Tips to Remove Stuck Photos

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I have been working on a large scanning project.  I’ve been removing photos from old magnetic photo albums and then scanning the photos.  Magnetic albums? You remember these…the ones with the sticky pages with the plastic sheets that cover the pictures.  Not only are these the worst albums for your pictures, depending on how they have been stored, it can be impossible to remove the photos.

So for the past two days I have tried a few methods.  If you have had this problem, here are a few things that you can try…

1. Spatula Tool

Spatula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This spatula tool can be used to slide underneath the photo and try to loosen the photo. It can work successfully if the picture isn’t that stuck. But if the photo is really stuck, you run the risk of ruining the photo. It also bends easily so that can be a little frustrating.

2. Freezing
I saw a tip online that suggested freezing the pages to loosen the glue. Nope, don’t do this! Not only did it not work for me, I didn’t like the moisture that quickly appeared on the photos. The moisture could also cause more damage.

3. Dental Floss
Yep, you heard me right. Many people swear by unwaxed dental floss for removing photos.  Get the floss in between the photo and the sticky cardboard and use a sawing action to break the photo free. While this method did work, it was too easy to ruin the photo. The floss sometimes sliced into the photos. So I abandoned this method.

4. Hairdryer
I remembered a trick I often use to get off those “hard to get off” stickers on containers. Just run a hairdryer over the sticker to warm up the glue. This proved to be an excellent method for removal.  I didn’t need to use it on all the photos but for those stubborn photos, it worked perfectly.  I didn’t find that the heat affected the photo as the photos were only exposed to the heat for 15-20 seconds.

Although I still had a few photos that didn’t respond to any of the methods, they were stubbornly adhered to the cardboard.  In those cases, I just scanned the entire page and then cropped the photos to the appropriate size.  But this slowed me down and I tried to avoid this.

I would love to hear about your tricks.  Leave me comment if you’ve got any other ideas.