Gallery org too visual/not enough deletion safeguards

[e_canuck]

Had a hell of a time last night when we got home recovering all the photos from my Nexus 4 phone (OS Kitkat.) Have always found the way the Androids display pics in the Gallery confusing and when I tried to delete one picture of my thumb shot by accident, the system deleted my entire camera folder contents without warning me this was about to happen. It just said "one item selected" and displayed the trash bin without alerting me that was the whole camera folder, not just the accidental picture that was at that moment representing the whole damn works. I hate all this visual system stuff-- to me, folders and files with various views I can select, including picture thumbnails, like on the PC, are much more intuitive. I would never have made a mistake like deleting all the raw images in a folder on the PC.

Recovered everything up to the beginning of Feb from my backup-- after trying lots of useless programs that promised to sync with phone from the PC and recover deleted files. Followed all the complex directions for USB debug enabling and none could connect to my phone via USB cable.

Really regret that I turned off nightly phone backup before our trip to San Fran Jan 40 out of concern over accidental roaming data, and didn't turn it back on when we got home. Only now is Wind Mobile offering US roaming packages that include unlimited data. I could have switched on backup via WiFi only, but at $1/mb while away was being careful.

Will also have to use the cable more often to move stuff to the PC for backup. You can get a little too lazy and dependent on wireless everything, which may not always cut it.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Had a hell of a time last night when we got home recovering all the photos from my Nexus 4 phone (OS Kitkat.) Have always found the way the Androids display pics in the Gallery confusing and when I tried to delete one picture of my thumb shot by accident, the system deleted my entire camera folder contents without warning me this was about to happen. It just said "one item selected" and displayed the trash bin without alerting me that was the whole camera folder, not just the accidental picture that was at that moment representing the whole damn works.

Ouch. Sorry that happened.

I hate all this visual system stuff-- to me, folders and files with various views I can select, including picture thumbnails, like on the PC, are much more intuitive. I would never have made a mistake like deleting all the raw images in a folder on the PC.

Why not install/use a file manager app? My favorite happens to be called File Manager, and I love it. It does just what you're saying--displays directories, files, image thumbnails, etc.

 

[lunatic59]

The Gallery is a much despised aspect of Android. While it works, it's minimal set of features make it ripe for replacement. Give QuickPic a try. It's very popular and much more user friendly.

 

[Codegerm]

Sorry to hear of your accidental mass deletion. I also recommend giving QuickPic a try, or a file manager. If you happened to be worried about using data while roaming, I know many phones have settings to allow you to specify not to use data on roaming but keep voice working fine.