Files on phone are invisible in Windows

[muddlemand]

Deleting what I said here on Tuesday evening as I don't think it made sense. (Hey, that would explain why no one had an answer.)

Instead, I can give an update. I finally got my pictures and videos onto my laptop using AirDroid - I'd forgotten about AirMirror, thank you @MoodyBlues for reminding me of that method. (The other difficulty was that connecting the phone via USB kept failing.)

I was able to batch rename all the "leftover" images beginning with ".", with a little android app called Rename Photos and Videos (by Maximilian Schilinger) for £1.19, much better than renaming them one at a time. This meant I could deal with them in Windows, thank goodness. (Not sure why that app doesn't work for all kinds of files, but for now I don't care.)

Then once I was sure they'd all downloaded intact, I deleted from the phone - cleared more than a GB which is great, as I was constantly running out of space.

 

[muddlemand]

I do still have a question: I thought I'd deleted a lot of images in error - couldn't see them, because they weren't there. Then I found they each had an "equivalent" hidden file (beginning with "."), and those definitely were there. By renaming I unhid them, thus rescuing my mistakenly deleted files. What's the point of deleting files if this doesn't delete them, but only get makes them hidden? (It would explain why deleting didn't free up the space as expected.)

I'm sure I'm missing something here!

 

[MoodyBlues]

I was able to batch rename all the "leftover" images beginning with ".", with a little android app called Rename Photos and Videos (by Maximilian Schilinger) for £1.19, much better than renaming them one at a time.

Guess what? On Linux, just using its built-in commands, we've been able to do that--and MUCH more--for decades.

Regardless, I'm glad you got it done.

What's the point of deleting files if this doesn't delete them, but only get makes them hidden?

Under normal circumstances, that isn't how it works. In fact, in my 30+ years of using *nix, yours is the first and only case I've ever heard of where this happened.

I'm too lazy to refresh my memory right now by re-reading this thread, so my guess may be completely off-base. What I'm guessing is that whatever method you used to 'delete' them has an option to move files to a holding place until X happens. X could be a user action, like emptying a trashcan, or X could be a user-configurable number of days to keep files before actually deleting them. In this case, its holding method involves making files hidden [by prefixing their names with a dot]. Then, when the user undeletes them, the dots are removed, and the files are returned to their original names and locations.

Like I said, just a guess. Knowing how logical Linux is, what happened to your files simply couldn't have happened on its own.

 

[muddlemand]

Guess what? On Linux, just using its built-in commands, we've been able to do that--and MUCH more--for decades.

I believe you!

What I'm guessing is that whatever method you used to 'delete' them has an option to move files to a holding place until X happens. X could be a user action, like emptying a trashcan, or X could be a user-configurable number of days to keep files before actually deleting them. In this case, its holding method involves making files hidden [by prefixing their names with a dot]. Then, when the user undeletes them, the dots are removed, and the files are returned to their original names and locations.

Yeah, somewhere the system thought that's what I told it to do. I did delete from trash - but I have since wondered if those "." mirror files (if that's the way to refer to them) are always there, and I deleted the "real" files without their mirrors. Seems silly to duplicate everything like that, but it's another theory.

Never mind, I seem to have rescued things thank goodness. Also learnt a bit - and been converted to Linux for some future date when I have the leisure to play with it.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I believe you!
...
Also learnt a bit - and been converted to Linux for some future date when I have the leisure to play with it.

That makes me happy! But what's even better is how happy it'll make you once you've done it.

Just for an idea of the built-in power of Linux, please read the first post in what turned into our Linux mega-thread.

In it, I explain how to replace spaces in filenames, like:
This Is A File

with underscores:
This_Is_A_File

(Spaces in filenames, while always allowed in *nix, aren't desirable for assorted reasons.)

As you read the code, keep in mind I'm strictly using commands that come standard with virtually all UNIX/Linux systems. There's no app to buy, nothing to search for online, just built-in tools.

I wouldn't expect you to plunge in and know how to write a script like that; that's not my point. The point is that not only is Linux more secure, stable, and beautiful (as in infinitely customizable) than window$, its built-in tools put window$ to shame.