My Ex-boyfriend Still Has Pictures Of Me On His Phone

If you’re wondering what it means when your ex-boyfriend still has pictures of you on his phone, it usually means one of three things. Your ex either forgot that he has pictures of you, doesn’t care that he has them, or wants to keep them to remember you.

Whatever it is, he likely won’t keep pictures of you on his phone forever. If he treasures the time he had with you, he’ll probably move them to another device or upload them to the cloud and delete them later. But if he’s not the sentimental type, then he’ll likely delete them or lose them when his phone gets to the end of its life cycle.

An ex-boyfriend who still has pictures of you likely isn’t leaving the door open to return at a later stage. He probably just doesn’t want to make any sudden drastic decisions right now. He just wants to move forward with his life and distract himself from the past.

I suppose his intentions depend on two things. On whether he’s the dumpee or the dumper and how much time has passed since the breakup.

If he’s the dumper and the breakup happened like a month ago, your ex is probably in no hurry to erase you from his life. He’s got plenty of time to do that—especially if he’s a calm and rational person.

But if he’s a dumpee and it’s been months since the breakup occurred, then he’s probably just too lazy to delete them. For him to delete them instantly, he’d have to have a lot of hatred for you.

So much hatred that he wouldn’t be able to control himself and would need to remove you from his life to feel better.

So if you’re wondering why your ex-boyfriend still has pictures of you on his phone or social media such as Facebook and Instagram, bear in mind that your ex doesn’t think that deleting pictures of you will help him. He feels perfectly fine having those pictures on his phone and will likely keep them on his device for a while longer.

The topic of this article is “My boyfriend still has pictures of me on his phone.” We’ll talk about various reasons why your ex would keep pictures of you and what you should do if you’re not happy with it.

Why does my ex-boyfriend still have pictures of me on his phone?

Whether you’re the dumpee or the dumper, you need to know that you shouldn’t have kept talking to your ex and meeting up with him. You should have started no contact instead and left your ex alone for a while. I can’t say how long you should have left your ex be, but if you were in a long-term relationship with your ex, you needed to stop communicating for at least half a year.

The person who did the dumping should have understood the other person’s need to heal and the one who got dumped should have respected the terms of the breakup and pulled away. This is how the dumpee would have gotten out of denial and regained self-esteem and the dumper dealt with relief and improved his or her perceptions of the dumpee.

It’d have been a win-win for both of you.

But because you didn’t follow the rules of no contact and listened to your hearts instead, you’re now stuck emotionally close to your ex and permitting your ex to keep pictures of you. I’m not saying it’s entirely your fault, but your ex probably considers you a friend or someone he wants to think fondly of in the future.

He doesn’t want to delete pictures of you because you’re still very close to him. You still matter to him, so he doesn’t want to lose you completely. If you dumped him, he probably has hope that you’ll give him another chance. And if he dumped you, he wants to cherish the past and keep you around as a friend.

So if your ex-boyfriend still has pictures of you on his phone or anywhere online, don’t immediately assume that your ex wants you back. It’s possible that he does if he’s a dumpee, but it’s also possible that he just doesn’t feel the need to remove the pictures right away.

He’ll remove them when he:

• starts dating someone else
• stops talking to you
• gets over you
• or accidentally comes across them months or years later

It’s impossible to predict when and if your ex will delete them. But it’s much more likely that he’ll remove them if he finds someone else and stops talking to you. And that’s because he’ll focus on the new person instead of you and won’t have a reason to hold on to the past anymore.

He’ll have the new person to focus on and that person may even make him feel guilty for keeping pictures of an ex.

What does it mean when your ex still has pictures of you?

Whether your ex keeps pictures of you or deletes them, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that your ex either loves you or hates you. It’s not that black and white. There’s still that grey area in between that could mean your ex neither likes you nor dislikes you.

Your ex could just be indifferent about you and have no secret feelings or plans for you. Some people like to think that there’s an explanation behind every action and inaction—and that’s probably true. But in your case, that explanation may not have anything to do with you.

It could have everything to do with your ex’s lack of initiative and the needlessness to remove your pictures.

So if you’re wondering what it means when your ex still has pictures of you, keep in mind that your ex might not be in a rush to remove them. He might not want to remove them at all because he has nothing against you or to gain by removing them.

For your ex to benefit from removing your pictures, your ex would have to have a lot of problems with you. He would have to be angry, uncomfortable, or heartbroken and delete those pictures to heal or move on quicker.

The picture below explains what it means when your ex still has pictures of you.

What to do when your ex still has pictures of you?

When your ex still has pictures of you, you need to think about whether your ex’s pictures are appropriate or not.

If they are appropriate and you have a new boyfriend who’s okay with them, you don’t have to ask your ex to delete the pictures he has of you. You just can consider them a respectful gesture and let your ex do whatever he wants with them.

But if the pictures your ex has of you bother you or threaten your new partner, then you’ll have to do something about them. You’ll have to ask your ex to remove them because doing so will give you and/or your partner peace of mind.

In my opinion, there are some pictures you can and possibly should ask your ex to delete from his phone. But before you do that, keep in mind that there’s a time and a place to do that. And that time isn’t when your ex feels hurt and rejected.

It’s when you know your ex won’t get hurt by your request because your ex has made emotional progress.

If your ex is receptive, by all means, talk to your ex about it right after the breakup. It’s best to get it out of the way as soon as possible. But if you can’t communicate calmly and efficiently, then you may want to wait a bit. Wait until your ex has gotten through the storm and then ask your ex to delete those pictures.

Say that you don’t mean to hurt him, but that you’d appreciate it a lot if he would remove certain pictures of you so you don’t have to worry about them.

If you don’t know what pictures your ex should keep and remove, the picture below may help.

If your ex has random, harmless pictures of you on his phone or social media, you may not have to ask him to delete them at all. Those pictures won’t mean much to him nor hint anything to you, so it’s safe to let your ex decide what to do with them.

But if your ex has your private pictures or pictures of your children, ask him to delete them. Do it so you can sleep peacefully.

What if my ex refuses to delete pictures?

If your ex doesn’t want to delete the pictures you want him to delete, you probably came on too strong. You asked him to delete pictures of you before he was ready to do so and made him angry. Angry because you tried to control him and tell him what to do.

If you want your ex to delete your pictures so you can move on, don’t threaten or get angry with your ex. Keep in mind that he’s hurt by the breakup and your “demanding” approach and that he’ll delete those pictures once he’s cooled off and stopped feeling victimized.

That’s when he’ll get over the rejection and happily delete pictures of you off his phone. He’ll do it because he’ll want to cut all ties with you.

The best way to encourage your ex to delete pictures of you after he’s refused to do so is to let it be your ex’s idea. Let him do what he wants for a while and he’ll soon stop feeling emotional and do what’s best for him – not you.

Why I waited before I removed pictures of my exes?

Before I started studying breakups, I went through a few breakups and I’d like to let you know how I reacted to them. It might provide you with a better understanding of a guy’s mind during no contact.

The first time I was dumped, I was in a lot of pain. I couldn’t eat or sleep and would occasionally look at pictures of my ex. Doing so gave me the strength to keep going and hope that my ex would one day come back to me.

Because I was hurt, I kept pictures of my ex for about 6 months until I detached and decided I needed to stop doing things that gave me hope. A few prior months to that, I stopped watching hope-instilling Youtube videos and now, it was time to let go of the pictures of my ex as well.

I needed to focus on myself and enjoy my life. This is why I deleted everything I had of my ex and stopped myself from obsessively thinking about my ex.

When I did the dumping, however, I felt no anger or contempt for my ex. I was disappointed about certain things she said and did, but I didn’t brutally cut her off. I didn’t like her romantically but I still respected her as a human being, so I didn’t delete pictures of her right away.

I waited about 4 months or so until I decided it was time to delete them. In all honesty, keeping them made me feel a bit uncomfortable as it reminded me of her characteristics and the associations I linked to her.

As for the person I broke up with after this girl, it probably took me 4 or 5 months to delete her pictures. She was the only ex I wanted to hear from once in a while, so I delayed deleting her pictures. I deleted her pictures only when I met someone new.

I thought that keeping them was unfair to my new partner, so I removed them when I opened my pictures folder and saw that I hadn’t deleted her pictures yet.

To conclude, the three reasons I kept pictures of my exes were:

1. I wasn’t over my ex and wanted her back.
2. I forgot to delete them and felt uncomfortable keeping them.
3. I didn’t want to delete all reminders of her but decided it was the right thing to do because I’d met someone new.

Are you still wondering why your ex-boyfriend still has pictures of you on his phone? Does it make you curious, give you hope, or make you uncomfortable? Comment below.

And also, if you’d like to talk to us about your ex 1-on-1, visit our coaching page to learn more.

Zan

My name is Zan and I’m the founder of Magnet of Success. I enjoy writing realistic relationship and breakup articles and helping readers heal and grow. With more than 5 years of experience in the self-improvement, relationship, and breakup sphere, my goal is to provide advice that fosters positivity and success and avoids preventable mistakes and pain. Buy me a coffee, learn more about me, or get in touch today.