Bad UX in Gallery app: easy to accidentally delete a picture
- /e/ version: 0.9-o-2020051454222-dev-angler
- Device model: Nexus 6P
- When it started to occur: first encountered (by accident) 2020-06-05
- Reproducible with the last /e/ version: yes
- Reproducible with LineageOS: not tested
Summary
The Gallery app can delete pictures accidentally when viewing an Album. Swiping a picture vertically causes it to be deleted with no warning and no request for confirmation.
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The device is unusable -
The bug is the source of a data loss or a big waste of time -
The bug concerns a third party app -
The bug concerns security -
The bug concerns privacy
The problem
Steps to reproduce
- Use OpenCamera to take some pictures you don't care about.
- Tap the Home button, then tap on the Gallery app.
- Activate the Album view and tap on the OpenCamera album.
- Tap on one of the pictures you don't want to keep.
- Pinch zoom to shrink the picture so that adjacent pictures are partially visible.
- Swipe the picture vertically. It will disappear, never to be seen again.
What is the current behavior?
As described in step 6 above, the picture is removed from the album and apparently completely and unrecoverably deleted.
What is the expected correct behavior?
Swiping vertically is easy to do accidentally; or a naive user (like me) may try it to see what happens, expecting (perhaps) to switch albums or something.
It should not be so easy to unrecoverably delete a picture without warning or confirmation. One reasonable alternative would be to notify the user the picture will be deleted and ask for confirmation. Another would be to move it to a collection of "scrap pile" images, from which the user can either recover it or permanently delete it. For this alternative, there should be a visual indication (perhaps show tiny thumbnails of pictures in the "scrap pile" collection, with the deleted picture at the beginning).
Gallery is one of the default apps in /e/. It should be easy and intuitive to use, and bring joy to the user. I did not feel joy when I accidentally deleted a picture I wanted to keep.
Technical informations
Relevant logs (adb logcat
)
Log is not relevant.
Relevant screenshots
Solutions
Workaround
There is no obvious workaround other than to be careful not to swipe vertically.
Possible fixes
Easy fix (probably): ask for user confirmation before deleting an image by swiping vertically.
More difficult fix: implement a "scrap pile" for images, from which they can be recovered or permanently deleted.