Recycle bin & restoring

On Photogala, a deleted photo isn’t gone right away. Instead of being removed permanently, it moves to the recycle bin – a safety zone where it stays for a limited time (the grace period). During that window you can restore it with a single click. Only after the grace period ends is it removed for good.

As the host, this is where you manage the deleted media of the entire event – whether you, a moderator, or a guest deleted it. You can restore items individually or in large batches, filter by uploader or by whoever deleted them, and clean up expired items.

Tip

The recycle bin is your most important safeguard against accidental deletions. Check it before a big download or export to make sure no guest photos are missing.

How to reach the recycle bin

1. Open your event’s admin area. If you’re currently in the gallery: use the profile menu at the top right, where Management leads into the admin portal.

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   The profile menu at the top right takes you into the management and admin portal. ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.

2. In the left-hand menu, in the Gallery group, click Photos (the entry used to be called “Gallery Overview”). The page itself is still titled Manage gallery and lives at the route /admin/gallery - what it holds is explained in Manage your gallery.

3. At the top you’ll find the tab bar Gallery · Recycle Bin · Reports. Click Recycle Bin (direct link: /admin/gallery?tab=recycleBin). Once you are there, the sidebar lists the same tabs as sub-entries of Photos.

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   The recycle bin shows all deleted media of the event, with statistics, filters, and actions.

Note

Can’t find the “Recycle Bin” tab? That’s normal as long as nothing is in the bin. The tab appears automatically as soon as the first photo is deleted (by you, a moderator, or a guest) – and disappears again once the bin is empty. If there are neither deleted media nor open reports, Photogala hides the whole tab bar and shows the gallery directly.

The recycle bin as a metric

You don’t have to open the page to see whether anything is in the bin. The count exists as its own Recycle Bin metric in two places:

• on the dashboard, in the metric band at the top. It is off by default there: switch it on via the Set up dashboard button, in the Figures at the top block – the optional tiles are marked “optional — off”.
• in the event statistics, at the bottom of the Overview tab as the small In the recycle bin tile.

The counter is not a maintained number but is derived server-side on every read. It therefore cannot drift from what the recycle bin actually holds. It counts every deleted item that is not yet being permanently removed – including those whose grace period has already expired.

Layout of the recycle bin view

The view is arranged top to bottom: first warnings about soon-to-expire items, then statistics, filters, the selection tools, and finally the list of deleted media.

Warning banners: items expiring soon

At the very top, orange banners with a clock icon may appear:

• Items expiring today – shows that a number of items will be permanently deleted within 24 hours. This is your cue to act now.
• Items expiring tomorrow – appears when nothing expires today but something does tomorrow.

Once items have expired, you can no longer recover them. So respond to these banners while the photos are still restorable.

Statistics tiles

Four tiles summarize the state of the recycle bin:

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1 Total Deleted – everything currently in the recycle bin. 2 Restorable – the share whose retention window is still running. Expired and Selected follow to the right; the last tile counts up as soon as you tick rows.

• Total deleted – all items in the recycle bin.
• Restorable (green) – items still within the grace period.
• Expired (orange) – items whose grace period is over. These can only be permanently deleted.
• Selected – how many items you currently have marked.

Filters

Use the filters to narrow the list. On mobile you show and hide the filter area with the Filters button; on desktop it’s always visible.

1 Uploaded By narrows the list to one person's uploads (“Filter by uploader…”), 2 Deleted By to what that person cleared away (“Filter by deleter…”). Both fields search names live as you type.

• Uploaded by – a search dropdown. Type a name to search the event participants (with nickname and email). This shows only the deleted photos of one specific person.
• Deleted by – the same dropdown, but by whoever deleted the item. Ideal for tracing what a particular moderator or guest removed.

To the right you’ll find:

• a Refresh icon (circular arrow) that reloads the list,
• a three-dot menu (⋮) with the entry Purge All Expired,
• and – as soon as a filter is active – a Clear button that resets the filters.

When filters are active, a blue info box Filters Active: appears below, with removable chips per filter and a Clear All button. Filtering runs server-side; as soon as you set a filter, the list jumps back to the first page.

Selection and bulk actions

Above the list is Select All with a counter (selected/total) and a checkbox with three states (empty, partial, full). As soon as you mark at least one item, a Clear link also appears to undo the selection.

Once at least one item is selected, a green action bar appears at the top (on mobile it stays stuck at the top as you scroll):

• Bulk Restore (circular arrow) – brings all marked items back.
• Bulk Delete (red, trash can) – permanently deletes all marked items.

Both first open a confirmation dialog before anything actually happens.

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As soon as something is marked, the green bar appears – the count on the left, the two bulk actions next to it. The Selected tile counts along.

The list of deleted media

On desktop the list appears as a table, on mobile as cards. Key columns and details:

The table header names every column: Preview, media ID, Uploaded By, Deleted By, the deletion date, the publishing status before deletion and the remaining retention. On phones the same details appear as stacked cards.

• Preview – clicking the image opens the full-screen preview with zoom. The whole card is clickable, even while the thumbnail is still loading.
• Uploaded by and Deleted by – who originally contributed the media and who removed it.
• Deleted at – the time of deletion.
• Publishing status – the chip Published (green), Pending (orange), or Unpublished (red) shows the state the photo was in at the moment it was deleted. After restoring, it returns to exactly that state.
• Status – the grace-period countdown chip: Expired (red), Less than 24 hours (red), Tomorrow (orange), or a number of days (orange for three days or fewer, otherwise green). Below it a detail line reads something like “Will be deleted in X hours” or “Ready for permanent deletion”. Under 24 hours, the red note Urgent action required also appears.

Each row offers actions: a green circular arrow Restore (only for items still restorable) and a red trash icon Delete permanently. Both are also available via right-click or long-press through a context menu.

The list shows 50 items per page. At the bottom you navigate with Previous / Next and the page numbers; a “Showing X–Y of Z” line keeps you oriented.

Restoring photos

1. Select the items you want to bring back – either individually via checkbox, or all at once with Select All.

2. For a single photo, click the green circular arrow Restore directly in the row. For several items, use Bulk Restore in the green action bar.

3. In the Bulk restore media dialog, Photogala confirms how many items are affected. A blue info box notes: “The media will be restored to the gallery and become visible to users again.” Click Confirm restore.

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   The dialog names the count and notes that the media become visible again – only then tap “Confirm Restore”.

4. The photos return to the gallery – in exactly the publishing status they had before deletion. If they were “Pending” or “Unpublished”, you may still need to approve them via moderation.

Caution

Duplicate special case: if a photo was re-uploaded in the meantime, it counts as a duplicate and is not restored. Photogala then reports something like “X item(s) were already re-uploaded”. The original stays in the recycle bin to avoid duplicates. In a partial restore, you’ll see exactly how many items came back successfully and how many were duplicates.

Example

One of the witnesses “tidied up” 30 photos on his phone and wiped out half the ceremony in the process.

You open the recycle bin. The Deleted by filter is the fastest route here: you type his name and see nothing but his deletions. The blue Filters Active: box shows a chip with his name, and the list jumps back to page 1.

Now Select All – the Selected tile counts along – and Bulk Restore in the green action bar. In the Bulk Restore Media dialog you confirm with Confirm Restore.

One photo carried the Pending chip, so it had not been approved before it was deleted. It comes back in exactly that state – you will find it in moderation afterwards, not in the gallery. And three photos from the day before carried the red Expired chip: they have no circular arrow, and they are gone for good.

Deleting photos permanently

1. Select the items you want to remove permanently.

2. Click the red trash icon Delete permanently in the row, or – for several – Bulk Delete in the action bar.

3. In the Bulk delete media dialog, a red box warns: “This action cannot be undone. All selected media will be permanently removed from our servers.” Confirm with Confirm delete.

Danger

Permanent deletion is irreversible. Unlike normal deletion, these photos do not move to the recycle bin – they are removed from the servers immediately and permanently. Make sure you’ve really marked the right items.

Cleaning up expired items

Items whose grace period is over (counted in the Expired tile) keep taking up storage until they’re permanently deleted. One action clears them all at once.

The three-dot menu to the right of the filters – it holds exactly this one entry. With the Expired tile at 0 there is nothing to purge.

1. Open the three-dot menu (⋮) on the right in the filter area.

2. Choose Purge All Expired.

3. The Purge Expired Media dialog shows how many expired items are affected and warns: “Only expired items that are past their grace period will be deleted. This action cannot be undone.” Confirm with Confirm Purge.

Caution

This action affects only already expired items – restorable photos remain untouched. It’s best to reset the filters first so you truly see all expired items before you purge.

Including deleted photos in a download

When you download your whole event you decide what happens to the recycle bin. The advanced download has the section Include deleted photos from recycle bin? with three options:

In the advanced download, step 4 decides what happens with the recycle bin. Highlighted is the Only Deleted card – it packs the recycle-bin contents and nothing else. Next to it sit Exclude Deleted (the default) and Include Deleted.

• Exclude Deleted – “Only include active photos (default)”. This is the preset.
• Include Deleted – “Include both active and deleted photos”. The ZIP then also contains everything from the recycle bin.
• Only Deleted – “Only include photos from recycle bin”. Handy when you only want to back up the discarded shots.

Each card also shows how many deleted items would be affected. The full flow is explained in Download & export.

Tip

If you’re unsure whether something important is still in the bin, Include Deleted is the safe route: you back everything up at once and sort it out later on your own computer.

Guests have their own recycle bin

An important distinction: there are two recycle bins.

• Your host recycle bin – the page described in this guide. It holds the deleted media of the whole event, no matter who deleted them.
• A guest’s personal recycle bin – a separate dialog in the gallery. There a guest sees only the photos they both uploaded themselves and deleted themselves, and can restore or permanently remove them on their own.

If you, a moderator or another admin delete a guest photo, it does not show up in that guest’s personal recycle bin – it lands exclusively in your host recycle bin. Only you can restore it then.

The guest perspective is covered in Restore deleted photos.

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The other recycle bin: this dialog belongs to the guest and only holds media they uploaded and deleted themselves. ① the chip with the days left – after 30 days the item is deleted for good; the chip turns yellow with three days to go and red on the last day. ② puts the photo back into the gallery, ③ deletes it for good right away, ④ “Empty All” clears the whole bin. ②, ③ and ④ each ask first.

Saving & feedback

Every action in the recycle bin is an immediate operation – there’s no separate Save button. After you confirm, the button briefly shows a loading state, then the dialog closes, the list reloads, and your selection is cleared. A short success message confirms how many items were restored, deleted, or purged.

Roles & visibility

• The recycle bin is part of the standard gallery management and is not a premium feature – it’s available to every event.
• The tab appears purely data-driven: only while at least one item sits in the recycle bin. There is no manual toggle.
• The Restore button appears per item only while it’s within the grace period. Expired items can only be permanently deleted.
• The length of the grace period is set server-side and can’t be configured in the frontend. Watch the countdown chip rather than relying on a fixed number of days.
• Moderators with access to gallery management also see the recycle bin. Exactly who may delete and restore is controlled through roles – see Roles & permissions.

Problems & solutions

• “I can’t find the recycle bin.” Nothing has been deleted yet, so the tab is hidden. It appears as soon as a photo is deleted.
• “Some photos are missing the Restore button.” Those items have expired – their grace period is over. Only permanent deletion is possible.
• “Restoring reports a duplicate.” The same photo was re-uploaded in the meantime. The original stays deleted to avoid duplicates.
• “The recycle bin won’t load.” On a loading error, the card “Failed to Load Recycle Bin” appears with a Retry button.
• “I accidentally deleted something permanently.” Permanent deletion and purging expired items are irreversible – there’s no going back. So check carefully which items are marked before confirming.

Best-practice tips

Tip

• Check the recycle bin before important downloads and exports so no accidentally deleted guest photos are missing.
• Use the Deleted by filter to fully and precisely undo an accidental mass deletion by a specific user.
• Respond to the red “expiring today” banner – expired photos disappear for good.
• Use Purge All Expired deliberately, only to free up storage.
• Restored photos return to their original publishing status. If a photo then reads “Pending” or “Unpublished”, approve it via moderation.

Related topics

• Moderation & reports – the neighboring tab; this is where photos are reported and removed, which then land in the recycle bin.
• Dashboard – the recycle bin metric, once you switch it on in the metric band.
• Event statistics – the same metric in a statistics context.
• Download & export – exclude or include deleted photos.
• Restore deleted photos (guest view) – your guests’ personal recycle bin.
• Roles & permissions – who may delete and restore.
• Ban guests – when a user mass-deletes or causes trouble.