How the Trash works in DeDup 1.0.1 on iPhone

"Move to Trash" in DeDup 1.0.1 on iPhone doesn't remove anything from your Photos library. It puts the items on a list inside DeDup and hides them from DeDup's results. They stay visible in the Photos app until you delete them.

What Move to Trash does

DeDup saves a record for each item: its Photos ID, where you trashed it from, the time, and a copy of its details such as size and dates. It doesn't copy the photo. The code's comment gives the reason: iOS apps can't hide or move assets in the library.

The Trash screen says it too: "Trashed items are hidden from DeDup but still appear in the Photos app until deleted." Trashed items are also left out of the potential-savings figure.

You can move items to the Trash from the scanner results, the Large Videos, Screenshots and Blurry Photos lists, the assistant, and the photo views in the Files tab. The Trash groups them by where they came from. Guests can scan and review, but "Move to Trash", Restore and Delete need a signed-in account.

Restore

Select items in the Trash and tap "Restore". DeDup removes the record and the items show up in its results again. There's no iOS prompt, because nothing in Photos changed.

Delete permanently

Tap "Delete" on selected items, or "Empty Trash". DeDup asks "Delete N permanently?" and offers "Delete from Photos". It then asks Photos to delete them, and iOS shows its own confirmation. If you decline, the items stay in the Trash. If it goes through, the items leave the Trash and go to Recently Deleted, where the app's text says iOS keeps them 30 more days. The separate delete post covers that part.

Retention and auto-clear

In Settings, the Trash section has:

• Auto-Clear Trash, a switch that's on by default.
• Delete After, shown while auto-clear is on. The options are 30, 60, 90, 120 and 360 days, and the default is 30.
• Open Trash.

Each Trash item shows the days left before auto-clear. The count starts from the time you trashed it.

DeDup checks for expired items when the app opens and each time it becomes active again, and only if it can read your photo library. Expired items go through the same delete as above, so the iOS confirmation still applies. The Settings footer says so: "iOS asks you to confirm before anything is deleted." If auto-clear is off, items stay "until you delete them."

If an item was already deleted in the Photos app, it just drops off the Trash list.

Where to find the Trash

• Settings tab, Trash section, "Open Trash".
• The side menu, "Trash".
• The Optimize tab, "Trash". Its subtitle shows the item count and size, or "Restore or permanently delete removed items" when it's empty.

Scope of this post

Checked against: DeDup 1.0.1 source code (iPhone).

Not tested on a device: the iOS confirmation prompt when auto-clear runs, what happens to expired items if you decline it, and how the Trash behaves across app updates. I read the code and on-screen text only.