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Photos not shown in Gallery

  • Thread starter Thread starter midtown12345
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midtown12345

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Please help!

I searched a lot and this seems to be often problem, but I yet did not find a solution. In my Camera folder there a lot of photos missing, I have photos from specific date but instead of 20 photos I took that day there are only e.g. 3, and that is the case for multiple occasions - so there are only about 20% photos I took with my camera shown in my gallery.

As i believe it has something to do with OS updates. How can I recover / unhide my photos? (I disabled hidden files).

Thank you very much!
 
You say this is a common problem but in my experience (of a decade using Android and hanging out here) it is not. Of course if you search for almost anything you will find examples, but that's not the same as common, and doesn't mean that the cases you find have a single cause (almost certainly not).

Firstly, check that it's not a problem with the Gallery app by using a file browser to check whether the photos are there.

Secondly, why do you think it is "something to do with OS updates" as opposed to a problem with the camera app, some other app or due to user error? Knowing the reason you say this might provide some clues to the solution.

Thirdly, I'm sorry to say that it's unlikely that you can recover them if they are actually deleted. Hiding shouldn't happen by accident, but what do you mean by "disabled hidden files"? You can't disable file hiding at a system level, but you can set most file browsers to show hidden files (the default will be, unsurprisingly, to hide them, so this is worth checking). Another possibility is that things could be moved to a folder which contains a file called ".nomedia", or one that your Gallery app has been told to ignore: in both cases this would result in the Gallery app not showing them. Maybe make your Gallery app rescan the entire device (won't help with a .nomedia file though), or install another gallery app and see whether it can find them.
 
Hi tnx for the answer.
I am also a long time Android user and this is the first time to have this problem. I just thought that is common because I found a lot of on this topic, but maybe you are right. I agree it should not happen, it really angers me.

I'm not sure it is due to OS, but that is something I found as a possible reason.

I know this sounds silly, but I know I did not delete photos and I am sure there are "somewhere" on the phone, but I just don't know how to get it. I am searching for somebody who had the same problem and managed to solve it.

I tried with another gallery app and it shows the same pictures and my original Gallery app.

I found I have this problem a few months ago and I then did a little research (but did not have a lot of time) and then I searched my phone with some file explored and there was stated that I have few around 4,000 photos (don't remember exact number, but this is what I assume I should have) but when I enter my Gallery or plugin USB and connect to computer I can see only around 520 photos. That why I know I am right and did not go crazy :)
 
If that file explorer found extra photos the question is where did it find them? That will tell you whether they are real photos or thumbnails (or cached images from your browsers etc), but also should help work out why the gallery apps don't see them.
 
I might be completely off the mark here but you don't mention Google Photos, so I assume you have never used it.

It's just that in my Google Photos I have hundreds of images taken over a number of years which are not stored on my current device but still accessible in Google Photos.

(Great minds think alike @Dannydet :))
 
I generally have a strange phone. After the reset, the gallery on the phone disappeared.

I generally have a strange phone. After the reset, the gallery on the phone disappeared
 

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RogerKelley said:
I generally have a strange phone. After the reset, the gallery on the phone disappeared
Click to expand...
This doesn't seem to be related to the topic of this post, and could distract from efforts to help the original poster. So if you have a question here could you start a new thread for it to avoid de-railing this one?

It would help if you included a little more information if you do, since we only know what you tell us.
 
Hi guys, thank you for answers!

I tried with multiple gallery apps and try to connect my phone to the computer and still only can see around 500 photos in my camera folder.

I don't remember how exactly I searched my phone and saw there are more photos on it, but I will try to do this again (it was a few months ago when I found out I have this problem, but then I did not have much time and i quit before finding a solution, now I decided to finally solve this problem). Tnx again.
 
midtown12345 said:
Hi guys, thank you for answers!

I tried with multiple gallery apps and try to connect my phone to the computer and still only can see around 500 photos in my camera folder.

I don't remember how exactly I searched my phone and saw there are more photos on it, but I will try to do this again (it was a few months ago when I found out I have this problem, but then I did not have much time and i quit before finding a solution, now I decided to finally solve this problem). Tnx again.
Click to expand...

Have you ever had/used the Google Photos app?

:)
 
There is a "known issue" with the Samsung Gallery app, where it doesn't update what it thinks is on the phone. I've asked, begged, and scolded Samsung about it via the Members feedback app, but to no avail.

Basically, Gallery keeps in sync as expected when you take photos, screenshots, etc .. but if you create any new images via a third party image editing app, Gallery often fails to notice the new images. File explorers see the files, but not Gallery! And the biggest frustration is that it has no manual "refresh" button, for when this occurs :mad:

However, I've noticed that the new files eventually do appear in Gallery (possibly through some background process that checks for new images?). And I've also seen new files appear after restarting the app, or restarting the device.

Another trick that worked on earlier versions of Gallery (i haven't tried it recently) .. is to force a refresh on a folder, by using Gallery itself to create a dummy copy of an image file in the problem folder, and then delete it. Suddenly the "missing" images appear!

Hope this helps!
 
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