How To Remove Your Pictures from Magnetic Photo Albums
Whether you call them magnetic photo albums or sticky albums, if you are over the age of 40, you have encountered these ubiquitous photo albums from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The plastic page covers and the slightly sticky pages promised to hold your precious photos in place like a magnet (hence the name).
The problem is that now that we are in the 2020s, these so-called magnetic photo albums are eating away at our pictures, and when we try to remove the photos, they are often stuck in place. Talk about frustrating!
Magnetic Photo Albums: Get Them Out
Why is it important to get our pictures out of these old albums? These so-called magnetic albums contain an acidic adhesive that is bad for your pictures. You can see this in the yellowing on the pages.
In some severe cases, you can even see the lines of the adhesive coming through the picture. This acidic adhesive is slowly eating away at the back of your pictures, while the plastic page cover is trapping the acidic fumes from this chemical reaction and damaging the front of your pictures. Photo organizers call this a chemical sandwich.
Who knew so much was happening in those books on your living room shelves?
Stuck On It
One huge problem with the removal of your pictures from the magnetic photo pages is the adhesive. Most likely, you will find you have one of three scenarios:
1) When you pull back the plastic covering, your photos just fall off the page. If this happens, you have won the photo organizing lottery. And it’s time to celebrate!
2) When you pull back the plastic covering, your photos are stuck but a slight tug suggests they will come off with a little persuasion.
3) When you pull back the plastic covering, your photos are stuck like glue to the page. This often happens when an album has been exposed to high humidity and/or temperatures.
If you are lucky enough to have fallen under #1, count your blessings, remove your photos, and proceed to the Next Steps section below.
If you are #2 or #3, there are a few things you can do to fix the situation.
Fix the Problem of Magnetic Photo Albums
What can you do with those semi-stuck and super-stuck pages? There are a few different methods you can try. If one doesn’t work, try the next.
Before you even start to remove the photos, consider if you are going to be scanning these photos. If so, you can start by scanning the entire page as-is on a flatbed scanner. You can then use photo editing software to separate the pictures into individual images.
Afterward, you can decide if you want to take the time and effort to remove the pictures. If the answer is no, you can leave the album as-is. If the answer is yes, continue reading. Remember to be gentle with your photos. Too much of any of these techniques can easily damage your pictures. And be sure to wear cotton or nitrile gloves to protect the photos from the oils on your hands.
Dental Floss
Use waxed dental floss to remove the pictures. Grasp your dental floss just like you would if you were going to floss your teeth. Work the flattened floss under a corner of the picture using a side-to-side sawing motion. Once you’ve gotten under the corner, continue to saw gently back and forth until the photo comes loose. Depending on the strength of the adhesive, this may take time and patience.
You can also use a small flat craft spatula made for vinyl crafts to help gently pry up the picture. Be careful because you can easily rip the picture if you push or pull too hard. Do NOT use anything sharp like a razor blade. You are more likely to slice your photo (or your finger) than remove it.
Adhesive Remover
You can use an adhesive remover like Un-du to help loosen up your photos but do so sparingly.
Hair dryer
Some experts recommend using a hair dryer on stubborn pages. Set the hairdryer to the low or warm setting and sweep the hairdryer over the picture. Don’t get too close, or you might melt the front of the picture. This may loosen the adhesive enough that you can go back and use the dental floss trick.
Bonus Pro Tip
Only remove the photos you really want to keep. Tossing the blurry ones or ones where you cut off everyone’s head is fine. I have albums from trips with lots of photos of buildings and landscapes but no people, none of which mean much to me now. When I disassemble them, I only will take the time to rescue the photos I truly love and want to preserve.
Next Steps
Once you get your photos out of the magnetic photo albums, what should you do?
If some adhesive residue remains on the back of the photos, use a rubber cement eraser to rub off the remnants. If there is a sticky spot on the back of the photo that you can’t remove, place a piece of photo-safe paper on the back to keep it from sticking to other photos.
Gently dust your photos to remove dust and grit.
Scan your photos for sharing, displaying, and long-term storage. You can do this yourself, use a local or mail-away company (like Forever or Charter Oak Scanning) or contact a photo organizer like me who provides white-glove, customized scanning services.
Store your photos safely in a good photo-safe/archival quality photo box or photo album from reputable companies like Archival Methods and Gaylord Archival.
Peeling your photos out of these magnetic photo albums can be a real pain, but in the end, you’ll be glad you did. And you can take a walk down memory lane while you do it, so it’s a win-win.
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I think I’d rather scan the full pages than risk destroying my photos trying to remove them.
Wow! It’s a complex process to remove those photos from the magnetic pages. I always cringe when I encounter them. At least now you’ve given some great ideas for the best way to handle them. I guess that ultimately, just like with our digital photos, not all actual printed photos are worth saving. So having to dental floss off the page the ones that are might not be so bad.
I think most of my parent’s albums are of this type. I think simply scanning the whole page is the easiest option, but then there is more work on the back end. Dental floss is a terrific idea. My mother is a dental hygienist, and she will get a kick out of hearing of another great use for one of her favorite tools!
Can the pages with the glue residue from ‘magnetic albums’ be recycled as cardboard/paper?
I don’t know 100%, but I would say because of the adhesive and chemicals used for the “magnetic albums” that the paper is not recyclable.
Thanks!. Just took an Italy trip from 1984 out of these albums. Luckily they “fell off” so putting them in a new album. Appreciate the question and answer re recycling them. Makes sense.
Please show what other type of album you recommend.
I am sitting at the computer ready to order the magnetic style when I came across these articles.
June 5, 2020 [email protected]
Please show or list another type of photo album to replace magnetic ones.
I sit here about to order album for pics larger than 4×6″.
I have recreated several albums using products like these archival sleeves that come in a variety of sizes (https://amzn.to/2YfxAWL). Also Archival Methods (https://www.archivalmethods.com) and Gaylord Archival (https://www.gaylord.com) have a wide variety of products that would work for recreating albums. It’s just a matter of finding something that works for your size and shape of photos.
[…] dental floss or Teflon floss for removing photos from old magnetic […]
Hi Andi,
If I remove the plastic film and then scan the whole album page on a flatbed scanner, will I get sticky residue on my scanner? If so, how can I avoid this?
More than likely you will be fine. The photos sit on the surface of the adhesive and will lift the page just slightly off the scanner glass. If it’s super gummy (which I’ve never come across), camera scanning would be a better option.
Camera scanning, i.e. photocopying with digital camera is the simple and easy way to copy. The trick is to have soft, even copy lighting with the correct color temperature. I use two 5000 Kelvin LED lights bounced off reflectors (white poster board).
I used this technique today based on this article.
— First used hair dryer on hot/high setting with the flat, focused airflow attachment.
— Moved quickly back and forth across the picture for about 15-20 seconds.
— After heating, gently lifted up one/two edges with sharp paring knife.
— Inserted waxed dental floss under one edge and moved under photo to the next open edge.
— Pulled floss gently and steadily under the photo. Careful not to slice the edge of the photo by lifting up on the floss.
— Most times, the floss went through smoothly. Sometimes had to stop and reheat the photo.
— Placed photos between pages of a heavy book as I removed them to flatten back down, assuming no adhesive left on photo.
Worked perfectly.
Once the photos are removed from the magnetic albums there is still some “dust/debris” (not sticky) left on the back of the photos. Should the backs be cleans somehow? Wondering about more deteriorating from the residue even in archive safe albums. Does this defeat the purpose of the moving the photos to these new “safe” albums?
I would love to know if you received an answer to this questions.
Thank you!
You can use an artist’s eraser (rubber cement eraser like this one https://amzn.to/3NfSb7E) to remove the residue on the back of the photos. A small amount of residue is far safer for your photos than leaving them in the old albums.
I’m adding this blog post to my Photo & Memorabilia Resource Roundup. Thanks, Andi!
Great tips. We just inherited a lifetime of albums from my in-laws with the passing of my husband’s father, so I will be putting this knowledge to use!
We had a lot of these albums in my house, which I believe my mom dismantled, but I still have two of my own, dating back to the early 80s. This is great advice!
[…] In the meantime, if you are wondering what to do what your old magnetic photo albums (you know, the ones with the sticky pages that were popular in the 70s, 80s, and 90s…) check out this post from my friend and fellow organizer Andi Willis. […]
[…] How To Remove Your Pictures from Magnetic Photo Albums […]