The Android operating system integrates really well with all of Google’s services including Gmail, Drive and even Picasa. By default, Google will sync your Picasa Web Albums to your Android device’s Gallery app. By stopping this process, you will have a more organized and orderly Gallery app.
The Gallery app on Android lets you view all photos and videos on your device. Additionally, it will also sync your photos from popular social media networks including Picasa web albums, Facebook photos and Dropbox. If you prefer only seeing the photos and videos actually on your phone in the Gallery app, we will need to disable the sync process and clear this data so the Gallery app removes the previously synced photos.
This tutorial assumes you have already setup your Google account on your Android device. These steps should work on all versions of Android; however, the menu icons may differ in appearance. In my example below, the device used is a Galaxy Note 2 with Jellybean 4.1.2.
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1. Go to Settings > Accounts
2. Select your Google account, then tap on your Google account name to change your sync settings.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and uncheck the Sync Picasa Web albums option.
4. Go back into Settings > Application Manager or Apps or Applications. This will depend on your Android configuration and version.
5. Go to Applications > All
6. Scroll down and find Gallery and select it.
7. Tap on both the Clear Data and Clear Cache options. This will reset the cache and also clear the previously synced Picasa web albums from the Gallery app.
8. Go back to your Gallery app. You will notice that just your local photos and videos are listed.
9. If you Dropbox or Facebook media appears in the Gallery application, you can also do the same thing with your Facebook or Dropbox accounts. Go into your Facebook/Dropbox account in Settings > Accounts and then uncheck the appropriate sync photos options. Once you do that, you will again need to clear the cache and data on the Gallery app via steps 4-7 again.
