology Photos for a couple of years, I was already accustomed to their workflow

In Synology Photos, there are only two delete options, and you can choose which one should be the default (see attached image). For me, this approach feels more intuitive than having three separate buttons

That said, there is one important difference: Synology Photos does not have a “trash” feature—files are deleted immediately. Based on this, my proposal is to simplify the UI to a single Delete button, while allowing its behavior to be configured in the settings

The configuration options would be similar to Synology Photos, with an additional third option:
• Delete from phone and move to trash in the cloud (files would be permanently deleted from the cloud after 30 days)

This way, users can choose the behavior that best fits their use case, keep the interface simple, and still have access to all three delete behaviors—configurable and changeable at any time

[MrSiO]

I'm evaluating Immich self hosted (currently using nextcloud memories) and the only thing that is slowing me down from migrating is the android app behaviour:

Image deletion is confusing and i lost images while testing.
It would definitely need a clear "Delete from Server", "Delete from mobile" and "Delete from Everywhere" options.

[urbenlegend]

I think three options is needlessly confusing. Delete local copy and Delete Everywhere is enough. Delete from server is weird because now you have specific images that only exist on your device and the app would have to remember to never sync those again.

[zacharyficker]

I also think the ‘delete’ button should be the default behaviour in all instances.
Currently it is the prominent function on the app (I'm using iOS) when viewing one asset is ‘delete’.
However, when selecting multiple images, the ‘delete’ button is far down the list, and ‘move to trash’ and ‘delete from device’ are listed earlier.
This is confusing for my less-techy family members, I think the ‘delete’ button that performs both actions should always be the prominent action (if not the only action.

[urbenlegend]

I personally find the current Delete behavior extremely weird. It deletes local copy while moving the server copy to Trash. It feels like two separate actions combined into one. One is a permanent action (phone) and the other is a recoverable action (server trash). It doesn't feel synchronized to me. If its in trash, I expect it to be a recoverable action both locally and on the server.

Let's say you're in an area with a crappy connection. You delete a video, it gets wiped from your phone and it gets moved to server trash. Now you decided, shoot, actually that was a mistake, let me restore from Trash. Now it's gotta redownload the file from the server even though from your perspective you thought it was in your local trash.

Not saying the current delete doesn't have its uses, but I don't think most people expect that as the default behavior. And also, it certainly should not be named Delete, which on most other platforms usually means a permanent unrecoverable removal.