Google fixes Photos bug that removed the handy drag-to-select feature

Aug 12, 2026 — 2:11 AM ET

• Google has fixed the drag-to-select bug in Google Photos.
• Users can now easily select photos and videos by dragging their finger over the items.

The Google Photos app comes with a lot of useful features. You can use it to edit your photos, create collages, and more. However, one of its most basic and useful features recently stopped working for many.

Several Google Photos users took to Reddit to report a bug that wouldn’t let them drag-to-select photos and videos in the app. Shortly after, Google confirmed it was working on a fix.

Well, if you’ve been waiting for “drag to select” to work again, Google finally has some good news to share. The company has rolled out a fix that resolves the bug. You can update the Google Photos app from the Play Store, and “drag to select” should be fixed. We have tested it on several of our devices and can confirm that drag-to-select functionality is working as expected.

The problem was affecting Pixel devices as well as several Samsung and OnePlus phones. Users would long-press on a photo, but dragging their finger to select multiple photos would simply scroll the screen up or down. Fortunately, users could still select multiple photos by tapping them individually. However, tapping repeatedly on photos is a much more time-consuming process than simply dragging to select.

Now that the functionality is restored, users can go back to easily selecting multiple items in their libraries. The only good thing to come out of this whole situation is that some users reportedly only found out about drag-to-select because they saw reports that it stopped working. Silver lining and all that, you know?