Samsung Android smartphones come with ample internal storage space options. On average, almost every Samsung Android phone features the standard 128 GB onboard storage.
Though 128 GB may seem a big storage option to many but we only get around 100–110 GB as manageable storage on the phone.
Even this much storage can become full if you download a lot of apps, shoot Full HD or 4K videos from your phone’s camera, and edit videos and photos.
You may now be wondering how editing images and videos makes your Samsung phone’s storage full.
The answer is that when you edit large videos and photos on your Samsung phone, the video editor/converter in the Gallery app creates an invisible backup of the original files.
The Gallery app creates backups in order to restore the videos or photos to their original version whenever you want.
However, these invisible backups take up much of your phone’s storage space. Therefore, we must delete them or transfer them to a different storage device.
If you do not wish to keep these invisible backups, then deleting them would be ideal to save storage space on your phone. However, these invisible backups are not easily accessible.
So, in this post, I’ll teach you how to find and delete such invisible backups, thereby freeing more storage space on your Samsung phone.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What Are Invisible Backups on Samsung Phones?
- How to Delete Invisible Photo and Video Backups
- How to Restore Original Photos and Videos
- Recover Originals After Deleting Edited Version
- Invisible Backup Behavior Summary
- What Are Pending Files on Samsung Galaxy Phones?
- FAQ - Samsung Invisible Backups
- Conclusion
What Are Invisible Backups on Samsung Phones?
Let’s discuss this topic in detail. You may not know, but many Samsung Android smartphones that run on an Exynos chipset feature a built-in video editor, converter and an image editor.
Several Samsung phones that run on Snapdragon chipsets may also support the built-in video editor, converter and an image editor.
With this built-in Samsung video editor, you can do basic video editing such as cropping videos, adding filters, and adding emojis and text overlays. You can also use the built-in video converter to reduce the video size on your Samsung phone.
With the Samsung image editor, you can crop images, apply filters, add text overlays, draw shapes and erase unwanted objects and people from your images.
Now, let’s say you are editing or converting (reducing the video size) a video or an image on your Samsung phone.
The Gallery app first creates an invisible backup of the original file before giving you the edited or converted video or photo. The original file gets stored somewhere in your phone’s storage with no direct way to access it.
I tried shrinking a 6GB video to 2.5GB using Samsung’s built-in converter to save space, but One UI secretly kept the original 6GB file as an "invisible backup." If you do this with several large files, your storage vanishes into hidden backups you didn't even know existed. We need to fix this.
Whenever you wish to revert the edits, the Gallery app restores the original file from this invisible backup.
If you edit and convert videos frequently on your Samsung phone, these invisible backups keep building up silently in a hidden storage location.
Over time, you will see that your phone's storage is getting nearly full besides deleting large files.
If you find yourself in this situation, then you can clearly think of removing those invisible backups, created as a result of video editing and conversion.
Step-by-Step: How to Delete Invisible Photo and Video Backups on Samsung Android Phones
Here's a complete step-by-step guide on how to delete invisible backups on Samsung Android phone. This tutorial has been tested on Galaxy M35 5G running Android 16 and One UI 8.0.
Following this tutorial will significantly release more space on your phone.
-
Go to Settings > Device care > Storage or open the 'File Manager' app on your Samsung Android phone and tap 'Manage storage' option at the bottom of the screen.
-
Under 'Suggestions', tap 'View more' to get the option to access invisible backup.
- If you don't see this section, it means you haven't edited any photos recently or your phone has already cleared the temporary cache.
-
Tap 'Select files' under the section which mentions invisible backups of your pictures and videos.
Open invisible backups in Samsung File Manager - You will now be able to see the original backup files here with their original file size.
- If you do not wish to keep these backups, then simply select all the files or the ones that you wish to delete, and then tap the 'Delete' button.
-
A popup will open, asking you for permanent deletion confirmation. Tap 'Delete' to delete those invisible backups.
Samsung invisible backup delete confirmation screenshot -
If you wish to share or save images/photos from here, then tap the desired image/photo with a double ended arrow.
This will open the image/photo with a share button. Tap the 'Share' button to share the image/photo via Quick Share, Bluetooth, WhatsApp, etc.
How to Restore Original Photos and Videos From the Invisible Backups
At times, you may feel the need to restore your original photos and videos from the invisible backups.
Let's say you edited a video on your Samsung phone and applied several cuts, filter effects, text overlays, and emoticons, and saved it.
The Gallery app creates an invisible backup of the original image/video file in this case for you to restore it later.
However, please note that restoring to original files will remove the edited photos and videos.
- Open the Samsung Gallery app, and tap the photo or video that you previously edited and now wish to restore to original.
- Once the photo/video opens, tap the three vertical dots in the top right corner and tap 'Revert to original.'
Reverting edited photos and videos to their original versions in Samsung Gallery - Your edited version of the photo/video will be deleted, and the original file will be restored.
How to Get Original Photos and Videos Back Even After Deleting the Edited Version
Usually, when you delete an edited photo or video from your Samsung Gallery and empty the Recycle Bin, the "Revert to original" button disappears. Since the edited file no longer exists, it feels like the original version is gone forever because the link between the two files gets broken.
But here is a pro-tip: Deleting the edited file doesn’t automatically delete the original invisible backup. These original files often stay hidden in your phone's storage as "orphaned data" until you manually clear them.
If you accidentally deleted an edited photo and want the original back, you can use this trick to recover that hidden data.
How to Recover Original Images, Photos, and Videos
Simply head to the invisible backup location on your Samsung phone. Here, you will see all the invisible backups of your photos and images. These are the original, unedited versions of your media.
Just tap any photo icon featuring a double-ended arrow. This will open the image with a "Share" icon visible on the screen. You can then share it using Quick Share, Bluetooth, or any other sharing option such as WhatsApp.
Note: This method works only for sharing photos and doesn't allow you to move or copy the files directly from the invisible backup location to your DCIM folder or an external drive.
How to Copy or Move Original Files to a Different Storage Location
- Open Samsung File Manager, tap the three vertical dots in the top right corner, and select Settings.
- In Settings, tap Edit menu layout and ensure Recent files is enabled. Go back to the main screen.
- If 'Recent files' option is not enable then this recovery trick will not work.
- Navigate to the invisible backups storage location as I have taught you.
- Here, you will see all the original backups of your photos and videos.
- One by one, open all the files. Open one file, close it, and then open the next. This registers the files in Android file manager's recent files location.
- Once finished, go back to the main screen and tap the ">" (greater than) icon next to Recent files.
- You will now see all the original backups in the Recent files section, where they can be shared via Quick Share, Bluetooth, or WhatsApp.
- For Videos: Do not tap to open them. Instead, long-press the file to reveal the Share option. I suggest using Quick Share for large files.
- It is important to note that the Move and Copy options do not work for these specific backup files; attempting to force this will result in an error.
- Once you share the original files to a different device using Quick Share, you gain full control. You can then move or copy those files back to your phone's DCIM folder.
Here's a detailed tutorial to share the invisible original backsups of image/photo and videos via Quick Share.
| Feature / Action | Invisible Backup Behavior |
|---|---|
| Editing a Photo | Original is hidden; the "Revert" button remains active in the Gallery app. |
| Deleting Edited Photo | Original stays in hidden storage as "orphaned data" and continues to occupy space. |
| Deleting Invisible Backup | The "Revert" option disappears, and storage space is permanently reclaimed. Original backups get deleted. |
| Sharing Backups | Possible for Photos and Video via the "Recent Files" trick. |
What Are Pending Files on Samsung Galaxy Phones and How Do They Differ From Invisible Backups?
By now, you’re an expert on invisible backups, but you might have noticed another storage-hogging category in your settings: Pending files.
Think of Pending files as "digital leftovers." These are bits and pieces of a task that your phone started but never actually finished. Have you ever tried to download a large file in your browser only for the Wi-Fi to cut out?
Or perhaps you were uploading a high-res video to the cloud and the app crashed mid-way? One interesting fact here to note: WhatsApp files from your chats are also treated as 'Pending Files,' even though they weren't incomplete at all in my case.
Instead of just going away, these half-finished files get stuck on your phone. They sit there taking up space, waiting for a download to finish that will never actually happen.
The Key Difference Between Pending Files and Invisible Backups
While invisible backups are completed, permanent copies of your photos kept specifically for the "Revert to original" feature, pending files are just broken fragments from interrupted tasks and almost all files from your WhatsApp folder.
They serve no purpose (except WhatsApp files) once the process has failed—they are essentially just cluttering up your internal storage and can be safely removed.
Can You Delete Pending Files At Once From The Device Care
Unlike invisible backups, Samsung doesn’t actually give you a "Delete All" button for pending files. It’s frustrating, but there is no direct way to wipe them out in one tap like you can with photo backups.
Instead, you have to play detective, find where they are hiding, and delete them manually.
You can try heading to Settings > Device Care > Storage. Under the 'Storage' file categories, tap 'Show more' and look for a category called "Other Files." Tap it and you'll see "Pending Files" listed there, you can long-press a file and check "Details" to see its exact folder path. Once you know where it’s living, you can navigate there in your File Manager and trash it.
If you’re staring at a massive list of these files, doing this one-by-one is a nightmare. In that case, your best bet is to grab a solid, well-reviewed junk data/cache cleaner from the Play Store to see if it can sweep them up for you.
When I dug deep into this, I found that most of the 'Pending Files' were files from the WhatsApp folder. Almost all of the photos, videos and audios that I had shared on WhatsApp were visible under pending files.
So, I didn't bother clearing them one by one. I just headed to WhatsApp folder and deleted files that I no longer required. I used the Samsung file manager for this and deleted them all at once and also cleared the 'Recycle Bin' to totally free up the phone's storage space. I actually reclaimed approximately 2.5GB on my phone's storage space after deleting files from the WhatsApp folder.
Unfinished downloads are almost always tagged with the word "pending" in the file name. If you look in your Downloads folder, you’ll see things like .pending-123-filename. File name can be anything, but since the "pending" keyword is always there, you can easily spot these broken files and delete them yourself.
Should You Actually Delete Pending Files?
Short answer: Yes, immediately. These files are completely corrupt and useless (except WhatsApp files). More importantly, they eat up way more space than you’d think. I actually tested this myself to see how bad it gets.
I started downloading a 4GB file and intentionally disconnected my Wi-Fi after only 100MB had finished. Even though I only downloaded a tiny fraction of the data, One UI reported the file size as 2.91GB!
I’m not sure if this is just a weird file size calculation bug in One UI or if the system "reserves" the space ahead of time, but my available storage dropped by 3GB instantly.
As soon as I manually deleted that pending file (had a .pending label in its file name), I got all that space back. If you’ve had a few failed downloads recently, you could be sitting on gigabytes of "ghost" data without realizing it. So, deleting them is always advisable.
FAQ - Samsung Invisible Backups
Check the most common frequently asked questions about Samsung invisible backups below.
Q1. What happens if I delete invisible backups on Android?
If you ever delete the invisible backups of your photos and videos on your Samsung phone, then you will never be able to restore your photos and videos to their original version. Only delete the invisible backups if you no longer need them.
Q2. Is it safe to delete invisible backups on Samsung Android phones?
Yes, it is pretty safe to delete invisible backups on Samsung Android phones if you don't want the original files anymore.
Q3. Where can you find the Samsung invisible backups location?
The Gallery app stores the invisible backups to /data/sec/photoeditor/0, which is a protected system directory. You can't access this directory without root access or ADB tools. Due to Android restrictions, this directory is restricted to system apps only.
You don't need to access this restricted directory as our trick to restore the original files is working even when you delete the edited files.
Q4. Will deleting invisible backups delete photos?
Yes, deleting invisible backups will delete the original photos (not the edited ones). Invisible backups only exist for photos that you edited previously.
The backup remains there so that you can restore the edited photo to its original version. If you delete the invisible backups of photos then you won't be able to restore the edited photo to original version.
Also, deleting the edited photos will not remove or delete the invisible photo backups. You can still share these backed up images using Quick Share, Bluetooth, WhatsApp etc.
Conclusion
Deleting invisible backups on Samsung Android phones is a useful step if you are running out of storage space.
If you frequently edit or convert photos and videos on your Samsung phone, these invisible backups are created automatically and can slowly consume a large portion of your internal storage without you even noticing.
If you no longer need the original versions of your edited photos or videos, removing these invisible backups can free up a significant amount of space.
However, if you think you may need the original files later, it is always a good idea to keep the backups or transfer them to another storage device before deleting them. I have explained the restoration process in detail above so that you can decide what works best for your needs.
If you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it with your friends or family members who use Samsung phones and may be facing similar storage issues. Thank you for reading 🙂.
%20Games%20on%20Android%20and%20PC.webp)
No comments:
Post a Comment