How can I delete assets from Pics.io library?
If you need to delete some files from your Pics.io storage, just use the ‘Move to trash’ button. There are several ways you can do it:
First of all, you can find trash bin button in the bottom right corner of every thumbnail.
You may select the necessary asset, click on the trash bin button in the Action toolbar.
You can also find it on the left side panel when you open the asset.
Finally, you can find ‘Move to trash’ option at the top of the Infopanel by clicking on three vertical dots once you open the file in preview.
Working with Lightboards, a crossed lightbulb icon located on a thumbnail allows you to remove assets from Lightboards.
To delete multiple files in one click, you should first select them. After that, you can either hit the trash bin icon in the Action toolbar or on the left side panel or press “(i)” button in the right upper corner of the screen to open the Infopanel.
NB! Deleting assets from your Lightboards has some peculiarities. Learn more about it in the corresponding article.
How can I delete a collection?
In case you want to delete an entire collection, simply mouse over the collection you wish to delete and click on the "Delete collection" button. You will be provided with two options for what to do with the assets inside this collection. This is especially useful if the assets from this collection were also added to other collections in Pics.io:
Remove from this collection only - The assets will remain in any other collections they are added to in the library.
Delete from All collections - The assets will be removed from all collections they are added to across the library.
What will happen to assets on the storage side?
As you may know, adding assets to different collections means displaying them in multiple collections inside Pics.io interface, while keeping only one original file in one corresponding collection inside your Google Drive or S3 storage.
So, if the original assets on the storage side are located inside the collection that you are going to delete, upon removing them from this collection, such assets on the storage side will be moved to another collection where they have been added to inside Pics.io interface.
Here's a detailed example:
Imagine you have Collection A with the original asset on the storage.
On the Pics.io side, this original asset lives inside Collection A, but also in Collections B, C, etc., because it was added to those collections in Pics.io.
On the Pics.io side, you want to delete Collection A and choose the option for assets to "Remove from this collection only."
Collection A is deleted in Pics.io and on the storage along with the assets inside it.
On the storage side, the original asset that belonged to Collection A will be moved to the collection where it was added in Pics.io. If the asset was added to multiple collections, then it will be moved to the one where it was added first (in this case, Collection B).
So in summary, upon deleting Collection A with the option "Remove from this collection only.", on the storage side, be it Google Drive or Amazon S3, this asset will be moved to Collection B.
NB! (For Google Drive users) In some cases you may face “The user does not have sufficient permissions to delete this folder from Google Drive” error while deleting the collection in Pics.io. If you’re not the owner (have just view, comment, add or edit permissions) of the folder you’re going to remove in Google Drive, in other words you don’t have permissions to remove this particular folder , it won’t be possible to delete it through Pics.io as well. As a workaround, you may ask the current owner of the folder to remove the necessary collection inside Google Drive and make sync at Pics.io side then. After that, the collection will disappear from your Pics.io catalog.
In most cases, the issue is triggered by a lack of permissions for the file/collection you work on. According to Google Drive peculiarities, when you transfer ownership of a folder, the files inside still keep their original owner. The same scenario is applicable to the files that are located in shared folders. To avoid this issue make sure that you are the owner of the files/folder you’d like to work on.
What happens to the assets after their removal?
The ‘Move to trash’ button doesn’t delete your files beyond retrieval. In fact, it just moves them to Google Drive/Amazon S3 trash folder. Also, the deleted files will appear in the Trashed assets section of your Pics.io account which is located below your collection tree on the left.
At the same time, the deleted file is moved to the Trash folder in your cloud storage connected to Pics.io.
How to restore collections along with metadata deleted from Pics.io stored in Google Drive?
To make sure that you restore your recently deleted collections, along with assets inside them quickly, we recommend doing that on the Google Drive side.
Go to your Google Drive account connected to Pics.io and select the Trash folder.
Restore the deleted folder. By placing the cursor over the folder and clicking on the Restore button.
Make sure that folder and all of the assets are in the Pics.io folder and open your Pics.io account afterward.
Mouse over the settings in the top-right corner under the user icon. Select the second option Sync and press Sync Now.
Locate the folder in your Pics.io library and double-check if all of the assets with metadata are restored.
If not all of the information is restored, or if you're not sure how to restore your assets in a proper way, please contact us at support@pics.io.
What can I do with the deleted assets in Pics.io?
Search for deleted assets by different criteria and retrieve the necessary files faster.
Restore deleted assets. There are 3 ways on how to do so:
Mouse over the thumbnail and click on the ‘Restore’ button in the bottom right corner.
Open the asset in preview and click on the ‘Restore’ button.
Select the asset and click on ‘Restore’ in the bottom toolbar.
💡 Tip: There are two options to restore your assets back:
Restore to previous collection(s) - puts the asset back to where it was.
Select collection(s) to restore - allows you to manually select collection or multiple collections where you want to put the restored asset.
3. Delete forever from Pics.io beyond retrieval. In this case, the file is also deleted from your Google Drive/Amazon S3 account trash folder without possibility of restoration.
What if I want to keep an asset in one collection and remove it from another?
Please note that when you delete an asset from Pics.io, it is removed from all collections and lightboards it is added to. Sometimes you want to remove your asset from one particular collection or lightboard, but keep it in other places.
To do so, you just need to remove this asset from this collection or lightboard. Open your asset and find Collections/Lightboards section in the Infopanel. Choose a collection/lightboard you want to remove the asset from and click on the cross next to its name.
That will remove the asset from this particular collection/lightboard, but save it in the others.
How can I restore deleted assets/collections in Google Drive?
As a workaround, you may restore the deleted assets on the Google Drive side. To do so, just log into your Google Drive connected to Pics.io -> go to the 'Trash' folder on the left side menu -> select the asset/collection you want to restore -> make a right-click on the file -> and choose 'Restore'.
After that, you need to make a sync from Google Drive to Pics.io: go to your Pics.io account -> mouse over the 'Settings' button in the top right corner - > click on 'Sync' or just select the collection that should be updated and click 3 vertical dots to open the dropdown menu - > 'Run sync'.
Once the sync is completed, the removed assets/collections should reappear in your Pics.io library.